Typewriter Video Series - Episode 134: Silk Ribbon Shootout!

[@richardmorgan2679]

I compare the ribbon cost to ink for my inkjet printer. $13+ shipping is totally worth it!!! Thanks for doing this comparison 🙏🏻

[@johnc.bojemski1757]

Joe... Believe it or not... I'm using the ORIGINAL ribbon which came we with my 1970's era ROYAL manual machine. It STILL prints beautifully. I do have a new box of fresh, unopened ribbons (ALL BLACK, BLACK&RED) but I just haven't had the heart to retire that original one yet! It served me proudly all through grade school and high school and is STILL going strong. Frankly? I'm afraid to swap it out for the new ones. I may just have this re-signed or take a page out've Jack Benney's miserly book and "...dip it in GRAPE JUICE..." when it finally does run dry. LOL!

[@karstenpe]

I hope they will ship to Denmark. The dark imprint is always good. But the consistency of the imprint is what really interests me. Will be going into my Adler Gabriele which is already a fantastic typer.

[@floridasaltlife]

You going to cost me money !! :) My First typewriter and last purchase of 2018 was this morning on New Years Eve and was a pristine and nearly unused 1948 Royal Quiet De Luxe. I have mostly been attracted to your smaller portables like the XL 747 and the Royal Mercury but ??? I kind of binged on your video series yesterday and decided since I live in a smaller antique store town that I would this morning go out and just see if there was anything neat laying around, stop #5 had me standing in front of the 48 Royal QDL. I checked it out right down the lines of you recommendations and it was just wonderful with expected wear on the original case but it had protected the typewriter 100% no rubs no flaws just seemed an unbelievable find so quickly. Ribbon was 95% dry but got just enough out of her to test each key and the alignment on my $40 reciept and all is good thus far. I will pull the covers and lightly clean it with your methods this week and begin to enjoy typing when my new ribbon comes in. Thanks for sharing your typewriter experiences, I am truly inspired buy the beauty and and blend of complexity and wholesome simplicity at the same time that these machines combine. I love keyboarding at 54 years old and think typing on these wonderful machines will be so much more fun. My New years resolution is to try to be an more accurate typist and since I am retired and can live with plenty of mistakes, I am considering not correcting any of them as I type through the year. Kind of like the rumblestrips they have been installing along the road sides that make me drive straighter, maybe disallowing typos will make me a better typist. We'll see. Thanks again.. Doug...

[@Joe_VanCleave]

Welcome, Doug, to the wonderful world of typewriters.

[@mwarau]

Thanks Joe. I'll definitely have to explore this. Some of my machines are still using the ribbons that came with them. Old and pale print. The silk looks promising and I would expect it to be more durable.

[@billogle4776]

Joe the fabric, silk, nylon or cotton are all subject to the ink, there are from memory many different colours of black, it depends on the percentage of ink to fabric weight. I'm surprised that you could buy a silk ribbon for the amount of money stated, silk has a woven edge so it must be woven in reals of half inch as opposed with of 36 inches and then hot knife slit. I retired over 20 years ago in those days silk impression fabric was dead, in other words it was to expensive produce

[@antidecepticon]

Im sure the moisture of the ribbon will affect the imprint. can some be more saturated with ink than others? I put a few tiny mineral oil drops on the coiled ribbon to revive mine and it seems to work so much better

[@MaryBucklew]

to do apples to apples, all variables need to be equal, same paper using same typewriter using different ribbons, yes?

[@jessesmoot1285]

love these experiments!

[@mikequinlan9585]

My Royal QDR isn’t printing very dark. I’m going to get one of these silk ribbons and see if that resolves my problem. Could a hard platen cause the print to be light?

[@Joe_VanCleave]

Try using a backing sheet of thicker paper, like construction paper, it can simulate what a softer platen imprint can look like. Some nylon ribbons are inked darker than others. Ribbons Unlimited have good nylon ribbons. Also, I buy bulk ribbon on 330 yard spools from Baco Ribbon, they are darkly inked. There is an adjustment in the machine that can affect print darkness, called “ring and cylinder,” it adjusts the fore-aft position of the platen relative to the type guide. But that rarely gets misadjusted on its own. A more common cause is when the platen roller gets hard, it shrinks, thus affecting the ring & cylinder adjustment.

[@dianemaher3538]

Joe, Baco Ribbon in Ballwin, Missouri sells silk ribbons. I emailed you their contact info.

[@bletheringfool]

My question is how long do the silk ribbons last compared to the nylon ones? In other words, how often do you have to replace them?

[@Joe_VanCleave]

Silk usually starts out printing darker than nylon (depending on how darkly inked each ribbon is), and physically is about as durable as nylon, so it lasts at least as long as nylon.

[@tmunk]

love this, but suggest not wearing that shirt on camera. trippy patterns coursing all over it is distracting :D

[@Joe_VanCleave]

It would be better in purple! Hendrix! Thanks for the feedback.

[@tmunk]

oh, I also have a stash of brown/black NOS silk ribbons that I move from machine to machine. I find that they aren't super-darkly inked, but print more sharply than nylon and maintain a good, sharp microweave pattern in the letterforms much better than nylon. The silk fibers don't crush or split.