Does Anyone Else Also Use Manual Typewriters? What For?

[Kamuela]

Does anyone else also use manual or vintage manual typewriters?

What do you use it for?

Correspondence?

[BaronWulfraed]

Sorry... I stopped using typewriters by 1980 -- heck, probably 1977. Even my first resume was done in using the text editor of my college's computer, and printed using daisy wheel printer (as I recall, I persuaded the physics department head to put a new ribbon on the printer too, so the master copy would be nice and dark).

 

And fall of 1980 I had a TRS-80 Model III and MX-80 printer -- using Scripsit for correspondence.

[Studio97]

A few years ago I had 13 typewriters, some from about WW II and forward. Finding ribbons was quite difficult and given they were so noisy, I finally gave up on them. Sold them off for not much money. They were all functional and I cleaned them. I have kept personal journals for years and for nostalgic reasons I wanted to type notes rather than write them. The typing was short lived, just too noisy.

I learned to type on an old mechanical office machine in Typing Class, elementary school the 1960s.

 

And of course, class assignments often had to be typed in those days. Word processing was virtually non existent. College papers were typed on Wordstar on new word processors in the 1980s.

Edited April 26, 2019 by Studio97

[Hawker]

I have a Royal TA 203 manual portable typewriter and an electric Smith-Corona XD7900. I learnt to touch-type in the mid 1960's which was fortuitous given I ended up spending the last 35 years of my working life in IT.

 

I use both for the occasional letter to a small number of my pen pals who include one who collects and restores old typewriters. They have come in handy when hand injuries/strains prevented my use of a fountain pen on three separate occasions. I also look on the typewriter as a backup in the event that age does my fine motor skills a mischief and prevents my use of a fountain pen. Yes, I could type a letter in MS Word using a typewriter font and output it to printer but where's the fun in that?

[Albrecht17]

I have two old typewriters, don't know the make or model of both of them. They used to belong to my husbands grandmother. One sits besides my bookcase in his case, the other, a beautiful deep chestnut red, is displayed on the bookcase containing my writing books. With just above it, my shelf for my fountain pen inks. A little hommage to the craft of writing, at least in my opinion. The red one still functions, although the ribbon should be replaced. I can only imagine what has been written on that machine.

[fountainpagan]

I have several.

 

I mainly use my Hermés 500 because it is the one with softer touches.

I copy poems, sometimes I write letters with, I do some journaling, too. I enjoy beeing able to travel to past times without a time machine

[thesmellofdustafterrain]

I have a couple of old typewriters. One a boat anchor of a thing from the early 1920s, the other a portable from the early 40s.

 

I use them for my writing. There is no digital distractions so my mind knows that when I sit down at my typewriter, it's time to work. It's also nice because it's hard to cross things out or edit as I type and forces me to think through to the end of the sentence and express myself in the most economical and exact words (that last sentence would never happen for me on a typewriter).

 

Typing is also legible and scan-able so if I don't have time to transcribe the text into digital myself, I can hire someone else to do it for me or use one of the text readers.

 

The problem is, an accident this winter has made one of my fingers pretty useless so typing hurts. I've had to learn how to nine finger type on a keyboard and it still hurts like crazy. I haven't had the courage to try using the typewriter since although I am gaining some non-pain feeling in my finger now.

[gyasko]

I have a couple Olivetti Letteras. They're for poetry projects.

 

I prefer computers for a text producing machine (especially old ThinkPads) but sometimes electricity is not available or desirable.

[A Smug Dill]

Aren't they still good for producing ransom notes that will become ultimately traceable for some star detective?

[thesmellofdustafterrain]

Aren't they still good for producing ransom notes that will become ultimately traceable for some star detective?

You can type the note, then change the typebars so that the note can't be traced

 

There's no specific reason why I know this information

[BaronWulfraed]

The last typewriters I saw in stores used daisy wheel heads, and those are really easy to change.

[MYU]

This...

... is hilarious!

[Mangrove Jack]

Crooked lawyers still use them. To fabricate and forge deeds of lands belonging to people who have long passed away.

[penrivers]

Crooked lawyers still use them. To fabricate and forge deeds of lands belonging to people who have long passed away.

 

[Parker51]

I have a couple. Both have been used as props in displays, one at home currently and one at work for a Christmas display. Where I work we actually had typewriters in use 30 years ago. We only got word processor programs about 25 years ago. We went "paperless", in that all typing is using a laptop for the last15 years, but we print a lot of documents.

[fountainpagan]

Actually, some secret services use them still for some sensitive notes/instructions/reports, because no hacking is possible.

[Wolverine1]

I have 3 manual portable typewriters. All 3 of them work, and I use them to type letters, short-stories, and other random stuff. I use them every day. In fact, I use them as physical therapy to get my hands working, I suffered a number of strokes between 2010 and 2012. So, in addition to being a very cool device, the typewriters also serve an important purpose.

I have a whole another set of friends from various online typewriter enthusiast groups. So, I write letters to them on my machines.

 

What kind of machines do you have? I have an 1960's Olympia SM-9, and 1960's Olympia SF and an 1964 Olivetti Lettera 32.

[Wolverine1]

Also, my local friends and I get together occasionally on Saturday mornings at a local coffee-shop that is attached to a local independent book-store, and we try writing poetry, short stories etc. We kind of "show-off" our typewriters and let kids and others in attendance use them, everybody enjoys themselves immensely. Especially the little kids. :)

[Frozenoak]

I found a typewriter at a local antique shop. I dont have any details about it but Im thinking about getting it. Are ribbons available for typewriters?

[thesmellofdustafterrain]

ribbons are easily available, but the spools are often specific to a machine. What I do is to wind the new ribbon onto the old spools.

 

You can also refresh old ribbons so long as they aren't tattered.

 

The Typewriter Revolution is a good book to get you started https://typewriterrevolution.com/