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| Serifs are seriously overrated in certain alternative universes. This typeface is a total mystery. Any ideas from the Typosphere? Side note: I had to photograph this because when a HP all-in-one printer/scanner runs out of black ink, it won't even let you run the scanner. I am reminded of why printers are so cheap. Our HP 4400 deserves a generic replacement cartridge in repayment. |
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| The Everest K2 has a classic shape. I purchased less for the color than the typeface. |
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| The body shell is all aluminum as are a number of components such as the key bar guide. |
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| So, what does the number 20 stand for in Everest land? I looked through most of the sans serif examples in the Munk's NOMDA guide and couldn't find an exact match. We love the egregiously long "f"! I suppose you could make a simpler lower case "d", but there wouldn't be a whole lot left. The "h" is very fashion forward. |
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| The color and style this De Luxe logo remind me of early 1950s Chevy sedans. |
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| Maybe Everest had a dislike for serifs in general. Alright, that is a bad theory given the identical machine in Robert Messenger's possession and Adwoa's shiny, black K2. |
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| I like the odd little details. I can easily imagine that lever inside one of the little Fiats now cruising around American cities. |
Does anyone have a controls diagram for this machine that they can scan?
I observed in the typecast that this typewriter still has a few issues. I can't help comparing this to my German machines including the Olympia SM3s and the freakishly smooth Torpedo 18. I had to do a lot of filing and bending to get parts to work on this machine due to alignment problems in the key bar slots. That gave me a chance to get to know the mechanical bits well, with some problem yet to be discovered that is keeping the carriage from moving consistently.
My general opinion is that they tried hard, but there are just some basic design and finish issues that get in the way. It isn't as slushy as the Royal Futura 800. The cast aluminum frame is well done. They didn't skimp on key tension springs. With all that going for it, various alignment issues appear to have kept this machine from having been used very much. The type slugs were already pretty clean when I got it.
Assuming I get the carriage draw tweaked, I think it will be a decent typer for short works. The type face is really cool and joins the unique SM3 italic iterations and the Royal script in the household typing pool. Guess I need to buy some new ribbons!
