cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/9759283

I had the great pleasure to accidentally discover one of the oldest typewriter shops in the world. Since 1930, 95 years and going, the owner is the grandson of the original founder. Having just revived my Planck EZ writerdeck set-up, it was of course a delicious treat to take in the whole range of antique typewriters displayed and sold at the shop (which also does repairs).

I am especially attracted to the 1958 Herme Baby and this absolutely adorable children's typewriter.

We also played with a modern T 180 DS Plus electric typewriter-- one still produced and sold-- and looked up some USB typewriter options (imagine that, having a digital copy saved up while typing up the original instead of printing out a copy after typing up the digital!).

This was a much-needed treat because I haven't studied German for more than half a month and it was a great disappointment to many that I didn't have the right kind of linguistic

I was interested in making my own ink so I can have any colour I want.
I dissolved some oil paint in machine oil, in my first tries I used universal machine oil but it was too thick, so I tried sewing machine oil that was much thinner. That worked much better but it was still a bit too thick so I was having some trouble "making it run" along the ribbon, so I used lighter fluid as a thinner. It worked great.
I eyeballed everything so I can't give proportions of the ingredients, in a future more serious attempt I plan to take some measurements.

It's been a month and still hasn't dried on the ribbon and types well.

Down sides:
I still haven't found a good method for putting the ink on the ribbon, I put a pair of gloves and use my fingers so it gets a bit messy and it is slow.
The other down side was that didn't take into account that there was old ink on the ribbon that darkened my brown ink so much that looks mostly black.

Oil paint
Thin machine oil
Lighter fluid

Please forgive me if I use any wrong terminology, this is my first time delving into the world of typewriters. I found this beautiful old typewriter and it seems to be mostly still functional. The only thing wrong with it aside from needing a new ribbon is that the carriage just won't engage. It just stays off to the side and when I try to push it back over it goes right back again. Would that be due to a damaged latch or am I just not operating it correctly? I can send more pictures later if needed. Any help would be greatly appreciated!