Typewriter Talk / Wooden spacebar?

**Posted by Markmotown** 19-2-2017 23:37:17

So, I'm refinishing a few different typewriters at present (Smith Premier No. 4, Remington 10, Remington 12) that have wooden spacebars. In some cases, the black paint had worn off in places, in others, the black paint rubbed off in cleaning, in still others, the black veneer chipped off. In each case, though, I'm faced with a spacebar that could either be re-painted black, or left in wood tone (or even stained and varnished).

What do y'all think? Traditional black, or let the wood show?

**Posted by Bassoonbloke** 20-2-2017 04:44:12

Hello,

I personally left my wooden spacebar'd typers as is so that I can imagine the number of people who may have used it and the history that it has lived through. Who knows what may have been typed and who by.
It always seems a shame to me to lose the possible history connected to an object that was probably so personal to someone.
Only my personal feelings, so do what feels right for you.

Alan.

**Posted by Sigourney643** 19-3-2018 17:43:37

I would keep them black. I also agree with the previous post where a bit of history may be lost when repainting them. One of my machines (1920 Royal Model 10) shows wear on the space bar, and I will leave it that way.

**Posted by UnderwoodStd** 17-4-2018 18:51:43

I owned a Remington 17 that was incredibly grimy but worked well. I used it for several weeks with the grime because I liked the evidence of endurance under adversity -- but finally I cleaned it off because, grime is grime. But I would never paint over the wear spot in a wooden space bar, or the bare metal one on a Smith Corona Skyriter for that matter; it falls right under my thumb though another thumb made it.

**Posted by beak** 17-4-2018 21:05:38

Here's one of mine in which I replaced a broken space-bar with a bit of oiled beech, if that helps a all.