Weapon of Choice: “Jubal Harshaw” 1956 Olympia SM3 #785328 Ruling out the cut lines on covers and interior sheets. My original Correspondence Log. My new Correspondence log with pre-printed internal sheets. Required size to fit in the Log Pocket of my Correspondence Binder. Chop-chop! This vintage photo paper chopper is much heavier-duty than modern plastic […]
Category: From the Desk of Reverend Munk
Typecasts from the desk of the Right Reverend Theodore Munk
Merry Christmas to you, and a Happy New Year!
Leoben likes the cut of Jubal’s Jib! Weapon of Choice: “Jubal Harshaw” 1956 Olympia SM3 #785328
Third Score of the 2022 Typewriter Hunting Season: 1956 Olympia SM3 (the perks of paying attention in TCL chat)
Weapon of Choice: “Jubal Harshaw” 1956 Olympia SM3 #785328 1956 Olympia SM3 #785328 (Hunter Teresa C’s collection) So the Typewriter Gods decided that a gifted Hot Rod Typewriter in swirly purple & silver wasn’t an amazing enough way to end out the 2022 Typewriter Hunting Season. I know, that’s pure crazy talk, but here’s the […]
Second Score of the 2022 Typewriter Hunting Season: 1960 Royal Diana (Hot Rod Typewriter customized)
Weapon of Choice: “Wonka” 1960 Royal Diana #DTP 117054 I have been a very good boy this year, and haven’t purchased a single typewriter – in keeping with my desire to slim the herd down to 50 or less. I’ve even set aside two of my collection to give away to other collectors that I […]
ALL HAIL THE SECRET SOCIETY OF MIXTAPERS!!!
I set aside a bit of a rainy Saturday to savor the “Guth’s Time in Texas” mixtape and write a Correspondence Episode reply to the sender. Weapon of Choice: “Richard The Deep Breather” 1925 Corona 4 #H506286 Guth said something about being rusty at mixtapin’, but it doesn’t show here in “Guth’s Time in Texas […]
Montgomery Ward Typewriters 1941-1985, Signatures, Forwards and Escorts and why certain rare Royal Typefaces can be found on Brother Typewriters!
Weapon of Choice: “Thunderbird 2” 1968 Montgomery Ward Signature 440T #B8860433 It’s been a bit since I’ve browsed through Muse Technical’s Department store catalog archive, but the other night someone asked about an 80’s-era Penncrest machine on the FB – and that set me to looking at the archive again. What I’ve found is that […]
Workin’ on the Lettera 22…
Weapon of Choice: “Tony” 1960 Olivetti Lettera 22 #749402 Gerren’s Lettera 22 Video: UPDATE: Currently Gerren is re-editing his video to fix some technical issues – I’ll re-link to the new one when he’s finished. In the meantime, here’s some pics of that escapement adjustment: What you will be doing is loosening the locknut that […]
New Custom Rubber Stamps are IN! :D
Weapon of Choice: “Easy” 1964 Hermes 3000 #3246817 The green Bell Trimline? That’s going to S.K. to complete her Hermes 3000 Office. (:
29 Rubber Stamps for Fifteen Bucks! :D
Weapon of Choice: “Indy” 1959 Tower Chieftain III #3YT167056 Zipper pull tabs from one of the Sunset Library Type-Ins. Indy’s already pretty full of stickers on the case. :D Discount code I used at Rubberstamps.com: “THANKYOU15” for 15% off your order!
Carbons, The Long-Lived Neo, A Silhouette Mint, and other Crafty Things!
Weapon of Choice: “Dr. Lizardo” 1973 IBM Selectric II #26 1220365 Carter’s Blue Pencil Carbons found at a thrift for a couple bucks for a full box of 50. And so now I have reason to fire up the Neo again, just to check the battery, which is still at 100% after months since I […]
This Typecast Brought to You by the Letters: CN-6-B & CN-6-M
Weapon of Choice: “Mothra”, 1972 IBM Selectric Composer #5016537 One of the delightful things about having a Selectric Composer is that it can type using 6-Point typeballs. Not 6-Pitch, mind you – that’s very large – but 6-POINT, which is very, very tiny. This is handy if I want to type very small notes, and […]
Thriftin’ Report 2022-10-03
Weapon of Choice: “Dr. Lizardo” 1973 IBM Selectric II #26 1220365 Correspondence: Episode 7 – The X Files. Nobody’s got this far yet, but I’m getting the feeling that Episode 7 will be the last for awhile. I feel it’s important to put an endpoint to things once you feel like you have completed the […]
Saying Goodbye to Gandalf the Grey or Too Many 721s
Weapon of Choice: “Gandalf the Grey” 1970 IBM Selectric I [721] #5846248 Heh, this was the 7th typewriter gallery uploaded to TWDB! :D This Dymo label with the model number, serial number and pitch value was on the machine when I picked it up at the yard sale in 2013. Not sure why, doesn’t look […]
Planes, Trains & Automobiles – to the Sept 11 2022 ABQwerty Typewriter Society Type-In!
Weapon of Choice: “Roosevelt” 1960 Aztec (Erika) 700 #1930178 The Back Alley Man and the Keeper of the Lost Bible A musical excursion into Flagstaff street life, making friends with dogs and the drunken keeper of a lost Bible. Unfortunately, I seem to have hit the record button too late to catch that whole conversation. […]
The Japanese Typewriter Datecode Theory (a work in progress)
There’s a theory I’ve been pondering – a datecode theory that is exceedingly simple and once you think about it, surprisingly obvious and relatively easy to prove now that we have quite a lot of example machine galleries in the TWDB and someone who has devoted his collection and research to the age of Electronic […]
That feeling you get after sealing a letter…
One of the pair of free inkjet printers I got last month. This one has a busted feed mechanism, but works fine if you feed stuff in one at a time by hand, carefully. That’ll do, though. It’s sort of like craftsmanship to have to work at making something. :D My Correspondence Media & Experience […]
New Halda/Facit Age List numbers on TWDB!
Weapon of Choice: “Starbuck” 1964 Hermes Rocket #60279151974 Facit 1620 #910029Time to make the donuts! er, or update the Halda/Facit Age List, anyway.
Correspondence Two: Extreme Edition, and This Week’s Thriftin’ Report
Weapon of Choice: “Thunderbird 3” 1966 Montgomery Ward Signature 440T #D6216161 This correspondence Response is gonna be a doozy! A lack was expressed, and so I responded by time traveling back to the best years of Windows XP and the tech and happenings of the 00’s to craft a one-of-a-kind EXPERIENCE, with hand-selected and emotionally […]
First Power Outage of The Summer & More Correspondence Binders and Organizers!
Weapon of Choice: 1962 Groma Kolibri N #N43143 Hit the “Play” button below for the last couple of exciting minutes before the power came back on. Listen while reading, please. (: Radio Shack #20-527 fer Nine Bucks? Yep! :D While this is not the big Avery binder mentioned below, it is also an Avery. It’s […]
Achievement Unlocked: Organized Correspondence!
Weapon of Choice: “Easy” 1964 Hermes 3000 #3246817 Admittedly, I am still not as organized as Joe Van Cleave is. :D
Olympia SG’s a year younger than we think? Sheridan suggests so…
Weapon of Choice: “Thunderbird 4” 1968 Montgomery Ward Signature 440T #C8899610
Hard Drive Data Recovery: Swapping the Controller Card
Ahh, the joys of a dead hard drive full of stuff you need. Well, that happened to me a few weeks ago as I was copying stuff to my “working files” hard drive in preparation to make a backup. As I copied files, a spark arced out of the drive dock that I was copying […]
The Incognito Life
Weapon Of Choice: “Thunderbird 2” 1968 Montgomery Ward Signature 440T #B8860433 I found this nice leather satchel during a thrift run the other day, $5. Finally something to replace the nasty plastic case these awesome 440T’s come in. :D.
New Age List for Aztec Typewriters!
Weapon of Choice: “Indy”, 1959 Tower Chieftain III #3YT167056 1960 Aztec (Groma) 800 = Groma Combina 1962 Aztec (Erika) 800 = Metal Shell Erika 20 1960-62 Aztec (Erika) 700 = Metal Shell Erika 10 1960-61 Aztec (Rheinmetall) 600 = Rheinmetall KsT 1963-65 Aztec (Erika) 15 = Plastic Shell Erika 15 1963-65 Aztec (Erika) 14 = […]
Automatical Justified Typin’ from an NTS WP-10c
Weapon of Choice: 1990 NTS WP-10c SlabTop Word Processor Weapon of Choice: 198x Royal (Nakajima) Alpha 2015 #42320862 ProTip: Peel off that WP-10 sticker and it uncovers the Citizen 10WP that’s actually silkscreened onto the shell. Weapon of Choice: 198x Olivetti 900X #85330822198x Surprise! Looks like the WP-2 also has the option 32k SRAM installed, […]
A Lil’ Rain, a Lil’ Typin’ and Plants Playing Music…
Weapon of Choice: “Eugene”, 1970 Webster XL-747 #L0944386 Hit the “Play” button below for a nice evening typing session mix. I’ve been listening to a lot of Biogenerative Ambient lately, and decided that music played on modular by a Mint plant via a biofeedback sensor would be just the thing for today’s background. Enjoy the […]
Thoughts on Typewriter Parts Supplies and Trading
Weapon of Choice: 1946 Royal Quiet De Luxe #A-1218244 Goodies from The Type Space! :D A Quiet De Luxe differs from an Aristocrat mainly by the amount of sound padding panels it has. For some reason, this QDL had lost all of it’s panels, so I’ll replace them with fun red felt. Weapon of Choice: […]
The Story of Vertical Script (AKA: “Script 46 Ra”, “Oxford Script”)
While working on the “Typewriter Typefaces Bible” project, I’ve collected over 50 typeface references together spanning from 1915 through 1993. This is probably still just a thin sample of what was produced over those years, but it is still extremely useful in figuring out what typefaces were available during what years and on what machines. […]
Rest In Peace, Number Six
Number Six, not yet sure she wants us to touch her, but still very curious about the turtle. The very first time she let me pet her, and we became fast friends. She spent lots of time snuggled in my lap while I was at my desk. She also popped up from time to time […]
June, 1981 – Portable Typewriter Distribution in the United States (and the end that was soon coming)
“Portable Typewriter Distribution in the United States.” June 1981 Report prepared for Ing. C. Olivetti SpA by market research firm “INPUT” Part 1: https://archive.org/download/portabletypewritunse/portabletypewritunse.pdf Part 2: https://archive.org/download/addendumportable0000unse/addendumportable0000unse.pdf I dug this report up on the Internet Archive awhile ago because it is a market report compiled for Olivetti in early 1981 detailing the current state of […]
First Catch of the 2022 Typewriter Hunting Season: 1960 Aztec 700
Weapon of Choice: 1960 Aztec (Erika) 700 #1930178Unboxed at Typewriter Club LIVE: 2022-01-30 Erika 10, Optima Super & Aztec 700 User Manual Joe Van Cleave’s Optima Super, which is actually an Optima, rather than a relabeled Erika 10, like my Aztec 700. There are quite distinctly different machines, mechanically. In 1960 Optima began re-labeling Erika […]
Adjusting Ring & Cylinder on a Brother JP-1
Weapon of Choice: 1978 Brother Charger 11 #K83712885 Typewriter Club LIVE: 2022-01-23 Time to make some notes in your JP-1 Repair Bible. You make notes in your Bible, right? The following pages are from the Silver-Seiko 700 Series Repair Bible, and they have a clearer explanation of the process of Ring & Cylinder/Platen Parallel and […]
On Typecaster’s Margins…
Weapon of Choice: “Cadwallader” 1963 Olympia SM7 #2335640 Weapon of Choice: “Adwoa” 1961 Swissa Junior #6102535 Weapon of Choice: 1971 Royal (Silver-Seiko) Sprite #NM 1113791 Weapon of Choice: “Thunderbird 4” 1968 Montgomery Ward Signature 440T #C8899610 Weapon of Choice: 1925 Underwood Portable 3 Bank #147487
Typewriterdatabase Temporarily down thanks to Enom :P
NEWEST: Whoop! looks like the main “typewriterdatabase.com” domain is resolving again – due to a “short-term fix” implemented by Enom. When they verify that they have a “permanent fix” in place, I’ll switch the site’s config back to use the root domain again. (: ############# UPDATE: Site’s been down for 36 hours now, and I’ve […]
1971 Sears T.L.S – My Favorite All-Manual, All-Metal Brick Camera
Weapon of Choice: 1971 Sears T.L.S (Ricoh Singlex TLS) (M42 mount) #265613 The Sears T.L.S was a camera I had read about before finding one at the local Deseret thrift store for the standard $10 that they were charging for SLRs back a few years ago. Very well spoken of for the rock-solid metal Copal […]