brozzy wrote:

Does the lack of suggestions mean there are NO tradesmen who will recover a platen in Canada?

It's likely that there isn't enough demand in Canada to make it worthwhile for someone to offer the service. Between the use of rubber rejuvenator and good backing sheets I've managed just fine without a local platen service, and even then, the number of machines that I own that would merit the substantial cost of sending a platen off to be resurfaced is rather small. I'm also not sure I would risk having the platen from one of those machines being 'lost' by a postal service.

I believe I have read that they are the same product somewhere on this forum.

I was curious to see the ingredients of this product...found the MSDS sheet for it, here :

http://www.computerplug.com/drivers/MSDS/K8RUBBER%20%20%20%20RR-002-145%20-%20Rubber%20Rejuvenator%2010%20oz%20SDS%202017.pdf

Hi Pete

Indeed this rejuvenator is a highly flammable product with some pretty nasty side effects in inhaled or used in a poorly ventilated enclosure. That's why you must follow the warnings and directions on the can and use with a good measure of common sense. Some platens are simply too hard for the rejuvenator to have any effect, but if the platen specs out at 96 Shore-A or lower, a few applications of this product can drop the Shore-A number by a couple or three points.

Peter Short from J.J. Short of Freeport, NY indicates the ideal platen hardness for a manual typewriter is 88 to 90 on the Shore-A scale and 95 for an IBM Selectric. Smith-Corona used to make a brass platen for use on their electric typewriters when 6 or more carbon copies were being made at a time. I'm figuring that would take some serious striking power to punch out 10 carbon copies, no matter what kind of typewriter you were using. All the best,

Sky