Wednesday 18 March 2015

Franken-typer

This was a little teaser last Valentine's on the special gift I would receive.
(The note was typed on my IBM Selectric II in Calligraphy style.)

Hello everyone,

I hope that your week has started off well! For today's post, I thought I might share a little on another very special typewriter of mine, one with a rather unique typeface too (which by now is probably of no surprise to you, hee hee)! 

It is particularly special because it came as a surprise, and was the result of combined efforts from Jase and Uncle. (Uncle lovingly services and repairs all of our typewriters, and I look up to him as a grandfatherly figure, but I shall leave that for sharing in a later post!) 

To keep a long story short, Uncle has always known that typefaces fascinate me... We enjoy our chats, and he often  finds it amusing that a 'girl' my age (I am not that young though) appreciates these machines and actually puts them to use. Due to my working hours, Jase often picks up my typewriters for me. On one such occasion, Uncle had casually mentioned to Jase that he was working on a pin-point typewriter, and he thought that perhaps I may be keen on it. Jase was about to decline (!) thinking I might not like it, but luckily (for me), he didn't dismiss the idea. 

The start of something special...


On his drive home, I think Jase gave it a second thought and ideas must have started brewing, because when he came home, he tried to casually ask if I had come across a pin-point typewriter. I then queried why he would ask me such a question, but went on anyway to say that I was aware of cheque-writers like the Paymaster, but that I had only come across pin-point typewriters in literature. I proceeded to add that it would be so cool if I ever came across one in real life. 

And.. 

Before I knew it...

This baby was my 2014 Valentine's Day gift!

The type segment salvaged from an Olivetti Lexicon which was damaged beyond
repair...  The type-bars had to be soldered to a compatible size to the SF.


Typecast from a special machine! (Those are Jase's fingers on the top-right, hee hee...)


Later on, I would continue to 'modify' this frankentyper of mine... 


How my frakentyper looks today (18/03/15)

I typed up a 'legend' since the keys and type slugs are from separate
machines and thus some characters do not match.

So that was how this one-of-a-kind typewriter came to be. It is one that will certainly be cherished for a long, long time to come...

Thank you so much for reading this post, and I look forward to the next one!



Warmest regards,
Claudia

3 comments:

  1. I am jealous beyond words about your pin typeface! Congratulations on the the Frankentyper :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sweet Frankie! Fantastic mashup - Jeee-louse! :D

    ReplyDelete