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28-4-2019 22:30:43  #1


Late '60s plastic Smith-Corona Skyriter vs '60s Corsair vs '70s Deluxe

Sounds like once Skyriter production moved to England and turned plastic, quality was not as good as before. But is there a different in quality between the late 1960s plastic Smith-Corona Skyriter vs the '60s Corsair vs the '70s Corsair Deluxe? 

 

29-4-2019 03:56:04  #2


Re: Late '60s plastic Smith-Corona Skyriter vs '60s Corsair vs '70s Deluxe

I am going to show my bias here, but the factory in West Bromwich went from making the best lightweight portable typewriter to the worst almost overnight, once SCM has taken over.  The very first had the Skyriter metal case and were branded as 'Empire Corona'.  Then by the mid-1960's, the plastic case was introduced (still Empire-Corona).  By the late 1960's, the Empire name was dropped completely.  I understand that the 1950's Skyriter wasn't too bad, but in my opinion the plastic-cased machines of whatever age are just awful.  The alignment was dreadful straight from the factory, and the typebars have a built-in weak point which makes the top snap off.  They are made from soft mild steel, so bend really easily. Ugh ! 

 

29-4-2019 14:37:46  #3


Re: Late '60s plastic Smith-Corona Skyriter vs '60s Corsair vs '70s Deluxe

I have a West Brom-made Skyriter from the early 60s with Smith-Corona badging, and it's pretty much the same as the US-made ones, just with a gloss paint job and different graphics. It's a very nice machine indeed, tight, with impeccable alignment of the printing. I had to do some careful forming to get the ribbon cover to close, but that was due to subsequent mistreatment, not any quality control problems.

 

29-4-2019 15:12:55  #4


Re: Late '60s plastic Smith-Corona Skyriter vs '60s Corsair vs '70s Deluxe

Victoria wrote:

But is there a different in quality between the late 1960s plastic Smith-Corona Skyriter vs the '60s Corsair vs the '70s Corsair Deluxe? 

The Corsairs are horrible machines, period. They sell extremely well in my area, I suspect because most buyers of such models are unaware of their poor quality and think the design is really cute. Of the three I would always opt for the Skyriter, but why even limit yourself to such a choice? If you're looking just to have an example of one in your collection that's fine, but as a typewriter you won't feel inspired to ever use it.


The pronoun has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
 

30-4-2019 00:21:44  #5


Re: Late '60s plastic Smith-Corona Skyriter vs '60s Corsair vs '70s Deluxe

Hi Victoria

When Smith-Corona bought out British Typewriters of West Bromwich and had re-tooled the factory for the American designed 4Y- series Skyriter, as far as I'm concerned, some of the best travel typewriters ever produced came out of that factory from 1960 to 1962.

When the Japanese started producing travel typewriters in the early 1960's, the Yen was worth next to nothing. Therefore, the Japanese were able to flood the world market with very low cost travel typewriters. From what I understand, this is why Smith-Corona had to drastically cut their production costs in an effort to compete on the world market. Hence the plastic bodied 5Y- and 6Y- series typewriters which the Hipsters love but are a pain to work on and get tuned to aby sort of reliability.

At one time, I thought it would be neat to get at least one of each of the Y- series travel typewriters, starting with the 1Y- series Zephyr up to the 7Y- series Super-G. The teal Super-G with cursive font was neat, but a beast to type on as compared to the 4Y- series Skyriter (which is still one of my favourite units 4Y-632415W). That little fellow goes with me on trips so I can tap out my thoughts at the end of each day. All the best,

Sky

PS. I came up with the screen name Skywatcher long before I learned about Skyriters. I have even been called Skywalker before now, so May the fourth be with you (May 4th).


We humans go through many computers in our lives, but in their lives, typewriters go through many of us.
In that way, they’re like violins, like ancestral swords. So I use mine with honor and treat them with respect.
I try to leave them in better condition than I met them. I am not their first user, nor will I be their last.
Frederic S. Durbin. (Typewriter mania and the modern writer)
 

30-4-2019 00:59:01  #6


Re: Late '60s plastic Smith-Corona Skyriter vs '60s Corsair vs '70s Deluxe

What happened was that I bought the cheapest Skyriter I could find but it turns out that there were some later 1960s models that were actually in the 6Y series with the label of “Skyriter,” made in England out of cheap plastic. I won’t make that mistake again! Note that these are different from the early 1960s models in the 4Y series mentioned by skywatcher. Scroll to the bottom here to see the dramatic difference between the early 1960s vs the 196X models: 
https://typewriterdatabase.com/Smith+Corona.Skyriter.86.bmys 

I didn’t find this out until after purchase, hence my post trying to justify (to myself) a 1960s plastic Smith-Corona over a later plastic model such as the Corsair -- my logic had been that a product starting to circle the drain should still be a better product than one that had reached the end. I had resigned myself to having purchased a very subpar typewriter and had already looked into spray paint options (so I could at least have make a project out of it), when much to my delight, the seller backed out! 

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