Today’s office. We’ve got a newly finished Shaw-Walker filing cabinet and a 1955 Royal HH standard typewriter.
Author: Chris Aldrich
When I clean my type slugs, I only use bourbon.
I usually type up a short introduction card for the handful of typewriters sitting around the house so that visitors will have an idea of what they’re appreciating. It’s almost like having a museum card on a work of art, but usually mine have a call to type on them. Naturally there are either index cards or paper close at hand to encourage both touching and typing.
Above is the brief introduction to the 1955 Royal HH I finished repairing, cleaning out, and re-assembling today.
Now is the time for all good people to come to the aid of their party.
I love the smell of mineral spirits in the morning.
Parable of the Sower Day: 2024-07-20
If you’ve never read it, today is an excellent one to start. If you don’t have a copy, I highly recommend buying one from my friend Nikki who runs the independent bookstore Octavia’s Bookshelf in Pasadena.
I’ve just begun re-reading it again today as a reminder…
Thank goodness I’ve got a card catalog big enough to log and cross-file a couple hundred models. I’m thinking of categorizing by manufacturer, by decade, and including typeface samples, which I’ve already been doing as I add them to the typewriter database.
Aggregated Resources and Playlist for a Crash Course on the Olympia SM3 Portable Typewriter
Along the way I’ve been aggregating some related Olympia SM3 (and other SM family) resources and videos which include several on use, a few comparing them to other machines (for those considering buying them), and a variety on taking them apart and adjusting them to peak performance including doing rack, ring & cylinder, on feet, motion, silent return spring, trip timing, and spacebar adjustments.
The only significant piece missing is for cleaning them, but that’s remedied with an endless variety of videos (including one of my favorites) and advice from Richard Polt on restoration.
I’ve tried to place the videos in rough order of introductory to more advanced as well as in order of adjustments. They’re now available as a Olympia SM3 playlist:
Special thanks should go to Duane Jensen of Phoenix Typewriter and Gerren Balch of The HotRod Typewriter Co. for the bulk of the work in creating and generating most of these videos.
Surely there are other excellent videos out there, but this list makes a pretty solid crash course which can be used as a jumping off point.
Along with other typewriter manuals collected by Richard Polt, he’s got manuals for the Olympia SM3 in both English and German.
And for the completist, you’ll naturally want copies of the repair manuals via Theodore Munk: [paperback] [digital]. There are also downloadable versions of a 1955 repair manual and a 1959 Spare Parts and Price List Catalog available.
Hopefully this aggregated list of resources will help the next Olympia typewriter enthusiast who finds one in grandma’s basement or who wants to kick off a writing career following in the footsteps of fellow SM3 typists including John Updike, Woody Allen, Frank Herbert, Patricia Highsmith, Robert Penn Warren, Harlan Ellison, Carson McCullers, John Hughes, Louis L’ Amour, William Gaddis, Stan Laurel, Ryan Adams, Ruskin Bond, Evan S. Connell, Kevin McGowin, or Anaïs Nin.
If I’ve missed any truly important resources, please do let me know.
Cheers!