The Typewriter Collection No 9: Olympia SM2 (Circa 1951) & No 10: Olympia SM3 (Circa 1954)

Man, oh man, I love this brand! When I started getting more seriously interested in typewriters, I decided that I was going to aim for definitive models from the decades of the 1930s through to the '60s. When it came to getting something from the Fifties, I narrowed my choices down to Remington, Royal and Olympia. This was only after I had done a little research on Alan Seaver's  http://www.machinesoflovinggrace.com/ , and The Classic Typewriter Page ( http://site.xavier.edu/polt/typewriters/index.html ) by Richard Polt, as well as poring through almost every page of Robert Messenger's book, "The Magnificent 5". These three sources of info were enough to tell me which machines were worth going for.

The more I looked at Olympia SM series machines, the more I liked them. I've already written about these two typewriters...

http://teeritz.blogspot.com/2011/05/birth-of-typewriter-nerdi-blame-olympia.html


http://teeritz.blogspot.com/2011/05/cold-war-standard-issue-typewriter.html


http://teeritz.blogspot.com/2011/11/sm3-that-needs-repairingso-i-took.html

...so I'll try not to be too repetitive.

The scan came out slightly cropped. For those of you interested, what I'd written was; "Man, I hope it turns out better than that!"

The 'De Luxe' engraving originally looked like this;

A couple of runs with some gold acrylic and...

That's better.

Here's how it looked when I first got it.

And once Tom worked his usual magic, it turned out like this;

When I got it, the drawband wasn't where it should have been;

I got a coat-hanger. Then I got my Leatherman Wave.




Then I got lucky.

The case fell apart when I removed the bubble-wrapping;

But some wood glue and some tacks took care of that, although I'm toying with the idea of making a new carry-case for this machine. Even though the furthest that I'll carry it will be from the lounge room to the study. Once I clear my desk.

I've noticed some slight design variations between these two typewriters. Specifically, the carriage return levers.
Here's the circa 1951 SM2's;

Works extremely well. Very intuitive to use. Beats the iPod's user-friendliness by about 55 years. And here's the return lever on the SM3;

Impossible to miss this one, no matter how drunk you get...not that I've tried, mind you.

Either way, these '50s Olympias are a joy to use.

If you're out there taking a stroll through the typosphere and have never tried out one of these, I suggest you get your hands on one. Damn, I thought I wiped that table down!

Thanks for reading, all!