It has been over a month since I brought home the 1936 Underwood Universal. I never stopped looking. Nothing the marketplace has offered since has held my interest. That could be the marketplace. More likely it’s me, and I’m more selective than I used to be.
Olympias always catch my eye. The listing photos didn’t clearly show the typeface, but two details pointed to script.
It had a dedicated [1/+] key, which usually means a special typeface. It also had a 2-way ribbon selector switch instead of the 3-way used for dual color ribbons.
I wrote to the seller, who sent back a close-up of the slugs.
Script #75.
I’ve been fortunate in building this collection. I’ve made mistakes, and overpaid a couple of times. Not many people can tell the story of a script Olympia for $100.
None of the machines I own has needed a major repair. When I got this one home, I thought that streak had ended. The carriage wouldn’t advance past halfway unless I first used the shift key to lift it.
Shout out to Chris Aldrich, who identified the issue on Reddit and pointed me to his post on replacing the rubber bushings. Problem solved.
This is my fourth Olympia and first SM4. Apart from the keyset tab settings, it works the same as my SM3s. The touch is slightly lighter. The SM9 is still the machine to beat.
