Hand-held tag attacher and method of attaching tags

Claim 1

A hand-held tag attacher for attaching tags to merchandise using fasteners, each fastener having a bar section and a button section joined by a filament section, the attacher comprising: an attacher body, a hopper connected against relative movement to the body during use and adapted to receive a stack of tags, and a handle on the attacher body graspable by the user's one hand, a hollow needle mounted on the attacher body and having an elongate needle bore and an elongate side opening communicating with the needle bore, means for advancing one bar section at a time into alignment with the needle bore, a push rod engageable with a bar section of a fastener for driving the bar section through the needle bore while its filament section extends through the side opening, means for feeding an endmost tag in the hopper from the stack to an attaching position into alignment with the needle, means for making a slit in the tag at the attaching position, wherein the tag feeding means includes a tag feeder, wherein the tag feeder includes a slide movable between spaced positions, a second needle mounted on the slide and engageable with the endmost tag, and means controlled solely by the user's one hand and operatively connecting the bar section advancing means, the push rod and the tag feeding means for operating the bar section advancing means, the tag feeding means, and the push rod to effect attachment of a tag to merchandise.