Buying a Typewriter in New Zealand: Tips from Clackers Clinic
Not every machine you buy will clack as daintily as this Sears Citation (Smith Corona) serviced at Clackers Clinic.
Introduction: The Joy and Peril of the Hunt
Buying a typewriter can be a game, alack, of pot luck. Going from dipping your toes into the cool of a promising pool of creativity in the jungle of adventure to thrashing about in a sea of heartbreak can happen as quickly as realizing the words "should work fine with a service" mean the same as "I have no idea about typewriters but I have a soft spot for dollars and I want a few of yours".
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At Clackers Clinic, we share your pain. Around these parts many's the teardrop burst 'gainst a broken escapement tooth, a dry platen, a dislodged typeslug. Much the cursing. But few the hairs left on poor Mr Clackers' bone white head.
Why So Many Typewriters Don't Work Properly
Why should this be? Why does pretty much every typewriter anyone buys not work properly? One reason is that a healthy typewriter is a well-exercised typewriter. If a typewriter has been sitting alone for four decades in a garage, it has likely attracted so much dust to the aged oil in its moving parts that it has seized up in different ways.
A decade ago somebody, out of curiosity, may have tried to get it going by pouring more oil into it. This may have even worked to get the machine moving and the bell going "bing" for a day or so. However, it was likely put right back into the cubby hole whence it was wrenched as soon as the curious tinkerer learned that there was nowhere in town—nay, the city, nay, the known universe!—supplying new typewriter ribbons. So the machine gathered more dust on top of the old. Now someone has inherited all of Auntie Gertrude's stuff and wants to be rid of it quick-smart, and you, dear clacker, have been the final pawn in their house-clearing game.
Another reason is that people equate having rust with something not working and not having rust with "good condition." Mr Clackers'll be the first to tell you that many's the rusty machine that has produced a fine novel, and many's the clean machine whose production has been lean due to clogging from grease piles and blockages unseen. Rust is much less concerning—as far as functionality goes—than dusty greasiness, snapped bits, bent things, and dry, hard rubber.
Things to Consider When Buying Your First Typewriter
We highly recommend buying only when you have seen the text produced by the typewriter in question. Unless you are a collector or similar (find out more about the differences between collectors and typers here) then the most important visual feature of a typewriter is the text it produces. All other factors are subordinate to this and, if the typed text is poorly, all other factors become irrelevant.
In an ideal scenario you will be able to test type the machine yourself. If you enjoy typing on it and it produces legible text then, by all means, buy it.
If, however, you are aware of the machine not working properly but you want it anyway then Clackers Clinic will be happy to take a look at it and - without making any guarantees at all - try to get it going for you.
We recommend taking a look at some of the typewriters Clackers Clinic has repaired to familiarize yourself with what machines are out there.
Generally speaking, we rate the chances of machines built after the 1940s more highly than those built before. A big factor involved in this chances-rating is the rubber. Rubber - especially the platen - can go hard as a rock over many decades and provide no grip for the paper. Rubber can also turn into mush. This is especially true of the typewriter feet.
If you have a particular machine on your purchasing radar and you want a second opinion on it then feel free to contact Clackers Clinic.
Factors to Watch Out For:
Look for machines you can test type before purchase, or ones with a photo of a typewritten page.
Check that all the letters of the alphabet are present on the typeslugs. If a special character or two is missing, you can improvise. But replacing a missing alphabet letter can be a big job unless you're happy substituting (e.g. O/0 or I/1).
Pay attention to the alignment of lower-case letters. If they don’t align with themselves, that’s a serious repair. If upper- and lower-case don’t align, that’s easier to fix.
Insert paper and test for grip. Does the platen feed the paper properly without slipping? Are the line spacings consistent? Bad rubber may require costly replacement.
Consider how the keys feel. Different machines have different shapes, spacing, and pressure sensitivity. Your comfort matters.
An Idea, for What It’s Worth...
You may have your own specific typewriting preferences which are out of the ordinary. I, for one, prefer a typewriter that types in Elite—12 characters per inch—so that I can get a tidy 250 words into the top half of the page with enough margin space around it for corrections made with a pen or Blackwing 602 pencil.
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Why do I do this? Because I read somewhere that Raymond Chandler typed his novels on note cards which gave him the restriction of typing around 250 words. Chandler said that if nothing happened in 250 words, you were at risk of putting your reader to sleep. I have found this method enables me to get through my first drafts in easily digestible morsels.
As you can see in the picture, there is plenty of margin space to make corrections and space enough to retype the corrected paragraph beneath.
An example of this Elite text with ample room for marginalia and a goodly amount of space for a corrected paragraph to be typed beneath the first.