Halloween is just around the corner, and now is the time of monsters and robots (the old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born, etc). Fall is the perfect time for handicrafts! It’s an opportunity to unplug and step away from the slick and easy artificial charms of the online world and settle into activities that are slow and hard and messy and human. I like stuff I can do with my hands. Stuff I can talk to other people about.
Needs Work: 1957 Olympia SM3
I’m very frugal, but I savor the little thrill I get from splurging on a deliciously awful junker typewriter. Typewriters are my hobby, my creative outlet. Sometimes you just have to live a little.
Shrunken Head: 1960 Olympia SM4
Cleaning up a dirty typewriter is so satisfying. When I wipe away the yellow scum of ancient goo and expose a gleaming chromed surface, I feel a transformative, shimmering joy. The typewriter is transformed. I am transformed.
The Charlie Browniest: SCM Corsair Deluxe
A local enthusiast’s new acquisition, a battered 197x Smith-Corona Corsair Deluxe came to me for a clean-up. Showing this scrawny thing a little love was surprisingly fulfilling. I think it needed me.
Parts in a Box: 1949 Remington All-New Portable
Parts in a Box Syndrome is a well-known typewriter affliction caused by a typewriter owner’s fever of initial excitement, a flurry of dismantling, progressive confusion, and eventual forgetfulness.
Shift Work: 1957 Royal Quiet De Luxe
The hobby of typewriter repair is generally low stress, low stakes, low danger, but every once in a while, I go a little cowboy, a little Evel Knievel and push things past comfort. It’s funny how fast things can go from “Whee—this is fun” to “Uh-oh”.
The Horta: 1963 Olympia SM7
I recently worked on a 1963 Olympia SM7, one with an affliction common in Olympias of this vintage: gummed-up mechanics due to sticky blobs of orange-ish brown goo.
Jammed: 1958 Remington Quiet-Riter
I belong to a small group of local enthusiasts who like to tinker with typewriters, and we get together occasionally to share know-how and tools. Last weekend, our group of typewriter mechanics met at a local library for a type-in and light repairing. The public event drew in the young, the old, and the curious.
Mod Bod, Old Bones: Underwood Master
I have great affection for old Underwood standards. They didn’t change much over their long, long years of production because they just worked. And they continue to work 80, 100, 120 years later. Opening up an Underwood and seeing their old-fashioned guts is reassuring to this hobbyist. It’s like seeing a familiar face at a crowded party.
Rabbit Hole: R. C. Allen VisOmatic A
Every once in a while, I stumble across a type of typewriter that I haven’t met before in person. I had never encountered an R. C. Allen until recently when I started working on a damaged 1962 R. C. Allen VisOmatic A. Everything about the machine is next-level educational.
Sister Ship: Consul 232
I love a freebie. I try to curb my impulse to drag things home because there are just so many good things out there—for free. However, if the freebie is a dysfunctional typewriter, it’s hard to quash the impulse.
Beloved: 1934 Remington Portable Model 5
Sometimes a typewriter comes to me that bears evidence that someone has poured much love and attention into it. I worked on a gorgeous 1934 Remington Portable Model 5 last week that had obviously been worked and fretted over.
Murderbot: 1961 Olympia SM4
A 1961 Olympia SM4 with a jammed carriage arrived on my workbench a couple weeks ago. I started calling it Murderbot. It’s a long story, so I’ll start at the beginning.
Rough Beast: Underwood Rhythm Touch
In these troubling times of widening gyres and blood-dimmed tides, I have been holding my centre through quiet typewriter tinkering. A distressed 1952 Underwood Rhythm Touch slouched into my garage around Thanksgiving last year, and working on it has brought me much comfort since then.
Slow Cook Recipe: Smith-Corona Electric 5TE
Sometimes a troubling typewriter issue needs time stewing in my brain before I find a satisfying solution. I’ll put it on the back burner and think about the problem from time to time, stirring it occasionally. I recently worked on a Smith-Corona Electric 5TE with bell and right margin problems that is finally behaving properly after long slow-cook pondering.
