Drago the 1920 Underwood #5 and Boomer the cat
Unpacked about half of the barware yesterday. Still need to find the shelf supports for the big orange bar.
An unacceptably fuzzy picture of my dip pen and ink - still good after almost a decade in storage.
Drago looks like he’s got a lot of character.
he does – I found him at a yard sale awhile back for $10 covered in rust and dirt, with the carriage unmovable and the tabulator key jammed down past it’s stop, and with odd green plastic keytops. He cleaned up pretty nice, but still needs oil now and again to smooth out the rust damage. A fine machine still chuggin’ along nicely at 91 years old.
here’s the post I made after getting Drago home and cleaned up.
Ted, thanks for the link to your previous post on Drago. I enjoyed it a lot! Drago is definitely a great find and you did a great cleaning/restoration job.
Instantly recognised that priceless Underwood pica type! I love the green on that #5. Is it metallic? Hard to say in that lighting.
I bought a pad of drawing paper to use to type with and it’s 8 x 11. I like the mildly narrower size. I have far-fetched ideas about cutting custom paper that is narrower and longer than 8.5 x 11… but my paper cutter blade is so dull!
the flat forest green paint (and for that matter the black as well) was an aftermarket paint job applied by the typewriter shop mentioned on the sticker on the front probably sometime in the 40’s. They just painted over all of the original gold decals. I managed to get some of it off the paper table by accident while cleaning it, and it’s on my project list to carefully remove the rest of the green on the paper table and (hopefully) not destroy the original decals. I’m planning on leaving the rest of the green, though. I actually rather like the color combination.
Hi Ted: you might have gleaned from my Underwood Portable/Silver Surfer project – the gold decal transfers seem to be a lot softer and more soluble than the overpainted enamel. Very, very, slow going with enamel thinners may get you there eventually, but as soon as you see the gold showing through, you’ll likely be too late.
Nick: I cut down some very cheap paper today (I didn’t have a lot to write) using my penknife and a straight edge. Quicker than hunting down the guillotine. Sometimes I use a Swan-Morton No 10a bladed scalpel for the same purpose.
Yeah, I have hopes but not super-high ones that the labels will be OK. I think it’s worth the gamble, though. While the aftermarket paint is pretty good, on the paper table it’s terrible and bubbly and flaked. If nothing else, I’ll get the green off and repaint it smoother black.
I guess that’s one of the nice things about dip pens: they lack moving parts that can go bad during long storage.
Humidity is the one thing that’ll kill dip pen nibs dead…I’m guessing that’s not as much of an issue there… ;)
Typewriter-and-cat pictures FTW!
Heh, Boomer was so cute… She was chilling and posing by Drago and she kept looking at me like “Why aren’t you taking pictures of me already?” So I got out the camera and she was posing and being adorable, rubbing on the typewriter and stuff. I probably took about 20 shots of her. Then I tried to get Six up there on the other side and that just did not work…