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  1. Last 7 days
    1. Chuck Theile, Acme Typewriter Service and Restoration, South Lyon, MI. Machines can be dropped off at 116b N. Lafayette, South Lyon, MI. A customer writes: "They accept all makes and models for repair. The phone number there is 248-486-5205 or you can call the repairman direct (Chuck Theile) at 248-455-6778." E-mail qwertyrepair@yahoo.com. Read a story about him here and another here. "I've been repairing typers and other office equipment for nearly 4 decades. Seeing a recent resurgence in the poularity of typewriters is very gratifying. Young people in particular seem to be rediscovering these historic machines and I'm happy to be able to provide a service that's not readily available anymore.  Primarily serving the Wayne, Oakland, Washtenaw and Livingston County areas, arrangements can be made for service anywhere. I've been able to repair nearly 100% of the machines brought to me. Including many dating back to the early 1900's. Don't give up or throw it away before you let me have a go at it!"
    1. PSA. Analogy: “Hi Mr. Mechanic! Here’s my ‘72 Datsun. I’d like you to give it a tune up. Oh, by the way, I’m not a mechanic but I pulled out the steering column and took apart the starter. Here are the parts in this bag” (When a client takes apart their machine, got in way over their head and wants me to fix their mistakes. Please… I appreciate you’re experimenting, but this is a huge nightmare to me. I’ve passed on several of these machines.)

      via Todd Young https://www.facebook.com/groups/TypewriterCollectors/posts/10163194812329678/

    1. reply to u/MartyFunkhoosier at https://reddit.com/r/typewriters/comments/1r03411/1940s_underwood_correspondent_types_very_light/

      How good is your typing technique? https://boffosocko.com/2025/06/06/typewriter-use-and-maintenance-for-beginning-to-intermediate-typists/

      Typically you want to strike the key as if it were a hot coal and let the initial hit's momentum force the slug against the ribbon/paper/platen. If you're "bottoming your keys out" which happens more frequently when you hunt and peck, then you'll end up with a ghosting effect. Using your paper bale properly is important for clear imprints.

      If your ribbon isn't well inked (it should color your fingers when you touch it or look "wet" if it's new) that can sometimes be an issue. Beyond that, platens tend to shrink and become hard with age. As a result the machine goes out of its original proper alignment thus making your imprints lighter. You can use a second "backing" page to help make up some of the difference, but a re-covered platen (J.J. Short Associates can help in the U.S.) and a proper ring and cylinder adjustment will likely help. And if you can't afford the recovered platen (~$120) then a ring and cylinder adjustment will help nonetheless. (Check Youtube for how you might do this yourself if a shop isn't nearby.)

    1. reply to u/Yiqu at https://old.reddit.com/r/typewriters/comments/1r08q2i/buying_a_first_typewriter_for_writing/

      The first three articles you'll find under https://boffosocko.com/research/typewriter-collection/#Typewriter%20Market will give you a quick crash course about what to consider and look out for in your search.

      If you want to get to work, your best bet (and honestly the best value) is to get something from a repair shop that is serviced and ready to go. In the US this means a budget range typically from US$300-$600, or perhaps slightly more if they've recovered the platen which will improve your experience. Prices dramatically in excess of this often include a lot more custom work or less common typefaces which don't necessarily improve your performance (or are people selling typewriters who have less of an idea than you do about typewriters.)

      Many hobbyists here may say to get something cheap that "works", but the amount of time and knowledge you have to scaffold to do that is worth a lot of writing time, and often still requires a lot of cleaning, restoration, and potential tinkering which is even more onerous when you just want to get to writing.

      In case you haven't found them, some great resources on leveraging typewriters as distraction-free writing devices:

      And if you need some serious distraction free advice, since it's hiding as deep knowledge amongst a handful of serious collectors/writers, the bigger your (standard) machine, the more visual space it takes up as you're writing and subtly helps your concentration. Similarly placing it in front of a wall (and not a window) helps a lot too.

    1. I was in your shoes and I dove in head first. After reading, owning, and watching countless videos on the matter, here's what I have learned: Don't buy online Only buy what you can have your hands on before exchanging money Be picky, don't just get any machine on the belief you'll start fixing them. Do not view them as being "rescued" when you buy another broken machine. Start off with a solid machine with no issues. (I suggest an Olympia brand, sm-3 etc) Honorable mention: only acquire organically through yard sales, estate sales antique stores etc. It imbues your machine with magic 🪄

      via u/Forge_Le_Femme

  2. Feb 2026
    1. reply to u/CaliKelli989 at https://old.reddit.com/r/typewriters/comments/1qx43wy/smith_corona_classic_12_for_75worth_it_for_my/ on signaling by online typewriter sales

      Where you're selling is one of the biggest signals of all. Selling machines for over $250 on Facebook requires way more signaling on the part of a professional or semi-professional seller. Mr&Mrs are doing a whole lot more work on restoring their machines than the average "blow and go" level that Janet and her significant other are likely doing (or that done by the average shop), as a result they're doing more work to show that, but they're occupying a dramatically different market space. Who is offering warranties on their work? Who is recovering platens? Who is explicitly stating the quality of the rest of their rubber? (Note that Janet isn't saying anything about the rubber washers on her SM3s, nor did they say anything about the rubber feet or the feet on the cases. Were they all replaced?)

      Most professional shops and restorers are selling via their physical shops or their own websites instead of eBay, which takes steep cuts, or FB where it's harder for their much better quality machines to stand out amidst similarly priced dirtier machines. (Most pros also refuse or prefer not to ship when they can avoid it, so online presence doesn't "buy" them much.) There's a huge gulf in the levels of work that Walid Saad or Lucas Dul are offering in complete tear downs and restorations and the simple clean, oil, and adjust operations that are being offered by average pro shops and that's different again from what I suspect Janet is probably offering. This doesn't even get into the space of the lowest level "flippers" and vintage/antique shops whose only value add is finding and offering machines. As a point of reference, Lucas is doing less than a full restoration a month in an average year. The rest is cleaning machines for straight sale and then repairs that walk in the door. I'd suspect that he doesn't have more than a dozen machines in stock that are ready for sale today compared to a multi-person operation like Typewriter Muse which has nearly 30 machines on the shelf ready to go.

      There's a huge spectrum in the level of restorations being offered out there. Very few people appreciate any of the differences.

      The issue is that many people starting out don't want to pay a lot for a clean/restored machine, so they're fine with something that "works". Generally they don't know what they're missing from a finely tuned machine. At the other end are serious collectors, who often have the knowledge and expertise to service their own machines. The biggest issue with the market is the huge gulf of information imbalance between the novice buyers and novice sellers and the professionals.

      Hope this helps on the differentiation that's available out there...

    1. Royal Typefaces from 1967 WOMDA

      • Royal Farnsworth - 11 pitch
      • Royal Pembrook - 11 pitch
      • Windsor - 10 pitch
      • Oxford - 11 pitch
      • Merit Elite - 12 pitch
      • Merit Pica - 10 pitch
      • Canterbury Elite - 12 pitch
      • Canterbury Pica - 10 pitch
      • Graphic Elite - 12 pitch
      • Graphic Pica - 10 pitch
      • Elite Century - 12 pitch
      • Contemporary Elite - 12 pitch
      • Contemporary Pica - 10 pitch
      • Executive - 9 pitch (double caps, italic)
      • Patrician - 12 pitch
      • Standard Elite - 12 pitch
      • Standard Pica - 10 pitch
      • Medium Roman - 10 pitch
      • Clarion Gothic - 12 pitch (double caps)
      • Manifold Elite, Single Gothic - 12 pitch
      • Manifold Pica, Single Gothic - 10 pitch
      • Manifold Roman, Single Gothic - 9 pitch
      • Modified Pru, Double Gothic - 12 pitch
      • Pica, Double Gothic - 10 pitch
      • Medium Roman, Double Gothic - 9 pitch
      • Small Double Gothic - 16 pitch
      • Small Elite - 14 pitch
      • Great Primer - 9 pitch
      • Farrington Optical Scanner Type 12L - 10 pitch
      • Policy Print - 10 pitch
      • Check Validation Type - 8 pitch
      • Small Spencerian - 12 pitch
      • Spencerian - 10 pitch
      • Butterick - 8 pitch (similar to Congress, but larger)
      • Large Vogue - 6 pitch
      • Small Bulletin - 6 pitch
      • Elementary Primer - 6 pitch
      • Bulletin - 6 pitch

      also has keyboard styles for Royals

    1. And please note that the figures in the Schlemmer are walking up the staircase. Upward movement in art often hints at lofty belief, as in, say, Titian’s “Assumption of the Virgin” or Barnett Newman’s emphatically vertical “zips.” Downward motion, by contrast, can evoke Dada irreverence and, in particular, Marcel Duchamp’s “Nude Descending a Staircase,” the Cubist painting that created a brouhaha at the Armory Show of 1913 because neither a nude nor the alleged staircase could be located in its welter of tilting planes.
    2. Lichtenstein, a pioneer of postmodern recycling, swiped the subject of his mural from a beloved masterpiece of German painting — Oskar Schlemmer’s “Bauhaus Stairway,” of 1932, which is owned by the Museum of Modern Art. The painting depicts an actual staircase at the Bauhaus, the progressive art school that opened in Weimar, Germany, in 1919, and exemplified the modern movement at its most extroverted and techno-friendly. Artists claimed a bond with designers and engineers and set out to repair the world.

    1. Typewriter-Adjacent Writing Devices<br /> by [[Joe Van Cleave]] on YouTube<br /> accessed on 2026-02-02T09:17:37

      Typewriter-like writing devices: - Privacy - security - autonomy

      Freewrite (fka Hemingwriter)

      • Smarttypewriter $699
        • Hemingway Signature $1000+
        • Valentine $999
      • Traveler: clamshell device, smaller $549
      • Alpha $349
      • Alpha Cosmic $499 with colorful keys
      • Freewrite Plus subscription service

      Remarkable

      • cloud storage or subscription
      • Starts around $400-600+

      Pomera

      • $499

      Zerowriter

      -$250 - open source, SD card, customizable keys - raspberry pi based

      Supernote

      • tablet
      • $329-500

      BYOK

      • Kickstarter; shipping now.
  3. Jan 2026
  4. www.reddit.com www.reddit.com
    1. Your alcohol is making the old oil and dust fluid again for a while, but without either fully flushing it out or blowing it out with compressed air, the solvent evaporates and the remaining solid oil/dust freezes things up again.

      Rubbing alcohol is probably one of the worst degreasers, but people recommend it because most people often have some in their house already. (Depending on the type, it also contains high proportions of water which isn't the best thing to mix with your metal typewriter.)

      To get your sticky typewriter keys working again, while you're flushing out the segment with your solvent of choice (lacquer thinner, paint thinner, mineral spirits, alcohol, etc.), actually move the typebars using the keys or by other means (be careful for splattering and cover the plastic and painted portions of the machine and surroundings with a rag). This will help to get them moving and allow the solvent and subsequently compressed air to help flush the oil, dust, hair, etc. out of your machine. You've already got a mechanical cleaning device of sorts (the typebar itself) inside the segment, so move it while you're flushing it out.

      2-5 flushes can sometimes be required before you've really gotten all the old gunk out of your machine. I often wait several hours or even overnight to test the action after flushing before I re-attach body panels, etc.

      If you can acquire a small plastic oiler (see https://boffosocko.com/2024/08/11/adding-to-my-typewriter-toolset/) it can help to minimize the amounts of solvent you're using and the flexible tip will allow you to not only direct the flow of solvent, but create some fluid pressure when you squeeze the bottle.

      (Naturally use your degreaser in a well-ventilated space away from open flames and sparks...)

      See also: https://boffosocko.com/2024/08/09/on-colloquial-advice-for-degreasing-cleaning-and-oiling-manual-typewriters/

      Reply to https://reddit.com/r/typewriters/comments/1qroqbf/halp/

    1. Royal Typewriter KMG Mainspring Drawband Tightened Adjusted Tension by [[Phoenix Typewriter]]

      On the left rear corner underneath the carriage when moved to the right, one can easily see the mainspring and drawband assembly. Just behind it is a worm drive operated by a screw. Turning this screw counterclockwise will advance the worm drive to the left and increase the tension on the mainspring.

    1. I twist together two lengths of kevlar fishing line that's 0.4mm diameter and rated for 29kg, so combined roughly 0.8mm diameter and ~58kg pull. This is about the sweet spot imo in terms of thickness, slim enough to fit in small routing holes on mainspring housings and thick enough to get a good sized knot when you tie it. It's also pretty close to the thickness of old sinew drawbands I've replaced. The rated strength is definitely overkill but better over than under. In practise a drawband shouldn't experience more than 750g-1,5kg of pull under normal use.

      u/Koponewt aka Pelicram's advice for using fishing line to replace drawbands.

    1. It's attempting to recreate a nostalgia for mid-century typewriters that were poorly registered, poorly aligned, typed with cotton ribbon, dirty slugs, and poorly typed. It's a generic version of a ubiquitous pica typeface. The vast majority of typewriters from that era were far better and clearer than the characters represented in the 1942 Report Font. Distinguishing the font from an actual typewriter would be trivial for anyone who regularly uses a typewriter.

      Typeface catalogs from the mid-century can be found here for some comparison: https://typecast.munk.org/category/typewriter-typestylesfonts/

      1942 Report font https://www.dafont.com/1942-report.font

      Reply to SadBeyond6201 at https://old.reddit.com/r/typewriters/comments/1qqvvmd/1942_report_font/

    1. if there's a cheap fix to the ghosting that's coming from some of these letters, I'd appreciate it. Not sure if "ghosting" is the right term, but I'm unsure what is.

      reply to u/mcdouginshole at https://reddit.com/r/typewriters/comments/1qozru7/ghosting_issue_with_my_olivetti_lettera_32/

      For some additional help on technique, try https://boffosocko.com/2025/06/06/typewriter-use-and-maintenance-for-beginning-to-intermediate-typists/

      Typically you want to strike the key as if it were a hot coal and let the initial hit's momentum force the slug against the ribbon/paper/platen. If you're "bottoming your keys out" which happens more frequently when you hunt and peck, then you'll end up with this ghosting effect.

      With some practice, maybe one day you'll be as fast as Albert Tangora?

    1. I had written that the only thing that all the different cultures hadin common was the human brain. Indigenous cultures, separated byvast spans of space and time, did not teach their incredibly similarmemory tools to one another. They must all use the same methodsfor innately human reasons.

      are they really innate?


      Some of my question is a tad rhetoric as I suspect that this current book is making an argument that there is a genetic basis for why/how it all works the way it does. It's also a question I know that Kelly has had buzzing around for a while.

      Large swaths of these practices have been taught and handed down from one person to another and from one group to another for millennia as well, but the other question is if they've been independently re-discovered across time or if they've changed/evolved the way in which languages have shifted over these same time frames.

    2. ‘As a single-gene condition withhigh autism penetrance, NF1 presents a valuable genetic model foradvancing our understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms ofautism,’ writes one group of researchers.20

      A.K. Chisholm, F. Lami, K.M. Haebich, A. Ure, A. Brignell, T. Maloof, N.A. Pride, K.S. Walsh, A. Maier, M. Roue, Y. Granader, B. Barton, H. Darkel, I. Fuelscher, G. Dabscheck, V.A. Anderson, K. Williams, K.N. North & J.M. Payne, ‘Sex- and age-related differences in autistic behaviours in children with neurofibromatosis type 1’, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, vol. 53, 2023, pp. 2835–50.

    3. The apparent link of music to speech is because of a trait calledprosody, which seems to be a separate skill, also impacted by NF1.In linguistics, prosody is the difference between speaking in amonotone compared with adding expression by varying pitch,loudness, duration, stress and rhythms. People exaggerate theprosody in their speech when talking to young children because ofthe impact dynamic expression has on comprehension andengagement. Those with the NF1 disorder, most of whom suffermusical challenges, often don’t perceive prosody in speech. Thatsuggests that our fully functioning NF1 gene also helps us withprosody.
    4. Sacks describes the confusion hefeels when noting that people with amusia can be virtually normal intheir speech skills while profoundly disabled musically. He asks if thetwo can be so totally different, given that speech involves tonal andrhythmic changes which appear to have a musical basis. Maybe thisgenetic distinction offers a pathway to exploring his question.
    5. sabelle Peretz and DominiqueVuvan conducted a large-scale sample in 2017, with 20,000participants drawn from the general public. They reported that ‘theprevalence of congenital amusia is only 1.5 per cent, with slightlymore females than males, unlike other developmental disorderswhere males often predominate’.11

      I. Peretz & D. Vuvan, ‘Prevalence of congenital amusia’, European Journal of Human Genetics, vol. 25, 2017, p. 625.

    6. I had been taken to some rock cairns which are atop some of themountains in south-eastern Alaska. What was this? Rocks in thoserock formations were used to help tell part of a story, and each rockcairn had different stories associated with it.After being taken to the rock cairns, I had been fascinated byother rock formations from around the world, such as Stonehenge. Ihad always wondered: who were the storytellers that usedStonehenge? What knowledge was shared? The decades passed butmy curiosity about rock formations found around the world neverwent away.

      Link to the story of the talking rocks in the book Anthropology: Why It Matters by Tim Ingold

    7. I made my own memory boards. As I glued each piece to theplywood, I thought about the stories I would tell with this memoryboard. I had spent an afternoon just putting on five pebbles! Howdid my grandmother make it look so easy? Practice. She’d been atthis for a while.

      My grandmother picked up a piece of plywood that she had glued pebbles to and said simply, ‘You will remember.’ She then touched each piece as she recounted stories. To my young mind, what she was doing seemed like magic!

      Cross reference: https://hypothes.is/a/uWo4NpJrEeui3Vu0XnQidA on Salish artwork

    1. Known historical users of the Royal KMM:<br /> - John Ashbery<br /> - Russell Baker - Ray Bradbury - Richard Brautigan - Richard Brooks - Pearl S. Buck<br /> - Johnny Carson (or possibly KMG) - Norman Corwin<br /> - Frank Herbert<br /> - Helen Keller<br /> - Murray Kempton<br /> - Ken Kesey<br /> - George Washington Lee - Harper Lee<br /> - Ursula K. Le Guin - David McCullough<br /> - Margaret Mead<br /> - Dorothy Parker<br /> - Grantland Rice<br /> - Georges Simenon<br /> - Christina Stead<br /> - Tom Wolfe

      The KMM was also the typewriter featured on the 1980s hit television show Murder, She Wrote which is currently being remade in 2025/2026 with Jamie Lee Curtis.

    1. DINGMAN: Duane says that from the time he opened his typewriter shop, until about 2008, he probably repaired about 50 manual typewriters. But in 2008, something changed. His phone started ringing off the hook. Parents were calling to say that their daughters wanted a typewriter for Christmas — could they bring in an old one for him to fix up? Or did he have any for sale?JENSEN: So I asked ‘em, I said why are you interested? They said, “She watched this movie called “Kitt Kittredge.”
    2. DINGMAN: And I know you’re hooked up to an oxygen machine here — does that make it difficult?  JENSEN: No — well, yeah, mobility, and I have COPD, and I have trouble breathing. This business was part of the factor I have COPD, because I had a shop without ventilation. That’s why my lungs are not working. DINGMAN: Wait. So your lungs were damaged by doing the typewriter work? JENSEN: By the smell of the chemicals.  DINGMAN: He says his lung condition was diagnosed seven years ago.   JENSEN: They gave me a five-year life span. That was seven years ago, so I’m already beatin’ it.  DINGMAN: Ever the gambler, Duane’s still fixing typewriters. These days, he keeps a fan blowing, and works with the garage door open.
    1. Duane Jensen, J.C. Business Machines, 26th St. & Union Hills, Phoenix, AZ. 602-992-7611. M-F 9-4, but call first. "We fix business machines, including all typewriters. Manual portable, manual uprights, antique or vintage typewriters. We carry every typewriter ribbon manufactured. Basic cleaning / tune up is between $38.00 - 48.00 (walk in). On-site service. Basic repair / clean $68.00 - 88.00." Read a story about an experience with Mr. Jensen here. Website: http://www.phoenixtypewriter.com/

      Duane Jensen's death was announced by his family on 2026-01-25.

    1. &KUpWLHQLVWKH¿UVWWRFRQQHFWWKHJUDLOWRWKH$UWKXULDQOHJHQGEXWwhen the procession passes through the hall of the Fisher King, hesays only that there is un grail, or “a grail,” meaning that it hadbecome a common enough term for a platter at this point, and therewasn’t yet any conception of a singular, unique Holy Grail.

      Chrétien is the first to connect the grail to Arthurian legend, but when...

    1. reply to u/Crafty-Shape2743 at https://reddit.com/r/typewriters/comments/1qjl76q/is_it_just_me_or/

      Regardless of their current reaction, every single person here knows that they've done the EXACT SAME THING at least once if not hundreds of times. My bet is that most STILL do it tentatively because they can't keep their fingers off the keys.

      I try to put stencil mode on for machines not actively in use to prevent ink from getting onto the platen and later smudging pages, but let's be honest that other than the ink, typing without paper isn't going to cause more damage to a machine than with it. Those who say it damages the platen will pound away with paper in and not care a whit. Those same people will also never bother to recover their platens with new material which dramatically improve the machine and the typing experience, so let's just get over ourselves on the issue of "protecting the platen"...

      I'll bet dollars to donuts that none of those who are precious about not typing on paperless platens, are pulling their paper out without releasing the paper release lever thereby slowly sanding down their platens and don't bother to leave it disengaged when they're done thereby slowly damaging and flattening their rubber rollers.

    1. reply to u/aleahey at https://reddit.com/r/typewriters/comments/1qjzgtq/remington_postal_telegraph_mill/

      On the paper guide, it definitely looks like a bend it back into shape issue.

      While your model is obviously decaled as "Postal Telegraph", it's not a traditional mill machine as those are generally marked by having no lower case characters and having uppercase only. Sometimes it was uppercase with some "filler character" (often a + on Remingtons, a ~ on Underwoods, and a double dot on Olivettis) or uppercase on both the top and bottom of the slug. Generally the zero character had a slash through it to distinguish it specifically from the letter "O".

      There are only two other exemplars on the typewriter database, so please be sure to upload your photos and data when you get a chance. https://typewriterdatabase.com/Remington.10+Postal+Telegraph.42.bmys You'll notice that one of the examplars by u/jbhusker doesn't appear to be a traditional mill while the other is. Perhaps James has some unwritten research on his Remington Postal Telegraph?

      If you sift through the typewriter database you'll find other examples and research (especially if you're looking at commentary under individual examples while you're logged in). As an example of mills from Underwood in their Western Union Special: https://typewriterdatabase.com/Underwood.Western+Union+Special.4.bmys

    1. There's a mismatch between me and my writing tools. They seem to want something slightly different from what I want. I wonder if anyone else has this feeling? I mean there's plenty of people who are apparently on a life-long quest to find the perfect app, because they still haven't found what they're looking for. What's up with that? Well this article made things a lot clearer for me: Artificial Memory and Orienting Infinity | Kei Kreutler. Kreutler argues we've conflated all memory with computer memory. That's to say we've assumed everything can be stored and retrieved as data. But this misses something crucial, which is that the kind of memory that shapes worlds requires transmission, relationship, and context, and not just storage. And this got me thinking: doesn't this apply to our digital writing tools? They have to store our writing as data, but in doing so they change it in subtle ways we might not even notice, except as the kind of vague unease I've been feeling. Why your note-making tools don’t quite work the way you want them to - and what to do about it. So am I over-thinking it again, or have you too felt a gap between what you want to do and what your writing tools expect you to do?

      reply to u/atomicnotes at https://reddit.com/r/Zettelkasten/comments/1qjrnp8/why_dont_my_notemaking_tools_work_the_way_i_want/

      In older analog offices, the office worker stored things on paper in piles, in folders, in various locations within their office. Because humans have excellent spatial memory, the worker would have an idea of what he might want and would know in which pile on their desk or which filing cabinet it might be filed in. Despite what may look like a messy office, most will know exactly where certain papers are "hiding". This overlaps with older indigenous cultures and artificial memory with structures like songlines, talking rocks, and later techniques from ars memoriae like method of loci or memory palaces. For more on this cross reference Hudson & Thames' First Knowledges series edited by Margo Neale.

      Entirely digital-based methods have erased a lot of these sorts of locational affordances.

    1. reply to zk developer at https://reddit.com/r/Zettelkasten/comments/1qiwfp0/im_researching_why_zettelkasten_fails_for_a_lot/

      Before you do this sort of user research, have you done the research on the dozens and dozens of apps that are already out there (prior art)? What do you think is good about them? Bad? Why are some doing well and others not?

      You realize that at once a week since 2019, at least one app a week pops up in the zettelkasten, note taking, productivity/GTD space? Very, very few pass the 6 week mark, let alone the 6 month mark. Why do you want to reinvent the wheel? What are you hoping to get out of it?

      Are you self-dogfooding/eating your own cooking? If you're not using and enjoying your own app, why would others?

      Simply reading through this sub will give you most of the research and friction points you could want to know about without impinging on our time for something that I'd be willing to bet won't even reach alpha.

    1. https://www.reddit.com/r/typewriters/comments/1qhokip/some_typewriter_customization_ideas/

      Besides, why go the AI route when there are so many already available custom and chromed machines out there? There is way more creativity in reality.

      Examples:

      And to be honest, if you're going to lay out some money to chrome a machine, why do it with a flimsy Skyriter? Find something showy, something honest, something substantial. Why not a Royal KMG or FP, a Remington Super-Riter, or a solid Hermes Ambassador?

      Nothing is more badass than Helen Gurley Brown's silver plated Royal Empress: https://site.xavier.edu/polt/typewriters/hgbrownroyal.jpg

    1. Typewriter Profile: Comparing the Olivetti Lettera 22, Lettera 32, and Studio 44<br /> by [[Damon Di Marco]] of CreateX3.com on YouTube<br /> accessed on 2026-01-19T11:32:11

      Marcello Nizzoli designed the Olivetti Lettera 22, an ultra-portable, and the standard Lexicon 80. He used the automotive idea of press-forming steel to the Olivetti line.

      In 1959, the Illinois Institute of Technology chose the Olivetti Lettera 22 as the best designed product of the last 100 years. It also won the Compasso D'Oro Award in 1954.

      1963 Lettera 32 introduced<br /> Square keys

      1965 Olivetti Studio 44 introduced<br /> Between the standard and the portable<br /> Comes with a case, but is heavier than many portables

      Prefer original spools with spool nuts.

    1. https://www.reddit.com/r/typewriters/comments/1qej21g/bulk_ribbon_source/

      We are a small typewriter shop based in the Netherlands.

      Usually we would order bulk ribbon from USA and pay 100+ euro for shipping costs and duties. The shipping mostly cost us more than the product itself and made it much harder for us financially.

      We would even combine orders with other local typewriter shops to cut the costs down.

      So we now found an alternative. Make it ourselves.

      After much testing we have found the perfect ink saturation. No bleeding. No oversaturation. Plus the ribbon should last 3-5 years when properly stored.

      We are happy to now offer 320m cotton reels (black) for other typewriter enthusiasts and shops based in Europe (we do ship worldwide, it is just much more affordable to buy local).

      A ribbon can make or break your typing. I really dislike light print or oversaturated ribbons. So zero compromise in quality.

    1. Surprisingly,though, the Mesopotamians rarely wrote about the afterlife. Literarydescriptions suggest that the netherworld was a gloomy place—dark, with bad food, and no way out—and there was little about itthat suggested either a reward or punishment. It simply existed.And yet, since these kings (and many commoners whose burials alsocontained gifts and food) took their worldly possessions with them,perhaps they believed that they could improve their lot in theafterlife.
    2. The king of Kish even sometimes enforced order inSumer. For example, Enannatum’s son, Enmetena, wrote that theborder between Lagash and Umma had been determined by thegreat god Enlil himself and had been confirmed by the king of Kish:“Mesalim, king of Kish, at the command of (the god) Ishtaran,measured the field and set up a (boundary-) stone there.” Theauthority of the king of Kish was therefore acknowledged, at leasttemporarily, by both the king of Umma and the king of Lagash.

      There is an interesting example of the mnemonic use of stone here in ancient Sumer. It serves as a boundary/border marker by its physical presence, but apart from any (other local) mnemonic uses, it also carries an inscription as a secondary form of long term written memory.

      Link to: https://hypothes.is/a/rpPeOl4IEeyqH1-fAP0WQw

    3. The kings had, however, begun to realizeits potential for extending communication, in an almost magical way,beyond what could be accomplished with the spoken word. Writingcould perpetually and eternally address an audience on a king’sbehalf; the words were always there, even when the king was notthinking about them. Given that the population was almost entirelyilliterate, such an audience was mostly made up of gods. Thestatuette of the king’s personal god (or sometimes of the kinghimself), inscribed with the same text as the tablet, could thereforepray continuously in a way that a real person could not.

      Is there stronger evidence that this form of permanent writing to an audience of gods was being done? Sources?

    4. The tablet wasfound by archaeologists in the foundations of the temple of Inannain Lagash, called the Ibgal. This extensive complex was oval inshape, as were many Early Dynastic temples in other cities, with alarge courtyard and a platform on which Inanna’s temple wasconstructed.

      What is the general history of oval-shaped architecture? Is there an explicit link between the Oval shape of the complex at Ibgal, the temple (or house) of Inanna in Lagash and the oval office at the White House?

      Keep in mind that modern knowledge of large portions of the Ancient Near East only surfaced after the 1800s, so the tradition would have required intermediaries from the ANE into other cultures to be passed down to the building of the White House in 1792.

    5. ngship seemed so obvious and right to the Mesopotamians thatthey believed that it had been invented by the gods, that it hadcome “down from heaven.” Some later scribes made a grand list ofall the kings from the beginning of time to their own era. Theycalled it “When kingship came down from heaven,” which was itsfirst line. To modern scholars it is the Sumerian King List.
    6. The people of Uruk started out with at least thirteen differentnumerical systems; they counted differently depending on what theywere counting, and the signs indicated different numbers fordifferent commodities. And about 30 percent of the signs they firstcreated to represent nouns had no later equivalents, so scholars donot know how to read them.
    1. reply to harr at https://forum.zettelkasten.de/discussion/3392/folgezettel-vs-duplex-numeric-arrangement

      I'll shortly have a lot more to say on this very subtle historical subject, which I've been work at off and on over the past month or so. My analysis indicates entire lack of innovation on the fronts which you're indicating. Pages 178-180 show the period standard practice of the subject alphabetic filing you say Luhmann was innovating against, but the duplex-numeric is exactly what he was using. The method he chose had been recommended and in use since at least the 1910s—especially for law offices.

      Your quotes from his 1981 paper, while interesting, create a false impression stemming from post hoc, ergo propter hoc analysis. You have to remember that by the 1980s, he's been practicing this for nearly 30 years and is providing a reflection on that practice, which is also heavily impacted by his systems theory work through those decades. I strongly suspect that his mid-century perspective didn't stray far from that Remington Rand outline or those of scores of other sources.

      It bears noting that of the four potential methods suggested in the chapter, the last one is the Dewey Decimal method, which many who've been in the zettelkasten space have also very naturally tried using as a scaffolding for their filing work. Others have also reasonably suggested variations like the Universal Decimal Classification system or Wikipedia's Academic Outline of Disciplines.

      One will also notice that the option of doing a "Variadex Alphabetic" arrangement hasn't ever (to my knowledge) been mentioned in the online zettelkasten space. It was given the pride of place as first in the list of options, but this stems primarily from the fact that it was a variation offered by Remington Rand as a paid product with the related accessories. Every filing cabinet company and major stationery company had variations on this theme with their own custom names and products.

    1. What's the diameter of the central hole? Checking if it's 4,5, or 6mm will help a lot in identifying which type of spool it is.

      Could be made by some ribbon company like Alpad who sold Olivetti compatible ribbons/spools.

      6mm diameter center holes on spools are indicative of a Gr4 typewriter spool.

      via u/Koponewt at https://www.reddit.com/r/typewriters/comments/1qcocn1/does_anyone_recognise_this_spool/