That's important information -- sounds like a more lightweight portable is what you're looking for. In that case, I renew my recommendation of the Underwood and Smith-Corona in post #2. I also think an Olympia SM-3 would be good, though you'd need to see how you get on with the carriage shift. But it's absolutely top quality. (The SM-3 doesn't have the keyset tab, so should be lighter than the SM-4. And you probably don't need to have more than just a few tab stops anyway.)

And I'll chime in that the Touchmaster 5 is a great machine -- mine has a couple of issues that are beyond my ability to fix, but it still works. Lovely feel. If you were nearby I'd let you have it!

I've always been a bit (arbitrarily) disinclined toward getting an Olympia, and I now wonder if it wasn’t subconsciously because of a poor decision I once made with a typewriter. About 5 years ago—somewhere in the middle of my time in college—I found two typewriters at two separate garage sales, a $2 Galaxie II and a $1 Olympia. At the time, I had no idea about typewriters at all. I bought both but later donated the Olympia to a thrift store because it was “dirty and the ribbon is dry” even though it was fully functional. I now know that it was an SM2, 3, or 4… And also that ribbons are easy to find… And that cleaning a typewriter isn’t really that hard… 

Fleetwing wrote:

tricnomistal wrote:

Fleetwing wrote:

That's important information -- sounds like a more lightweight portable is what you're looking for. In that case, I renew my recommendation of the Underwood and Smith-Corona in post #2. I also think an Olympia SM-3 would be good, though you'd need to see how you get on with the carriage shift. But it's absolutely top quality. (The SM-3 doesn't have the keyset tab, so should be lighter than the SM-4. And you probably don't need to have more than just a few tab stops anyway.)

And I'll chime in that the Touchmaster 5 is a great machine -- mine has a couple of issues that are beyond my ability to fix, but it still works. Lovely feel. If you were nearby I'd let you have it!

I've used a carriage shift before, and it's never been too big of a deal. I think I will have to add the Olympia SMs to my list of potential machines. I'm completely unsurprised that this attempt at narrowing down my list has instead made it larger 

As for the Touchmaster, there's actually one for sale not far from me for like $15, but I can only imagine my wife's response if I brought home a 32 pound typewriter that we have no space for...

She's got to get with the program, man! (I really shouldn't ask, but -- you really don't have room for it? It's much less than 4 cubic feet. But it's not my marriage!)

Haha! Indeed she must! With time, with time... And it's less that I don't have space for it anywhere in the apartment--I'm sure I could find somewhere to put it, but it wouldn't be anywhere I could conveniently use it (and I can't have it and not use it) and it would more than likely be less than convenient. 

steini wrote:

Ops, for a moment I thoug you were from Kiel, Germany... hohohoho fail. My suggestions would be not to buy anything that you didnt typed in, literally, you can buy a very crapy specimen that hasn't been serviced with hard feed rollers of alignment problems, and it can be the most beautifull Torpedo 18 on ebay... if you are not in a rush I would go to research in antique shops or local sales and buy if you like it physically but also the touch, and maybe you can forget about the brands and buy a brother, which I found out are surprisingly decent typers, the brand maybe is not cooo enough :-) but it does the job. Ah, and I am pretty a radical defender of Rheinmetall GS, much more beautifull and (as far as I tryed) better typer the SG1, or maybe I am blind of love.

Ha! Sometimes I wish I lived in Germany, beautiful country. It's often difficult for me to find typewriters near where I live, even in antique shops. More likely than not, I will be buying a machine from a reputable dealer who refurbishes it to begin with, or else sending it away to someone like that to get fixed up. I'll certainly keep that Rheinmetall in mind when I am in the market for a standard. Very nicely designed. 

--Side note: Your profile says you are from Iceland, which I think is cool. I'd love to find a typewriter with an Icelandic keyboard--English made a mistake dropping Ðð, Þþ, and Ææ.

steini wrote:

tricnomistal wrote:

--English made a mistake dropping Ðð, Þþ, and Ææ.

 
 ...English is a simplified, both phonetically...

I'm not 100% sure we are talking about the same language. Phonetically, English has stuff like Though, Thought, Tough, Through, Trough--all with different sounds for -ough... And I was under the impression many people had a tough time learning English--except, of course, the Nordic countries. Most of the Scandinavian people I've heard could almost pass as native. I wish American schools put more emphasis on learning a foreign language fluently....

Wait, wasn't this post about typewriters, or something? Now I can't remember