Offline
Is it really leather? Looks like the same sort of stuff you'd see on older cameras -- which usually was faux stuff (which holds up better, though is prone to shrinking a bit).
Offline
Fleetwing, I called it pleather because it's plastic that imitates leather. Yep, just like the old film cameras.
Offline
typeset - it was funny, but really: don't use olive oil. Find a vinyl cleaner or use a mild soap.
My grandfather (born in Italy) used to lubricate the mantle clock with olive oil, applied via goose feather. It eventually gummed-up so badly the clock stopped working. He also put it in his hair, but I'm assuming he washed it once in a while because _it_ never stopped working!
Offline
I had one of these, they are great in my opinion.
Although my machine worked perfectly, some of the typefaces were broken. There was a 'hole' in the o and d keys. That kept annoying me, so I got rid of it. But I remember being struck by how sturdy the machine felt. Somehow it felt firmer or tougher than the models I have of its predecessor (Lettera 32), so I get why they called it Lettera DeLuxe.