Harrington - new type element for Blick

March 20, 2023 by Lukasz Kumanowski

I was looking for a type face which will be interesting, ornamental and easy to read. And possible to implement on Blick. Harrington caught my eye but initial attempts to print it were unsuccessful. Mostly due to letters breaking during layer detach and eroding. Especially delicate serifs. And this typeface is all about serifs!

The typeface is balanced and proportional so very suitable for Blick.
To reinforce it - while not making it bold - I used the same concept as used on traditional, metal slugs: I reinforced serifs with separate extrusions, formed with chamfers to not interfere with imprint.

It took a while to adjust the model but seemed to be worth it. I printed the cylinder over the night. I chose no anti-aliasing - to keep delicate details intact.

I still use my home-made ink, while waiting for delivery of oil-based stamp ink, so inking is very rudimentary but first test type is looking promising!

I type on very thin paper, without any backing sheet, on stone-hard platen. This is to clearly see if alignment is correct. And it’s not - capitals are only partially printed, small letters are darker at the bottom.

My platen is at its closest position (cylinder adjustment) so no way to move it closer and imprint suggests that. So there will be next iteration, with type face shifted a millimeter or so, to match the platen. I don’t want to change other adjustments on the machine - she is adjusted for original type element and needs to stay like that.

So the story continues…

Messing up with Blick - second cork platen, new type elements

March 18, 2023 by Lukasz Kumanowski

This time I took care to make the platen concentric. In the same style as original I made two separate axle pins, to be pressed-in and glued on both platen ends.

In my favorite typewriter-supply shop I bought thinner cork composite, just 1.5 mm. Turned the dowel accordingly.

With thin cork I skipped cutting 45 degrees overlap. Gluing went quicker that way and the effect is very good. Glue line is hardly visible.

It looks cool on Blick.

So did it make a difference compared to the old, hard platen?

Well, it did but on the wrong side, again.
Even so thin cork is too soft, letters dive into it deep enough to leave artifacts around, resulting in dirty imprint.

It’s never too late to give up but I decided to try a few more ideas before I dump this path.

To recap:
- I made a new platen to improve imprint from my custom type elements. With a bit more elastic platen hope was that “stamping” will work better.
- Elastic platen should also protect type element from premature wear. After all - it is plastic.

So the remaining problem is that type slugs dive too deep into the platen so that surrounding face of the slug is also printed.

How about reducing this surrounding area?

One of my original cylinders has these grooves separating each facet. I printed a new version, with Bernard typeface.

Did that do the trick?
No. A little better but not a revolution.

OK, so maybe I increase the height of these slugs?
Originally I made them stick out 0.5mm. If I increase extrusion to 0.7mm, will it print properly? And will that be possible to 3D print?

I tried.
It did 3D print OK, no problems here. But the imprint was only slightly better.
Small steps all the time.

I chatted with Leonard Chau who successfully printed many of these. He seems to print as high as 1mm type slugs, with additional curvature on them, to match platen curvature.

Well, let’s try that!
I increased extrusions on my CAD model and then cut them with platen profile.

As a result each type slug has a slight curvature on its face.

Very excited I run a batch of three cylinders, with Bernard, Fraktur and Harrington.

Harrington typeface prove to be too delicate for such high extrusion, some letters did not print completely. With Fraktur and Bernard all went fine.

So - did that finally made a trick?
No.

It turned out that this introduced curvature made the imprint even worse. It became very sensitive to cylinder (platen) position relative to the type element. It became too tricky to calibrate.

Moreover - with so high type slugs they became very susceptible to damage.

So I fall back to original platen and lower extrusions. I went through all my typing elements with different designs and selected these which work the best. They will be a benchmark for developing this further.

So far my most successful implementation is Fraktur: SW Gothe. It is very ornamental so difficult to read.

Nothing to type long letters to anyone we care about.
But if you don’t want them to answer - yeah, Fraktur is a way to go.

As for a casual typeface - one to be used for letter writing etc - I pause my work with Bernard. It seems to be too condensed and prints poorly on Blick.

I will instead focus on Harrington. It should be easy to read and at the same time it has intriguing features with its serifs. I will just need to make it more substantial for darker imprint.

But that most probably is dependent on ink, too. It’s obvious my inking has a lot to desire.

Chatting with Leonard we came to conclusion that oil-based ink can be an option. Hard to find these days as most applications switched to water-based inks. Water inks are not corrosive and do not deteriorate rubber.

But this is not concern for me as I make my cylinders from epoxy.
I’ll just need to take care not using original Blickensderfer cylinders with that ink.
They are made of rubber.

To be continued…

Scriva / Triumph Norm 6. Snappy typer in cherry-red

March 18, 2023 by Lukasz Kumanowski

I have a weak spot for Triumph machines. One of them, Triumph Perfekt from 50-ties, is my go-to machine for longer typing.

When I found this Scriva I knew already that it is a Swedish clone of Triumph. I grabbed it even though it was extremely dirty and clogged. Nothing was moving! It must have been sprayed with WD-40 or equivalent and then left to die. Run it hard & leave it wet!

Somewhere there is an escapement mechanism!

I masochistically like such machines: you never know what will come out of that mess. Will it type nicely? Will it have nice typeface? What is the color of body panels???

Ribbon cover is made of ebonite, all other panels are steel. Easy to remove, no surprises.

Platen removal is even simpler: both platen knobs are screwed into the core. Both are standard, right-hand threads. A bit of cursing and they unscrewed from both sides, freeing the platen. So no central rod to be removed and wiggled upon installation. Nice!

The platen is in good shape, no cracks or dents. Oxidized and dirty but salvageable.
Feed rollers and paper deflector form complete subassembly. Easily removed with just two screws. Rollers are grippy and round - just dirty. Good sign.

One type arm was not able to come to resting position. Apparently someone tried typing on clogged mechanism and bent a link. Easy fix.

After brushing the dust and blowing with compressed air the gross of dirt was removed. What was left was a goo on all internal parts. Still hardly anything could move. I decided to give it a deep immersion in ultrasound bath. White spirit with a few drops of machine oil.

It took four such sessions, followed by compressed air, within three weeks. After the first cleaning bath the mechanism was free but I knew that after the thinner evaporates there still can be problems.

Leaving the machine “naked” for a week to check if all is fine. Nope, of curse - so another bath and compressed air. Finally, after the fourth bath, all goo was gone and the mechanism was working fine.

In the meantime I worked on the platen. After light sanding on a lathe the rubber appeared to be in good shape although a bit on hard side. I treated it with chemistry to bring back a bit of elasticity.

Felt pads - noise isolation - are in good shape and not smelly, just dirty. They cleaned up very nicely.

I finally could put all back onto the machine.

Spacebar rubber dampeners were shot, I made new ones from silicone.

Now the escapement is visible - nice and clean.

I could finally try typing.
And it types like a dream!
Elite sized, very pleasant typeface. Carriage shift, well balanced - feels very light.

Very handy machine indeed. Classy look, very snappy typer and not as noisy as my other Triumph.

Platen and feed rollers grip a paper like a bulldog!

Cherry-red with small blue details. Eye-feast!

Bi-chrome selector was so dirty I could not tell which mode I’m in. It cleaned up nicely, too.

Like other Triumphs this machine has very robust carriage lock mechanism. So that the escapement is protected well during transport.

That beauty deserves a photo session.

Cork platen for Blick 5. First prototype fail.

March 05, 2023 by Lukasz Kumanowski

I prevail in being stubborn and continue messing with my Blick 5, to make it type properly with my home-made, custom type elements.

The problem I face is bad imprint. It is not related to my type elements - I see this equally well when typing with the original one. I recon that main sources of poor imprint are:

hard platen. Hardly any surprise.
poor quality inking cylinder
poor quality ink

Now, starting from the end: I use standard, round-the-corner-paper-shop stamping-pad ink. It is bad and cheap. I tried mixing it with glycerin, to get it more “substantial” but results were not much better. Richard Polt suggests using Bates Numbering Machine Ink. Not surprisingly it is now out-of-stock on Amazon but I found a shop in Germany which still has it. It’s on its way so I hope to “tick” this point.

Poor quality inking cylinder - well, after my moderate success with home-made felt cylinders (I used black-powder gun wads, punched to match the size) I switched to pre-inked, modern cylinders which you buy at paper shop. They are still being used in cash registers or calculators. While the ink in them is working well with the Blick - they are fragile and wear out rather quickly. Again, Richard Polt comes with rescue - there is a product which matches exactly spec for Blick: wool felt wads for gun care. Caliber 7mm. I bought both 7 and 6.5mm as they are quite cheap. They are on their way, too. With proper ink this combo will hopefully do the trick.

Hard platen is a constant struggle for all typewriter aficionados with limited budget. Doing rubber re-coating with JJ Shorts or similar company is a big expense. What scares me most, thou, is a possibility that the platen will be lost in transit and gone! For Underwood or Remington that can be fixed by donor machine but Blicks are not that common and not cheap either.

I know one company which uses their own couriers to pick and deliver platens/rollers from customers. But guess what - they don’t do it for free which, after adding all in total, costs roughly as much as a Blickensderfer in decent condition.

All that aside - tinkering is a pleasure in itself so I’ve decided to come with my own solution.

Putting heat-shrink tubes is a known hack. I could turn the platen down on a lathe to compensate for tubes’ thickness and have it “re-coated” that way. This is an option I want to keep as a last resort. All in all - having the original platen on Blick (mine is in good shape) is a value in itself.

Putting bicycle tube on the platen is another option which I already tried. For most machines this rubber is too soft and imprint gets too fat. The only exception from this, in my case, is my Underwood 5 which seems to like it. It prints well and sharp.

My recent restoration, Oliver 5, has cork platen. That gave me a thought to try the same on my Blick.

As this will be a prototype I decided to make a new platen and to save the original intact. Disassembling the carriage will be also an occasion to do some adjustments and cleaning.

Starting from the right side, unscrewing the bell/knob and line advance mechanism.

No need to unhook the line advance spring, I leave it dangling.

This next step is not necessary to remove the platen but I want to properly clean the carriage so I unscrew right bracket which holds the platen. Note slots on its base - these are used to adjust platen position relative to typing element, like when top or bottom of letters is printed uneven.

Carriage left side - carriage release rod and reinforcing rod (with small nuts). Carriage release rod is so long and springy that it can be simply unhooked without removing platen brackets.

It’s never too many photographs when putting apart a machine. Right side of the carriage and position of small springs before the complete subassembly is removed.

Left side of the carriage is as simple as a threaded knob and locking nut. All threads are standard, right-hand threads.

The original platen has wooden core. Central axis of diameter 5mm is most probably glued/press fitted and constitutes one part with the platen. The platen has 32mm in diameter and 248mm length (excluding shaft)

Smaller diameter of the last 7mm of the platen is to accommodate a scale for line advance. For my prototype platen I will skip that, for simplicity. It should otherwise have 29mm in diameter.

While at it - I decided to renew paper roller. It was still working but the rubber deteriorated badly.

Shaft is made of steel, no brass sheath since the roller rotates with its axis. Simple solution as on the platen. Rubber stripped revealing some surface rust.

I took care of that.

I built the new roller using heat-shrink and plastic tubing. Made it a tad smaller in diameter, to prevent it from colliding with a screw head at the base of the machine. I had this problem when typing on really thick paper. It is possible that the original roller expanded due to aging and cracking. I made a new one 2mm smaller in diameter.

Now to the platen. First thing to determine was if I have a proper threading tool to replicate original threads. I wanted to use same screws and fittings, making only the platen brand new.

I tested all my ANSI threads, UNF and UCF and none was fitting. In an act of despair I tested metric, too. Guess what - M4 is matching perfectly!

I turned a wooden dowel to 28mm diameter since the cork I will be using has 2mm thickness. The axle was made of brass, just in case M4 is not exactly fitting. In such case it will be the axle which will get damaged, not original fittings.

Drilling so long and small hole was a challenge, even on a lathe. The drill has a tendency to wander in such non-homogeneous material as wood. I drilled from both sides so any inconsistency should happen deep inside the dowel.

With the axle pressed-in the core was ready to be dressed with cork.

Now - the usual way would be to cut a strip of cork and wind it around the platen in a spiral fashion. That makes it easy and time effective and this is what I see on my Olivers which have cork platen.

But I wanted to try another, more labor-intensive way of doing it: single sheet, overlapping at edges at 45 degrees, to form a uniform surface. I’m a hobbyist, after all.

Since I chose this approach I had to glue the cork in two stages: first just the edge, leaving excess of material for later trimming. Weighted and held with masking tape the assembly was left overnight for curing. I used standard, white wood glue. Polyurethane wood glue was not grabbing the cork.

The next stage was to wrap the remaining cork around the core, exactly mark meeting edges and cut the edge at 45 degrees. I was too busy to make photographs.

The resulting roller is even and smooth. After light sanding one cannot feel the join line of both edges. It is visible, thou but not disturbing.

So how does it work?

Well, it prove to be too soft again.

The letters were deforming paper and in some cases type-element face surrounding the letter was also printed. Clearly they were diving into the cork structure together with a paper.

Put aside poor ink roller and cheap ink - this platen did not make situation better. Moreover - even though I was careful to make both axle ends concentric they ended up a bit off, resulting with variable platen position with each line advance. That resulted in the same letter printed differently depending on a row: sometimes it was perfect, other times upper or lower part was faded. Clear sign that the platen was not revolving only in one direction.

Well - what lessons did I learn?

final platen will be made of hardwood, this should prevent the axle from bending when being pushed into the wood and wood “giving in” as being soft.
the axle will be made of 2 parts, shorter. Just enough to anchor them in the core. Drilling will be then more precise and concentric, from both ends. Much shorter.
the cork I was using was too thick. And it is really not 100% cork but rather a cork-rubber composite. The problem with pure cork is that at such thin sheets it is very brittle and cracks easily when bent. It may be a bit stiffer than my chosen material but I will try again with the same material but thinner. I will also sand it to go down to ca 1mm thickness.
if that proves to be still too soft I may wrap a single layer of heat-shrink above the cork, stiffening the surface a bit.

So not all hope is lost. The story continues.

Carriage removal/installation on Oliver typewriter

February 26, 2023 by Lukasz Kumanowski

It may not be obvious to everyone that Oliver and Blickensderfer (and Adler Mod 7) can have their carriages very easily removed. Oliver is the easiest of all these - no tools required, no prior experience needed.

To remove the carriage just press both Tab and Right button at the same time. The carriage will move to the left and stop. Press them again.

Now with your other hand - while keeping these keys pressed - simply slide the carriage out of the machine, to the left. Job done!

No need to secure spring-loaded line. The machine takes care of that:

When the carriage is installed back onto its rails this clip is grabbed automatically - and it will sit as pictured below.

Neat, ain’t it?

So - with the machine facing you - press Tab and Right button and remove the carriage, to the left.

To put it back - if you had it removed during shipment or for cleaning - simply align 3 rollers on their respective rails and slide it onto the machine. From the left again.

Everything will jump onto place by itself.

Do not force it - if there is resistance then something is not aligned. Back the carriage and start again, this time straight.

That’s all to it, really.

The fun continues - Blickensderfer type elements & 3D printer

February 26, 2023 by Lukasz Kumanowski

This 3D printing business got me!

Ability to make my own typeface elements to otherwise obsolete Blickensderfer typewriter is refreshing. I even started to use this machine for writing letters!

I’ve tried several fonts which are available for Windows/Mac free of charge. Some of them required several iteration of CAD design to get them look right on paper.

What I have learned - which should be obvious to anyone - is that the epoxy resin is very sensitive to temperature and humidity. Keeping these factors controlled makes the process much more predictable. In my case the workshop is heated to 20 degrees and stays like that during the whole print. Working in temperature lower than that - 10 or 15 degrees - yielded smaller openings, thus forcing me to file axle and steering pin openings to match my Blick.

As my arsenal of type elements is quite rich now I added type face name on the top of the typing element. Even covered with ink it is still visible, making it easier to pick from a can of these.

Curing the epoxy is crucial if these are to last. For prototypes I was just exposing them briefly to UV light from a small torch or leaving them outside in daylight for several hours.
To make myself independent of weather I made a simple curing chamber, out of old steel plate with mirror finish (drier plate form old photographic drier).

The plate is rolled to form a cylinder, held in shape with bolts and tape. Bottom and top locks should be mirrors but my wife was skeptical to give me her mirrors so I just took old DVD discs. They do the job equally well.

UV light source is the same torch, mounted onto the top lock. By trial & error I established curing time to be 30-45 minutes with this torch.

Choosing the font to implement is another thing. Apart from runes all other fonts need to be properly spaced so that words look like words - not like a bunch of letters. I am by no means educated book-press specialist so I rely on gut-filling.

My recent implementations are Fraktur and Bernard typefaces. In case of Fraktur I needed to change a shape of some letters to make them readable. They were too strange, especially with less than perfect Blick imprint.
Bernard took me 3 iterations before I can say I am satisfied. It prints clear and bold now so I think I will call it a day.

Recent fail was Bodoni typeface. It turned out to be too dense, resulting letters to be too far spaced in words. Not sure I will continue with that font, same as French Script which is too delicate for this technology of printing. Harrington looks promising but requires more work.

All in all - the results are promising and I am ready to buy and implement my two beloved type faces: Doves and Mason.

Stay tuned.

British Oliver 5 with cork platen

February 12, 2023 by Lukasz Kumanowski

This fellow had a hard life. Apparently forgotten somewhere, sitting on some attic or barn for many years.
But these are tough machines.
Even in such condition it was still showing signs of life.

Olivers are infamous for their paint job and nickel-plating. Given conditions less perfect than warm house the paint will deteriorate and plating lifts from steel parts, flaking.

I would say it is part of their charm. Seeing Oliver in Perfect condition - like the one I saw in Grim’s collection - is rare and unexpected. I even dare to say: a bit uncomfortable!

Type slugs are in good shape so there is hope!

Carriage pinion wheel was busted - many teeth were broken. That’s what happens when someone forces the carriage onto the machine - or the machine is shipped with the carriage on rails.
In my case the machine arrived with the carriage stuck (hammered?) on rails, not moving at all.

Draw string certainly not original. Draw string clip was, of course, missing.

The usual appearance of chromed details exposed to harsh conditions.

Luckily the mechanism is complete, if only dirty. No serious rust or pitting which would require swapping any parts.

After freeing the carriage out of its rails I disassembled the top mechanism for cleaning. That was easy, done it before with my first Oliver 5.

While at it - I open the main spring housing, to check the spring. Of course it is broken.

After repairing the spring I assemble back the housing and notice that the top washer is missing.

This washer is crucial to integrity of the shaft: the spring-end is locked into this shaft and top screw, holding all in pace, is threaded into the shaft. Without the washer the shaft will open itself at the top, like a flower.

I made a new washer.

Draw string clip was missing.
Thanks to that clip one can quickly remove the carriage from the machine - feature otherwise seen only on Blickenderfer and older Adler machines.

I make a new clip from brass.

The machine is cleaned and dried. I start assembly.

Keys are dirty but complete.

They get a bath in surface-active liquid. Just 20 minutes there and all grime just slides off without damaging keys’ material.

I use the waiting time for de-rusting screws and levers. Brass wire-brush does the job efficiently.

Clean keys ready for assembly.

Escapement star wheel removal

The rack-pinion gear was busted on this machine - many teeth were broken. I have another derelict machine which agreed to donate the part.

To change it one needs to remove ribbon vibrator mechanism - and a few more parts since the gear and escapement star wheel are assembled as one part.

The procedure is quite simple:

Remove backspace actuator arm (yellow arrow)
Unscrew ribbon vibrator actuator arm (red arrow, standard right-hand thread, loosen locking nuts first)
Remove the fat spring (if present) and undo both screws marked with green arrows

Now turn the machine upside-down and find two screws holding backspace guiding plate. They are deep inside but accessible with long screwdriver.

Remove the one on the left and just loosen the other one, keeping it in place.

Now back “on surface” wiggle the subassembly out.

There it is.

With that out of way we can remove the star wheel / rack pinion gear assembly.

These machines come from pre-standarisation era so expect to do some adjustements when swapping parts between them. In this case the rectangular bushing was too wide. I filed it down a bit.

Machine prepared for a new heart!

After fitting the subassembly just follow above steps in the reversed order.

Screwing back the barrel screw for ribbon vibrator actuator arm can be a bit tricky. To make it easier it is good to remove tension from the bottom spring, on the inside of the machine.

With tension released the barrel screw is easy to screw back and adjust.

It is important to secure the barrel with locking nuts from above and below. If this part becomes too slack the carriage will stop moving.

Backspace mechanism adjustment

While in this area one can adjust backspace mechanism.

My machine had a problem with backspace not advancing enough to “click” the escapement pawl into position.

Bryan from Vintage Type made an excellent video about points which should be checked/adjusted to fix this problem.
I’ve checked all these adjustments on my Oliver but the problem persisted. To solve it one can “form” (“bend” in layman’s terms) the backspace guiding plate, marked with red arrow below. In my case a bend needed was around 1mm, in the direction of an arrow.

But before doing that it is good to first remove any play on both screws which hold this plate on the bottom of the machine (these marked with yellow oval on one of pictures above).

Just loosen them so the plate can wiggle and then press backspace arm to max position and tighten these screws.

That should solve the problem.

Ribbon spools

Ribbon spools were missing so I manufactured new, from aluminum. Original spools were made from wood but I felt adventurous and went for metal.

The internal cavity (collar) is 17mm diameter. Central axis hole is 5,3mm.

Fresh cotton ribbon installed on new spools.

As is often the case - ribbon spool covers were missing, too.
Before I find original covers I can use copies, 3D printed. They will make the job of holding the spools closed done.

Excellent resource, available to everyone, is 3D Typewriter Parts. I downloaded Oliver 9 spools as Oliver 5 are not yet present.

I arranged supports so that their traces will be on the inside face, not visible from outside. Just to save me work with sanding.

There was a snowy and sunny winter day - lot’s of free UV in the air. I took them outside for curing.

Mounted on the machine. I could sand them and paint green, as originals, but I feel no need to pretend these are genuine. They do the job and match quite well.

Turning into carriage. Lot’s of work here.

First step, after removing paper fingers, is to remove the platen. Right platen knob got some soaking in penetrating oil to loosen plunger screws holding it in place.

Once the right platen knob is removed - and all plunger screws holding the platen - the axis rod can be removed together with the left platen knob assembly.

To lift the platen one can simply spring away paper rollers’ assembly.

Platen was hard but not cracked, wearing signs of someone typing without the paper. It looked like oxidized, worn rubber.

But it is not rubber!

After sanding on the lathe a nice cork surface emerged!
So this machine was build or refurbished during war time, when Great Britain had rubber shortage and cork was used instead, where possible.

After cleaning the carriage assembly and installing the platen I checked if paper is fed properly. Feed rollers are fine so all should work well now.

It didn’t - the paper was going in crooked, whatever I did.

After closer inspection I found a source of problem: main roller holding bricks (yellow arrow below). They are housing axle of the paper roller and are screwed to the carriage very close to leaf springs (red arrow) which tension front paper rollers.

Well, these bricks are not symmetric.

Someone servicing this machine before me mounted one of them in opposite direction, in result having it laying partially on leaf spring edge.
This, in turn, resulted in a gap between paper roller and the platen, thus crooking the paper.

Once that was fixed the paper rolled in with authority, straight!

All ready for the first typing test.
As expected, capital letters CAPS and FIGs needed to be adjusted. It is done with double set of nuts on the back of the machine (yellow arrows).
While being there I adjusted spring tension (blue oval below) and amount of breaking power for TAB mechanism.

Friction-break to slow down the carriage while using Tabulator.

One more problem appeared while typing: just after line advance the row starts too high and slides down after a few characters. It looks like this:

What happens is that line advance ratchet does not rotate far enough to fully engage with the spring-loaded roller. It looks like this:

After typing a few letters vibrations in the mechanism cause it to finally glide into place while rotating the platen a fraction of an angle. Rest position looks like this:

So the synchronization between line advance mechanism and the ratchet was crooked.

Oliver has only one adjustment in this area but it is responsible for timing line advance with escapement pawl “click”, so that the carriage, upon return, stays in exact position, not in “half-character” mode. This adjustment is a screw with its locking nut as shown below.

My problem was related to the distance between this screw and a face marked with arrow below. Upon meeting at line advance the actuator arm is engaging the gear which in turn advances the platen. And it was advancing a tiny-tiny too little, certainly due to wear of parts.

I sanded the face of extrusion, marked with red arrow below, just a fraction of mm. Polished and cleaned, the actuator rod lightly oiled and gear axle (with its spring) got a drop of oil, too.

That did a trick - the travel of actuator arm upon hitting the extrusion is long enough to fully rotate the platen into next “click” on the ratchet.

So there it is, finally typing!

I especially like numerals, look at this 8 and longer tails of 3, 5, 7 and 9!

So, as a prize for all this work I took my new-old Oliver 5 for a proper photo-session.

Clean and dry mechanics, with a few drops of machine oil only in places which require it.

The carriage is easily removed just by pressing TAB and RIGHT buttons close to ribbon vibrator.

Retaining clamp sits in its parking position, waiting for the carriage to grab it upon re-installation.

Carriage rollers cleaned, moving freely. They require oiling with machine/gun oil, sometimes - thus oiling holes in them.
The oil should lubricate their axles, not surface which shall be dry.

Brass patent plate cleaned but not polished - to preserve the patina.

British-layout keyboard.

It was a very satisfying restoration.

A handsome machine, to be used for many years ahead.

Yost 15 (Part I). Passion to words connecting people.

February 04, 2023 by Lukasz Kumanowski

My fascination for mechanical machines led me to yet another typewriter: Yost.
In this case it is Yost 15 which looks like any other standard typewriter of 20-30’s but has unique to Yost front striking action.
One step closer to my dream machine, the Williams typewriter.

As happens quite often in this hobby, the machine became just a cause to meet very interesting people!

It was listed in Mora and personal pickup was desired. Well, 4,5 hours drive one way from where I live. I was not sure if I wanna drive that long until I called the owner and we talked. After a few minutes of phone conversation I was convinced that, regardless of condition of the machine I want to meet the owner!

Monica is a professional bookbinder : person who “builds” books, in layman terms.
In the world of online printing houses like Blurb and Lulu if you want to have a beautiful and custom made book - you turn to a bookbinder. Nothing can substitute an artist and craftsman for the very special book you plan to make.
Not only that, she is also an artist and educator. And for me - it was thrilling to get to meet such person and have possibility of a few hours conversation and exchange of experience. And to buy a few typewriters, by the way!

Getting to see her workshop was a joy!

Old, classic, robust tools for a serious job.

It was like a workshop for me. We were exchanging experience in our passions and my eyes were opening wider and wider. Go and check yourself, you can reach Monica through her webpage: www.langwe.se

I took my Blick no.5 with me, to show my custom-made typing elements. As a professional in book printing crafts Monica was interested in Blick as a machine which uses direct inking technique - just like a book press.

I’m glad I took it with me - at least I could show something interesting too!

To my regret I could not stay longer - I had still another 4,5 hours to drive back home and I also got a tip from Monica to visit Rosenlöfs Tryckerimuseum which is close to Gävle.

The museum is normally not open during weekends (out of the season) but I called them and they were eager to meet me and to open it for me on Saturday!

On my way, quite unexpectedly, I got a message from Grim. We’ve never met before but we had contact through typewriter enthusiasts group and I bought a few machines from him before, among others my first Oliver. It struck me that I am, in fact, very close to him!

Bamm! Change of plans!
I called the museum that I will not make it that day (I would not manage anyway, one should reserve at least a few hours to fully anticipate what is there!) and headed to Rättvik, to meet Grim for the first time in “real”.

Grim is a typewriter collector, repairman and writer. We started in his workshop which, compared to mine, is nice and neat!

Talking typewriters, tools and stories we moved on to his writing room where most of the collection is displayed. This is also where he works on his books.

Now that I call a proper working room!

I got to see some crown jewels, too.

He even has Bennet, with Swedish typeface!

Thanks to this beautiful Oliver I got a chance to take my Oliver 5 from his hands!

My eyes fell out when I saw Blickencderfer 7 with Swedish scientific keyboard!
I’m gonna make a custom type wheel with runic alphabet for this machine.

I forgot to photograph other machines as we talked but it was my “Hermans” on Swedish soil that day, indeed.

The day was beautiful, cold and sunny. The weather stood up to the challenge.
With regret I left Rättvik and its magnificent view over Siljan lake at dusk.

Typing runes on Blickensderfer

January 29, 2023 by Lukasz Kumanowski

My friend from work, Marcus, happens to be very comfortable in using runes for everyday notes.
Yeah, I work with extraordinary people!

That gave me an idea to implement runes as a custom font on Blick. Why not? I could write semi-secret notes to Marcus without really knowing this alphabet, right? The machine will cover that part!

Apparently there are several versions of runes and while they were in daily use there were many versions of the same sign, depending on artist and region. I decided to implement the version which Marcus is using most frequently as this is also the version which has almost all our Latin signs covered.

With notes and guidelines from Marcus I designed my wheel.

The prototype worked well but I made a few mistakes in rune size and form. The second one, corrected, was created a day after. And so I can type in runes!

I know that Richard Polt receives The Typewriter Manifesto translated into different languages and alphabets but as far as I know he does not yet have one in runes.

I sat down and typed The Manifesto in ancient runes.

After all - most of them are found in Sweden so this is legit to send him such document from here.
With a twist: it is typed on very old machine, in XXI century, with alphabet preceding usage of our current one (in this part of the world).
The Revolution roots are ancient!

Blickensderfer 5 with custom type faces

January 29, 2023 by Lukasz Kumanowski

When I first got my Blickensderfer typewriters - both with most common DHIATENSOR and (less common) CHARIENSTU keyboard layout I was thinking about converting them into QWERTY layout, simply to be able to use them as easily as my other machines.

Two elements would be needed to make such conversion: qwerty-layout type element (cylinder with fonts) and moving a few keys from the lowest row into upper rows, as qwerty has 10 keys in the highest row while dhiatensor layout, with its pyramid-shape, has only 8.

I quickly dismissed the idea of such brutal mechanical intrusion into so ancient (and mechanically magnificent) machine. After all - I have plenty “standard keyboard” machines. So instead I started to get used to dhiatensor, scientific keyboard and to my surprise it took not too long to become comfortable with it.

But the idea of interchangeable, custom fonts stayed with me. One can find original typing elements on the market, sometimes, but they tend to be rare and expensive. Besides - I liked the challenge of making my own!

At that time 3D printing technology was not mature enough to be capable to replicate such small elements as fonts. At least the machines within my budget. Instead I considered casting fonts from existing slugs, making silicon “negative” molds and then casting final letters from rubber. These would then be mounted/glued on a lightweight cylinder to fit the machine.

Yeah, lots of work and many traps where things can go wrong. Also very messy. I paused the idea and moved on with other projects.

Only recently we started to look again into 3D printing technology, to buy a machine for my factory. At the same time Facebook group member posted his results with 3D printed cylinder for Blick and it was magnificent!

Richard Polt wrote about this on his blog here. Leonard Chau, who made this happen together with Brent Carter, gave me some tips how he made his cylinders. That was enough for me to look into making one by myself.

I bought Anycubic printer, small and cheap enough for me but with DLP technology, hoping that it will be able to render very fine details as serifs and ornaments found with typefaces.
A few trials to dial in parameters for resin exposure etc plus several evenings of reading and watching YouTube clips about that and I was ready to print my own cylinders.

The original cylinder is made of rubber.

I started by making exact CAD model of my existing cylinder.

Having that I decided to modify it a bit, to make it more interesting and possibly even lighter. After all - I don’t have technological limitations similar to Blickensderfer 120 years ago and I’m using a different material so my type element can be optimized. I ended up with Japanese magnolia-style cylinder.

The first prototype lived only half a page when it broke. I was a bit harsh in my tests but they must withstand angry writer, too!

I reinforced the walls and made additional adjustments with font leveling.

Even though my CAD model was reflecting the original cylinder, the epoxy used for 3D printing is shrinking/expanding during the print process and one needs to adjust the model to accommodate that.

The next trial went better but retaining clip extrusion prove to be too weak and broke after 1 day.

After adjusting the model for that I finally arrived to a design which is as sturdy as the original and weights a bit less!

Choosing typefaces was fun. I made several cylinders and the results are promising. Hardly surprising but imprint quality is highly dependent on good platen. My Blick has it hard as stone so I use thick, double paper to achieve acceptable quality. Time to re-coat this platen!