Testing the Clamping Spring

I stepped down from the concrete collar of the bollard, easing along the packed dirt shoulder. Half-buried in a drift of dry pine needles, a medium steel binder clip caught the midday light. I knelt down... brushing the coarse needles away with both palms. The blackened spring steel was completely unbent, its two folding chrome wire arms lying flat against the triangular body. I paused, then gripped one wire arm with both hands, levering it backward until it clicked upright into position. Squeezing the opposing wire handles together required steady, two-handed pressure... the tempered steel flared open with clean resistance. Releasing my grip, the jaws clamped tightly onto the rim of a flat slate pebble. With a firm pull, the stone stayed dead rigid in its grip. A remarkably solid miniature clamp.