Steve Weinrebe's Mode Studio

Far from being just your friendly neighborhood tape dispenser, this packing tape dispenser is a powerhouse of good deeds. Hold it in your hand and you have the ability to smack it down and drag tape across any surface. Be careful what you tape though, this stuff is strong. An assistant taught me years ago that the best tape isn’t the brand name tape with fancy labeling, it is the generic tape that you buy at the office superstore. The brand name tape is heavy duty and for whatever reason it jams more frequently and doesn’t seem to have the same “instant stick” ability as the generic brand. The generic tape seems thinner and tears more easily, so when you are done with your “swipe” of the tape dispenser the tape is more likely to tear along the serrated blade.

I have two of these dispensers, one generic and one name brand, and keep a six-pack of (generic) tape in the cabinet at all times. For similar reasons as above I often grab the generic dispenser over the branded one because it is lighter, making it a bit easier to wield. The brand name dispenser (Scotch) does have a better cutting blade though. But if I had to choose which to be stranded on a desert isle with, it really wouldn’t matter to me, I like both dispensers. The generic tape dispense is pictured here.

A word of advise too – if you pull off too much tape and are tempted to break the extra with your teeth, beware of letting the tape stick to your lip. Take it from me, it hurts if you don’t pull it off slooooowly.

Posted by Steve Weinrebe