Lucky find!! The vintage Typewriter repair tools we have never seen before.

The typewriter world is small, but my brain feels overcrowded. So many stories, tools, ideas—most of them are typewriter-related while some are not—all jammed together until I type them out and share them with you.

That’s what these videos are about. Maybe they’ll be useful, maybe they’ll spark something. Or maybe you’ll just enjoy watching me unload my mental attic after typing them on one of our newly restored typewriters.

This week’s highlight? A tool find that made my whole month.

We got our hands on a set of vintage typewriter repair tools, including a pair of angled bending pliers I’ve been dying to try. And listen—these aren’t just any tools. I’ve seen a lot of typewriter tools (we have hundreds—yes, hundreds—many of which are up for grabs on our site or eBay, by the way). But these? These were special.

The story starts when A gentleman offered us his late father’s typewriter repair kit, a typewriter repair technician who was a proud employee of a company that supplied typewriters and other printing equipment under the name of “Bourne” within the UK and what makes me feel his passion to our craft is that they shared with me several posters he kept from the late 50s of the companies stores around England & others showing inside their headquarters & their car fleet. “Bourne” was also an agent of the British Imperial typewriter company and sold their products in their showrooms..  

In the grainy photos within the gentleman email, I spotted what looked like a unicorn: elbowed bending tools with dual heads. Never seen them before.

When they arrived, I barely noticed the rest—I went straight for those pliers. And they are chef’s kiss. Solid, perfectly machined, with narrow and wide gaps on each side, each tool a variation on the same beautiful form.

The cherry on top? They're engraved with  British Imperial Typewriter Company logo. After nearly a decade of fixing typewriters & owning several spanners and tools made for the Imperial company,  I’ve never seen anything like them. The handling is a dream and the slots are deep with various dimensions to suit multiple positions, and the best part is that the build makes modern equivalents feel like plastic toys.

And that’s really the point of this video—not to brag (okay, maybe a little)—but to remind you how well old tools were made. These things were built to last, not to be replaced after three turns of a screw. You can buy a shiny new screwdriver from Amazon or Walmart that disintegrates after a week, that’s the new normal, or you can find a vintage one that’s already survived half a century—and will probably outlive you too.

Anyway, this video was typed on an Adler Gabreile 10 typewriter , and it’s now up on the site—unless someone already beat you to it and used Apple Pay in a caffeine-fuelled frenzy.