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Very nice, and one owner machine with a background story.
I have a 1970 SM9 and it is a solid machine. I have an Adler J3 in the pipeline and curious how it will compare to the Olympia.
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My 1961 Triumph is a re-badged Adler J3, I believe. I looked at both and went with the Triumph for its smooth & curvy package.
I think my Triumph feels most like my Olympia SM7 side-by-side.
Only negative I can say about the Triumph is that it does not offer a touch-control feature.
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I too would go for the curvy looks of the Triumph.
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Adler did have their version of the curvy one, as well.
Here is an example of one running on eBay.
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Today on my desk...1961 Aztec 600 which is a German-made Rheinmettal KsT re-badged machine.
Two nice features about this portable include :
1. Carriage lifts off-on with 2 simple metal levers.
2. Special metal lever on the left side of the ribbon vibrator allows you to easily lift off a type-slug lever for cleaning and polishing.
This machine came to my home all one solid green colour, which seemed bland to me and a bit to Iron Curtain to me.
So I used an ivory/cream colour in a satin-finish to make it a bit of a 2-tone machine.
It types very precisely & accurately and lets me type away very quickly.
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Another beauty Pete. I was unfamiliar with the brand but I like your 2-tone upgrade. I would like to line up all your machines on a long table and go down the line typing a few lines on each. Typing feel is so hard to describe, it might make an interesting thread to toss around adjectives. When I visit TWDB galleries I'm always looking for comments about the typing and I skip the gallery members who never leave any.
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.... and about TWDB gallery threads, Thanks Uwe for always taking the time to write something amusing.
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Mikeytap,
I purposely did not do all the upper metal in the ivory-cream colour.
The original factory 2-tones have all the upper metal painted in that "upper" colour scheme and I did not want my machine, in the future, to be thought of as being a factory original paint scheme.
This other Aztec 600 colour scheme is the one I was looking for...but never ran across one at the right price. But it is a beauty.
p.s. There is also an Aztec 500 and an Aztec 700...but those are re-badged Erika machines and not a Rheinmettal re-badge as the Aztec 600 is.
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Mikeytap,
I describe typing on my Hermes 3000 as typing on a machine that must have a layer of Jello in the linkages, somewhere.
I find it has a bit of "vagueness" to the feel. It took me a better part of a year to settle-in using my Hermes.
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Today's machine...my 1966 Olympia SF.
Got it at a SGW in So. SF-CA and it has a previous owner name of "Mike Nagler" on the case front.
I was able to locate a retired professor from Univ. of Berkeley and his current address and typed & mailed him a note asking if this might have been one of his old machines from the past. I typed my note and envelop on this typewriter.
He did reply and unfortunately it was not his old machine. He goes by "Michael" and never "Mike".
I feel the Olympia SF and the Olympia Traveller in my collection are the best of the "ultra-portables" which I own. They are the heaviest and feel more like a portable when I use them.
This SF weighs in at 9.8 lbs. without its case weight.
It was a noisy machine with lots of metallic tones when used. I added peel & stick felt under the ribbon cover, along the side panels, and along the interior of the bottom pan (but not under the key-tops). I also added some wrap-on felt on the contact points for the space bar.
It changed the tones from tinny, metallic rattling to the sound of a log being used as a drum. Much more pleasant to my ears.
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