Acquired 1950 Royal KMG Standard Typewriter (Royal Typewriter Co. Inc.)

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.

Typeface Sample