I'm at eleven typewriters now, with ten in working order and one that is a toy. I gave two machines away for free, and I sold one to a workmate for the same amount of money that I spent on it. My intentions to acquire and keep them changed through the three years of me being into typewriters. It started with finding a broken SG1 in the trash at the side of the street that I was able to repair. Then I was looking for a use for it, because it had found a place in my heart. I found two other machines in working order, also in the trash at the side of the street, of which I am keeping one and I have one away because it wasn't my liking. I received one as a gift from my brother-in-law that was owned by his grandfather, which is a very nice machine that makes it easier to keep for sentimental reasons. Then there is another machine that once belonged to my long-gone grandfather, which I keep for sentimental reasons and its nice techno pica typeface. This list keeps going on. So, there's a mixed bouquet of reasons I make up to keep machines and why I just can't give that specific piece away. I know I'm a hoarder, but the size of the machines keeps me in certain limits. Is it consumerist? Well, yesn't. I must admit, I would love to own a chocolate script Olympia SM3, and yes, I do like to show off my four different typefaces. I am looking to find a sixties SM9 to find out what the fuss is about in comparison to my late seventies SM9. But on the other hand, nothing beats the satisfactory achievement of finishing another three pages letter for one of my daughters. I hope they will read my lines one day and hear their daddy's voice through the paper that I touched before them and the imprints that my muscles caused. It is a piece of me, turned into ink on paper, that remains. And it is some obsolete tech that I curated/used/liked/hoarded, that will probably go into steel recycling after I'm gone.

This is not to say that I don’t also cherish more traditionally precious heirlooms, it’s just that the objects with utility feel like they maybe have more of the life of the person in them.