My commute patterns changed dramatically last year and the Eaton Fire catastrophe has decimated the first half of 2025 for me, so I’m trying to get back to my old Huffduffer habits for more focused content consumption versus doomscrolling. Sadly, it seems the tagging system has been disabled/disappeared? It was one of my favorite discovery features…
How do you keep track of your typewriter collection?
During my evacuation from the Eaton Fires, I picked up this 1957 Royal FPP on March 5, 2025, for $31.00. Apparently it had been previously owned by Luke Legg. While it was in somewhat workable shape, it needed a massive clean out. It may be one of the dirtiest machines I’ve cleaned up so far. I definitely wished I had an ultrasonic cleaner in my arsenal to help speed this one along. Research on that front has already begun in earnest.
To help this machine along to recovery, I did use a similar 1958 Royal FPP with the cameo pink smooth colorway which may end up being a parts machine due to a broken portion of frame and what I’m suspecting to be some serious escapement issues. I pulled off a few pieces including the colored body panels, some e-clips, a few springs, and the carriage return assembly which was in better condition on the donor machine.
After a day and a half of clean up work, a light oiling, and some fine tuning adjustments, this can now enter my regular rotation of restored machines. Since I’ve got a few Royal platens and this one’s is too hard, I’m planning on sending it out for recovery. The rubber gaskets and feet are in excellent condition, so I don’t need to swap them out.
The internal felt was desiccated and crumbling to dust, so I’ve removed it completely. I’m considering whether or not I should replace it with some felt.
I’ve got two other Royal FPs including two in elite, one of which has a Clarion double gothic typeface. This one is obviously in pica and I’ve temporarily spooled it up with some pink ribbon. Given that I’ve got about fifteen standard machines now, I may be rehoming a few of the restored machines soon. While this one is solid, the fact that it’s pica and my favorites tend to be elite may mean this is one of them…
Heavy steel punch in gray enamel with chromed handle
Anna Havron recently mentioned that she had a Bates Hummer punch from years back, so it only took a second’s thought to pick up this $3.99 purchase at the local Acts Thrift store when I ran across it on June 28th
It was in pretty solid shape with some heavy dust, light pitting on some of the steel, and some hints of rust on one of the bars. A quick cleaning today with some degreasers and anti-rust solution along with a brass bristle brush has brought it back to its original life. It really is stunning how solid this piece of office equipment still is all these years later.
Wilson Jones Co., one of the largest office supply manufacturers in the United States, was purchased by Swingline Inc. in 1959 and is now a part of ACCO brands who boldly state that Wilson Jones was the inventor of the 3 ring binder, though evidence indicates its origin predates this. The “Hummer” was one of their original and storied punches.
I’m unsure of the date of manufacture of my punch, though it was made in their Chicago, IL plant.
Body serial number: 7-2663226
Carriage serial number: 8-2710434
Custom Basic Writing No. 67 typeface; 6 CPI (4.2 m/m), 3 lines/inch
Body cover in Saturn White with Slate Gray bottom shell.
An observant friend knew I was looking for either an Olympia SG-1 or an SG-3 typewriter and got an SG-3 for me for my birthday on July 8th. It arrived on Friday the 11th. Naturally I was excited to open it up, but I was even more surprised to discover that it was hiding a relatively rare typeface, particularly for an Olympia. (The sender confirmed they had no idea about the typeface, they were just trying to snag an SG-3 for me.)
Basic Writing No. 67 Typeface
None of the Olympia typeface catalogs I’ve ever seen include this particular typeface. The closest I’ve seen to a match for it is the Basic Writing No. 67 (6 CPI) which was available as a custom order for Smith-Corona machines in the 60s onward. The 1964 NOMDA Blue Book includes it as does the Smith-Corona Typestyles catalog from 1968. Slug/foundry marks I’ve seen for the Smith-Coronas have a “29” on them while mine reads “2985”. I’m suspecting the 29s have something in common via the foundry while the 85 might be indicative of the length of the rule on the carriage.
In comparing exemplars, I’m reasonably certain that they’re identical due to the nature of the distinctive numbers 4, 9, the letter t and the sharply angled connectors on the u and the n.
While it was surely a custom order, Olympia apparently did it often enough that they bothered to have Perspex carriage rules custom made for the size. The rule on the back of this one has a “42” in the left rear corner which was surely an internal indicator for a 4.2m/m typeface. (4.2 m/m = 25.4 mm/inch x 1 inch/6 characters). It’s common on most Olympias for their rules to be either stamped or marked with the rule size like this most likely to ensure the correct rules were put onto the appropriate typewriters during manufacturing and assembly.
This particular machine has a very wide 15 inch platen and the rule only measures up to 85 characters! For type this large, you’re sure to want wider paper to actually fit something on it. As a comparison, my 1977 Olympia SG-3 with a shorter 13″ platen has a rule that measures up to 145 characters. That machine is also marked with a 21 in the left corner to indicate that it’s 2.1 m/m or 12 pitch (elite) machine.
Because of the large format typeface, this machine does not accommodate bichrome ribbon like most SG-3s. As a result, the ribbon color selector on the left side of the keyboard which would typically be labeled blue, white, red (from top to bottom) is labeled white, white, blue. I’ve spooled it up with a new monochrome black ribbon on universal spools. Though it’s from the early 70s when it was more common, this machine also has a 1/! key to better differentiate the numeral 1 and the lower case letter L.
The custom modified ribbon color selector on the SG-3 keyboard.
To show just how large this typeface really is, I’m including a sample of it along side of the standard Royal pica and elite typefaces.
Condition
The typewriter itself is in reasonable condition for its age. Someone has obviously left it in a somewhat humid environment where it was neglected for a few decades. The spacious area underneath the carriage had the cobwebs and skeletons of at least four nice sized spiders. Some of the metal pieces inside have some surface rust that will need to be mitigated. I’ve wiped off the exterior shell and given the interior a preliminary blow out with the air compressor. I’ve oiled the carriage rails lightly, and I’ve put a new ribbon into it and the alignment seems reasonable, though I’m sure to make an adjustment or two when I get to giving it a full clean, oil, and adjust. The carriage has something slightly out of alignment as it binds at about the midpoint, but I’m sure I’ll find it when I’ve stripped it down for a full clean.
In the meanwhile, it’s in good enough condition for general use.
For those interested in intellectual history, here’s a chance to join a long standing book club full of inveterate note takers/zettelkasten-ers, educators, and lifelong learners. Those interested in the topic are encouraged to join us.
To join, reach out to Dan Allosso for access to the book club’s shared Obsidian Vault and/or ping me for the Zoom link for the discussions to be held on Saturday mornings at 8:00 – 10:00 AM Pacific over the coming month.
A lovely, well-balanced cocktail as I finish up this week’s reading and notes on The Notebook for this week’s book club meeting tomorrow morning. (The lemon twist really makes this.)
I continually think I have written about gutting books in the past, but have only mentioned it and alluded to it. When I bring it up I often get asked about and want to point to my explanation, as there are few resources elsewhere (there is one that surfaced in 2009 from Naomi Standen guiding her students How to gut a book).
For those looking to delve in deeper to gutting books, Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren go into greater depth in How to Read a Book (Touchstone, 1972, 2011) in which they discuss various levels of reading books with which many students are less familiar. They break reading down into various modes including inspectional reading, analytic reading, and syntopic reading which are the sorts of reading one should be able to accomplish by late high school or certainly by the college level. Unfortunately not too many people are reading this way anymore, if they ever did.
Umberto Eco’s How to Write a Thesis (MIT Press, reprint/translation 2015 [1977]) goes into greater depth on taking one’s guttings and turning them into new material.
Serial Number: KMG-4294086
4 bank, 42 keys / 84 characters, tabulator, Magic Margins, Royal standard elite typeface
Back on March 7, 2025, I picked up my second Royal KMG for the pittance of $21. The first was in pica, but this one has my preferred elite/12 pitch size.
Today I pulled it out of the office closet where it’s been waiting patiently since the Eaton Fire for some restoration attention. I acquired it with the drawband disconnected, but in under five minutes I was able to get it re-connected and re-tensioned. The ribbon was a total loss, so i swapped it out with about 22 feet of black/red bichrome cotton ribbon from Baco Ribbon Supply Co. A few tweaks later, and I’ve now got this machine up and running with some pretty reasonable alignment.
Future work
It’s a bit slower than it ought to be, so it’s definitely going to need a full clean/oil/adjust. The rubber feet are completely shot on this, so they’re going to require complete replacement. The platen has pretty much lost all of it’s “give”, so it will need replacement too. There’s two dents in the paper table that ought to flatten out with some care. Beyond this, I suspect I’ll be able to get this lovely machine shined up and running with less than a day’s worth of modest work.
Presuming that I can tune it up to the same standard as my other KMG, this one will replace it as my daily driver, though the pica version will still get lots of attention.
I’d purchased this in 2024 as a late Christmas present for myself, but it took several weeks to be delivered due to our neighborhood being closed off by the National Guard for the Eaton Fire. It finally arrived on January 23 in true “barn” condition. The carriage took a hit and is off about 1/2″ and is going to take some careful forming to attempt to salvage it. Otherwise this will sadly be a parts machine. Beyond this issue it appears to be reasonably restorable.
Thomas Vander Wal (vanderwal.net)
