For information on rebuilt typewriters, you might find this to be a good guide on the when, why and how:  REBUILT TYPEWRITERS.  

Woodstock came out of the failed Emerson Typewriter Company, and was owned partly by Sears, Roebuck & Co. until 1947 when it sold its interest to Century America Corporation.  That was short lived as at the very end of 1949 R. C. Allen Business Machines bought Woodstock Typewriter Company and in the first month of January, 1950 the R.C. Allen typewriter (the same as the previous Woodstock) came out.  Sears, Roebuck had control of the factory of the company that made the ultra-rare Burnett around 1909, but other than these two companies had no ownership or control of any other typewriter company including Smith-Corona.  Sears did however contract for the full production of the Harris Visible after the failures of the Burnett and the Emerson.

The companies that Sears became heavily involved with in these early years (Burnett, Emerson, Harris machines) were attempting to produce standard typewriters at below standard prices.  In other words, not machines like the Blickensderfer which were small and portable (or like the Standard Folding / Corona) but rather had some size and heft and could turn out real work day after day.  The Emerson fails seriously in this bracket; the Harris Visible succeeds, and the Woodstock Standard ... well, it's among the best standard machines ever made, anywhere.  The proof can be found either in the test of one in good shape, or in the study of the history that shows how many typewriter makers' sales were dropping worldwide at the same time that the Woodstock came on to the market, and made an international name for itself.

It is clear that Chinese companies are in possession of the tooling (and the rights) to make Brother pattern machines (the late dowel mounted key lever design), the IMC-Rover pattern machines (again, a dowel mounted key lever design but different), and the Nakajima pattern machines seen late in the Olympia era as the Carina.

One machine they might still have tooling for is the Model 100.  This machine was a Frankenwriter, which used the key lever and type bar mechanism of the original TIPPA on which is mounted the carriage design of the Olympia Traveller De Luxe / UNIS TBM De Luxe.  This is a better typewriter than the Brother pattern or IMC pattern machines that are being turned out now by the Chinese.

Of course, one would imagine that the Model 100 was dropped precisely because (being a more sophisticated design) it was more expensive to produce, and thus harder to sell at a competitive price.

The key issue (sorry for the pun!) with the modern machines and with very small ones is the entirely front  mounted type bar action that incorporates only a bell crank and a reach rod to the type bar.  This has a very tinny feel, and in many designs allows for sideplay of the keytops, giving a cheap feel also.  A more complicated mechanism (such as that employed in the ABC, the Princess, the Hermes Rocket, the Corona Zephyr, etc.) gives a better feel but is harder to make.  It's on this basis that I'd suggest (were I asked) that the Model 100 be resurrected, but would caution that the price would be much higher than we've seen for the imported Chinese machines over the last five to eight years.

Just my two cents.

Hello, everyone;

Just found out that this forum exists and decided to stick my foot in.  Looks like a good place!

-Will Davis