I’m a beekeeper. Last summer I got a call about a Honey bee swarm in a raspberry patch located in Poulsbo, near where I live. It was a fun swarm to hive, then I learned the son next door was thinking of selling some vintage typewriters! Funny how things happen.
I tuned up the old Royal and asked if I could buy this Oliver 9. I get folk’s Oliver typewriters in the shop often and wanted an Oliver of my own for visitors to experience.
The Oliver’s are amazing hunks of green iron; heavy and simple beasts. This guy needed a new platen, new draw cord, a heavy cleaning, a lot of rust removal and the type bars needed a bit of finessing.
Oliver’s are unique machines and each one I’ve serviced the metal plating is flaking. I don’t see this with the Underwoods, Royals or Remington’s so I’m thinking that the Oliver company did not have a very robust metal plating process.
Otherwise, I had fun fixing this jolly green giant so customers can experience an Oliver.