1 Nov 2014

Красный красиво

1964 Aztec 14 2222287




When I saw this on ebay, I was fascinated. I was vaguely aware of the Russian orthography reform of 1917 (read about it here), in which the letters ѣ and i were abolished, among other things. This keyboard was modified to include those letters, although whoever did it was a bit sloppy. It's understandeable, though, that they didn't replace the keytops since they likely just weren't available.

This turned out to be a fun project. I found some adhesive vinyl samples for a couple dollars in red, white, and black. The hard part was cutting them to be the right size for the keytops. I ended up just sticking a square of it on and trimming around with an x-acto knife. Not ideal, as there are some imperfections in the edge, but I think it looks good. The letters were drawn on with a painting pen, which is surprisingly durable. I won't be using the keys much at all, so they should last for many years this way.

I also added little squares of color to the poor, drab ribbon color selector.




What can I say about the Aztec 14? It's exactly like a late Erika 10, except with an angular plastic shell. As far as I can tell, it works just as well as the previous metal-bodied Erika, which is to say it's a very good machine. It's hard to compare exactly, though, since it has a Russian keyboard, which I still haven't mastered…

Oh, the title of this post means "red is beautiful" or "redly beautiful". Amazingly, "redly" didn't trigger spellcheck. Either way, it's a good thing to say in Russian, and it's true. The red accents improve the appearance a lot. I love the angular looks, it's just the tri-tone grey is a bit dull!








Sent from my new Aztec 14

8 comments:

  1. Nice mod! You must have a steady hand.

    So I wonder who used this typewriter—an old czarist??

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I haven't got a clue… whoever they were, they lived in the USA.

      Delete
  2. I've always liked the "modern" look of these late Erika machines. This one is just a bit more special! Nice photos.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was nice to finally see one in person, especially from the side it's more attractive than I'd previously thought. I tried to capture that in my photos.

      Delete
  3. Nice finishing touches, very creative!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sorry but word "вздохнёт" spells with "н". I see this mistake for the second time, so tell you. Don't want to offend. I think this machine could belong to the philologist, specializing in russian pre-revolutionary literature or the person who escaped to America before revolution.
    Greetings from Russia :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for catching that, my Russian vocabulary isn't that great so I keep copying from the previous mistake!

      I'm thinking that's probably the case too. It looks like the extra characters were removed from a pre-1917 typewriter that was probably broken.

      Delete