I bought a 1955 Olympia SM some months ago and sent it off to get refurbished by a fellow in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. The typewriter was in mostly working condition, but the platen was rock-hard, and it was out of alignment. It is a beautiful 2-tone, burgundy and cream machine, with the pica sized letters (10 to the inch). It just came back, and it looks and works great. No excuse for not starting a novel now!
Nice! Post a photo!
Nice! Best of luck with your novel.
Dang…can’t figure out how to include photo, will work on it later
Here’s a '58 Burgundy/Cream Olympia SM3:
Yup, that’s it! I mean, not my specific one, but the same model and colour scheme. Thanks
That is sweet!
Very nice machine! I still love the sound and feel of a typewriter, even though I haven’t worked on one in donkey’s years.
I remember that layout. Caused me a fair number of errors when I switched from my mom’s old typewriter to a more modern keyboard.
Very nice machine.
How strong does your pinky have to be to use the shift key ?
I used to own the one my father used in college. It was in mint condition. For some reason, I donated it to a charity when I moved years ago. That one … I regret.
Well, I’m no Arnold and I can work the shift key. You can involve the wrist and forearm too, with a twisting motion of the arm
The shift key on many of those Olympias raises the carriage, though, as opposed to lowering raising the – what’s it called – segment (?) – with the actual “type” all lined up.
Isn’t the latter much more common for manual typewriters ?
This is what I’m talking about:
Carriage vs. Basket Shift
One major difference between portable typewriters is how the shifted characters are typed. Each type slug contains both the upper and lowercase character. When you depress shift, you’ll either be raising the carriage or raising the typebar basket. Since the carriage is heavier, it’ll take more effort. And some carriages are heavier than others, or are hinged and levered differently to make them easier to raise.
For those of us reared on computer keyboards, this can be a big deal. On a computer keyboard, shift is the same as all other keys. But when you use a typewriter with a carriage shift, you’ll notice the difference right away. At first it might not be such a big deal, but the more you type, the more you’ll start to feel the weight of the carriage. You’ll be using finger muscles you never thought you had.
Is your Olympia carriage shift or basket shift ?
Just use two fingers to type like a real writer.
Carriage. Still not much of a workout, even after 30 years of not using a typewriter and with minor arthritis, and as I say, it’s easy to “cheat” by rotating the forearm for leverage and power. Amd one can always go all e.e.cummings on it
Fuck, that thing is sexy as hell!
I bask in its glow
As well you should.