Typewriter Talk / Do ALL Smith Corona Portables sound like a 22 pistol?

**Posted by overwood** 04-6-2022 23:39:49

Phil_F_NM wrote:
Thanks Uwe! I'll use preview from now on to make sure the extra HTML bits don't interfere with the actual text.

As for the firearms comparisons, I've noticed that folks who collect and use (or simply collect) firearms are often those who also enjoy collecting and using mechanical cameras, fountain pens, old bicycles (usually made of steel), and automobiles with carburetors. ...and of course, typewriters.

Phil Forrest

I don't collect any of those, although I do have too many typewriters and not enough good ones. I do have and use old cameras, I ride bicycles (one aluminum, one steel), and I have a non-collectible .22 pistol that I rarely use.

In fact I'm just replacing the bellows on my Mamiya 6 folding camera this weekend, or so I hope. (this one's not mine)

**Posted by MartinD** 05-6-2022 07:55:46

I don't collect firearms but I have an extensive collection of cameras too. I also started collecting old slide rules, waiters cork screws, vintage stereo stuff and and a few old Bell telephones. I bought my 1st typewriter, a SCM Classic 12 in 1983...that's about the time I got into cameras as well. I don't need any more stuff so I have resisted collecting fountains pens. Oh and I have two cats!
I think I passed the test for this group.

**Posted by Maschinengeschrieben** 06-6-2022 10:04:56

If I lived in a place like the US Id definitely be a firearms collector, but as things are much more restrictive here in Europe I only own a few hunting rifles and a revolver. I definitely prefer the classics & don't care much for modern guns. Im a bit into knives as well & I actually shot film and collected vintage cameras for a while, vintage calculators of cause, so I guess I fit the spectrum. Dont care much for cars tho.

Luckily Typewriters haven't been outlawed yet, eh? Enough about me..

**Posted by keystriker** 30-9-2024 22:28:35

The Super-Silents were made so that the platen could easily be removed and replaced with a much harder one for making stencils. I wonder if if's stencil patens that are making the gunshot sounds. That would make sense. My silent-super sounds normal.

**Posted by keystriker** 10-1-2025 11:15:32

Fast forward: I had to send back the Silent-Super I’d just acquired at the time of the above post. (It had some internal damage that according to my “local” — two hour drive away — typewriter repair shop would have set me back $300 for them to repair.) Anyway, I’ve since picked up another Silent-Super, and it sounds a lot like a .22, which makes a sharp crack. These days I mostly shoot black powder, which makes a booming sound when it goes off; so far I have never heard a typewriter sound like that!

**Posted by keystriker** 10-1-2025 11:17:36

I’ve contacted J J Short about getting the platen resurfaced. The zero type slug cut right through the paper.

**Posted by Pete E.** 10-1-2025 20:04:05

Have you tried a sheet of Avery laminating plastic as a backing sheet to your typing paper ?
.

**Posted by Pete E.** 10-1-2025 20:04:44

Here is my "fix" for hard platens in my collection.

I just use a sheet of this Avery product as a backing sheet to my typewriter paper.

I cut the sheet to the size of my typing paper on my flat-bed paper cutter.

I keep the peel & stick backer-paper on the laminating sheet and place its clear plastic side in touch with my typing paper.

In a month or so when the laminating sheet is full of typing "dimples", I just toss it and start with a new sheet.

The laminating sheet provides for a soft landing surface for the type-slugs before they contact the platen. And it makes for quieter hits on the platen, as well.

When my local office supply does not have the Avery sheets in stock, I get them on eBay.p { margin-bottom: 0.1in; line-height: 120% }