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25-1-2023 14:11:14  #1


Ribbon for 1920's L.C Smith Corona

Hello. 

I'm trying to get my great aunt's typewriter working and need a ribbon.  Can you help me know what's the right kind?

Photos:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/EBN8Bq7cVp1FrXYw6
https://photos.app.goo.gl/JykRrhLzzWi4dTF5A
https://photos.app.goo.gl/n7w33JhKa7HDigFL9

Thank you.
-Geoff Ferdon

 

25-1-2023 15:41:11  #2


Re: Ribbon for 1920's L.C Smith Corona

I found this ribbon on Amazon from FJA Products (who make typewriter ribbons):
https://www.amazon.com/Smith-Corona-Vintage-Spools-Ribbon/dp/B00ZMJK67Q

I'm not an expert on ribbons, but they look to be the same design as the ribbons you have. I might wait for others to reply to this topic though, to double check. Hope this helps!
 


A Royal fangirl, through and through.
 

25-1-2023 16:10:04  #3


Re: Ribbon for 1920's L.C Smith Corona

Thank you for your help!

My spools are 2 1/8" diameter and the spoolholders are barely larger than that, so these won't work, but they seem very close!

     Thread Starter
 

25-1-2023 22:29:33  #4


Re: Ribbon for 1920's L.C Smith Corona

Hi Gferdon

If you still have both spools as pictured for your typewriter, simply wind any ½" ribbon onto your spools. These LC Smith typewriters have a proprietry drive system for the spools and regular universal 2" spools will not work on these machines. The spool you have pictured was used on many of the Smith-Corona desk-top and office machines right through until the 1960's and possibly later. Hope this points you in the right direction,

Sky


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)
 

26-1-2023 08:53:19  #5


Re: Ribbon for 1920's L.C Smith Corona

Thank you very much, Sky.  

I can't find just ribbon that isn't already on spools.  Would I just buy something like in the link below and unroll it onto my spools?  I guess that's fine.  It just seems a little wasteful of the spools I'd purchase.

-Geoff

     Thread Starter
 

26-1-2023 12:21:43  #6


Re: Ribbon for 1920's L.C Smith Corona

The spools we get today are plastic and are just pennies of the total price of a ribbon.

If you think about it, you'd want an inked ribbon to come on a spool anyway, even if you weren't going to use it.  Any other method of delivery would make a royal mess. 

 

27-1-2023 02:57:13  #7


Re: Ribbon for 1920's L.C Smith Corona

Hi Geoff

When it comes to ribbons for these typewriters, why settle for boring old black when there are so many choices of color. take a look at what Ribbons Unlimited has to offer. All the best,

Sky


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)
 

27-1-2023 12:46:17  #8


Re: Ribbon for 1920's L.C Smith Corona

Geoff,

I eventually secured metal spools for all of the machines in my collection.  I think they are more robust and more precise than the "universal" plastic spools that most seller offer.  Plastic ones can "wobble" on your machine, in use.  I use 2-color ribbons and with plastic i did get  a bleeding of one color into the next.  Not so with metal spools meant for a particular machine.

Re-spooling a new ribbon from a plastic spool to metal spools on a machine only takes a couple of extra minutes.

Ribbons Unlimited sells 1/2" wide ribbon (in a variety of ribbon fabrics) that are a full 18 yards in length.

Many Amazon sellers and others on line sell spools of ribbon with only 8-10 yards.  So if you are price comparing...you need to find out the length of ribbons offered to see if a deal is really a deal.

 

30-1-2023 21:02:12  #9


Re: Ribbon for 1920's L.C Smith Corona

Thank you all very much!  I just ordered from Ribbons Unlimited.

Much appreciated.
-Geoff 

     Thread Starter
 

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