A dark wooden table with a thin cardboard and taped package on it. Sitting on top of it is a pair of blue handled scissors. Nearby in the background is a lazy susan with a plate and several small decorative pumpkins on it.

An opened corrugated cardboard package with a large almost 12 inch diameter reel of typewriter ribbon wrapped in a plastic bag. The reel sits next to two tiny 2 inch diameter plastic spools and a pair of scissors for scale. Behind the reel of ribbon is a green crinkle painted 1958 Olympia SM3 with green keys. The reel appears that it is even larger in base surface area than the typewriter is.

White index card in a green Olympia SM3 typewriter spooled up with a blue and green ribbon. Typed on the card in alternating colors of blue and green are the words: Blue & Green typewriter ribbon #FTW

Typewriter ribbon unboxing! I bought a full reel of 660 yards of blue/green bichrome 1/2″ nylon typewriter ribbon from Fine Line Ribbon in Ennis, TX. It arrived yesterday, just in time for some use over the weekend. I’ve now got enough for more than 41 universal 2″ diameter (16 yard) spools, so I should be able to ribbon up my entire collection and have some left over. 

A heavily ink smudged paper towel sitting on the keyboard of a green Olympia typewriter. Spooling a full reel of ribbon was obviously a very messy business as seen by the black, red, blue, and green smudging.
Latex gloves and a good rag are necessary when spooling up from a 660 yard reel of nylon ribbon.

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Chris Aldrich

I'm a biomedical and electrical engineer with interests in information theory, complexity, evolution, genetics, signal processing, IndieWeb, theoretical mathematics, and big history. I'm also a talent manager-producer-publisher in the entertainment industry with expertise in representation, distribution, finance, production, content delivery, and new media.

8 thoughts on “”

  1. There’s something very calming about typing in both blue and green that I just don’t get in the traditional black/red.

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  4. u/IrmaBecx I’m more than 3/4ths of the way through a half reel of black/red I got in the summer. I do sell some of it to supply friends as well as to replace ribbon on a few machines I’ve repaired for others or gifted away (mostly to kids). It’s gone a lot quicker than I would have anticipated.

    And for the going cost of about five 2-inch spools at most sellers online, it’s definitely a lot more cost effective. YMMV

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