The ribbon shield installed on the Varityper 110. 
Ribbon shield cut & marked for folding 
I used a hole punch to make the hole the hammer goes through, but if I were to do it right, I’d exactly measure and cut a thinner rectangle that is *just* big enough for the hammer to pass. That would result in absolute smudge protection. 
Here’s the thin, stamped steel ribbon shield from the Varityper DSG. It’s kinda banged up, so I straightened it and traced it too in case I need to fabricate a replacement. These were considered to be a consumable for the Hammonds and Varitypers, changed as often as ribbons. Nowadays, Hen’s teeth would be easier to find. 
I’d been wondering how the type plate makes a clean impression. I guess it doesn’t without the shield?
Yeah, the width of the shuttle carrier means that the ribbon forks have to be like 3″ apart rather than coming to more of a point like on typebar machines. Without the shield, the paper gets slapped repeatedly onto that strip of ribbon, and if it’s really inky, you get a *lot* of smudging, especially on thicker or clay coated stock.
That certainly did the trick!
Nice work!
Hammonds also used an impression strip. I guess Varitypers don’t.
Huh, not that I know of – it goes hammer slaps paper into ribbon through shield into typeface on shuttle. The shuttle or the hammer could be considered the “platen”, depending on how you look at it. I don’t even know where the impression strip would go on these.