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I have two different materials on hand. Twine, the plastic type, or fishing line (Unknown lbs test). What would be better? They both seem pretty strong for me... Its for a Royal Model 10.
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I ended up using the twine, and its working well.
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That's the important thing. Well done.
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Just wondering, anyone know why people do use 60 lbs fishing line? Regular fishing line seems pretty strong...
Thanks fleet for posting!
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Yeah, it might be overkill somewhat, but err on the side of caution, I suppose.
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What was originally used for drawbands? I've not had to replace one yet, and if I did I'd probably go for fishing line. I'm just curious what used to be used. Ones I've looked at closely appear to be waxed thread similar to bookbinding linen.
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Origanally they used thickly threaded cotton shoe laces (What it looks like ) and cat gut (So I heard, never seen one, hope I never do...).
I used the twine cause its for those big round bales of hay, and its braided plastic threads (I think), and the fishing line was strecthing a bit in my hands. The twine seems strong enough for the job, and it (hopfully) wont be shredded in 80 years from age.
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Contrary to popular belief, catgut is NOT made from the intestines of cats. It is made from the twisted and dried intestines of sheep and horses, and was VERY commonly used in drawbands. It was quite strong, and in some of my machines, it is still in use after over 100 years. I'm not sure when they came out with the synthetic materials, but they used catgut for drawbands, leather for typebar rests, wood for space bars and tab bars, glass and bakelite for keys. Ahh, the good old days. Oh, and one other interesting side note: I once used a woman's costume metal band necklace as a drawband for a Remington J-series typewriter. It worked pretty good.