Hi everyone! It's been a while since I've posted about any machines but today I get to post a very special sewing machine. This machine is the oldest sewing machine in my collection and I'm very lucky to have found it. After consulting with some experts, they think this machine dates from about 1858 as other examples have been confirmed to date to this timeframe.
Back in the late 1850's and 1860's Charles Raymond was producing cast iron chain stitch sewing machines. Raymond's patent used a retracting hook design as opposed to a rotating hook design used by Willcox & Gibbs. During this time patent infringment was common and there were many companies copying his design as it was easy to manufacture. There are many different variations known but they all basically followed Raymond's design. Several of these manufacturers are known (such as AF Johnson, Shaw & Clark) and many are unknown. The example that I'm sharing with you today is from an unknown manufacturer. It is known as a "Skinny Pillar" due to it's simple single pillar design. Although simple, this design is elegant and pretty rare.
Back in mid November of this past year I was combing Facebook looking for sewing machines when I came across an ad with the following picture. My jaw dropped to the floor and I let out a huge gasp!
I immediately messaged the seller stating that I wished to purchase the machine. After twelve minutes (the longest 12 minutes of my life) the seller responded stating that the machine was still available. He provided his address and I quickly headed out the door. The seller and machine were located in Aurora, OH which was almost a 2.5 drive for me (one way) and once again, it was a looong 2.5 hour drive! Once I arrived the seller met me outside and was very nice. He had been clearing out a relatives estate and found it in the attic but didn't really know much about the machine's history. After 20 minutes or so of chit chat I was headed back home with a huge smile on my face! I even stopped at the first rest stop to take a closer look at the machine and snap a few pics. From the rest stop, I sent those pics to some experts to help determine what I had found. Those pics are below.
When I got home I took additional pictures to document the condition that I recieved the machine. See pics below.
As you can see from the above pictures, the machine was dirty and the metal parts were rusty. The machine did turn but not easily. As I examined the machine I realized that it was missing some parts. Obviously it was missing it's spool pin assembly that mounts to the top of the needle bar......that was immediately noticable. But then I realized it was missing other critical parts: it's hook and hook actuating arm! I thought "oh no, how am I going to find those parts"! It's not like parts for these machines are readily available or easily found. Luckily, have a good friend in the sewing community who just so happen to have an example of this machine! So, I made a phone call and before you know it I had some preliminary measurements of the hook and hook actuating arm. My friend also said that he would be passing by in the near future and offered to bring his skinny pillar to my home so I could take any measurements I needed. How cool is that? A few weeks later he arrived with his machine. Not many collectors would let you take apart a sewing machine from the 1850's so you can take measurements of a few parts! It just shows his passion to save these wonderful machines. What a great friend!
Now that I had measurements it was time to start fabricating. The original hook and actuating hook arm were stamped out of flat stock steel but I was going to have to fabricate them freehand. Considering these parts could be made out of flat stock I figured it wouldn't be too hard to make them but I didn't take into account how small these parts really are! These things are microscopic....the hook is about the size of the finger nail on my thumb. One of the biggest challenges was holding on to the parts while cutting, filing, drilling, etc. I started with tracings from my friend's parts that I transfered to adhesive labels. Then I stuck that label to the steel and then cut the steel to a rough shape. From there I used a Metabo with a cut-off wheel to refine the shape. Next, I used a file and sanding wheel on the Metabo to smooth and further refine the shape. To drill the holes in the hook, I hammered two nails into a block of wood. The inside curve of the hook went around the first nail, the the second nail was used to stop the rotation of the hook while it was being drilled. This method worked perfectly! The next challenge was to find something to serve as the metal pin in the hook. It turns out that the diameter of an old Chrysler hose clamp was perfect. It was cut to length, inserted in the hole, and then permanently welded in the bottom hole of the hook. Final polishing was done on a buffing wheel. The same methods were used to make the hook arm. Below is a picture of the parts after fabrication and the video is of the parts installed and working on the machine.
All metal parts on the machine were de-rusted and cleaned. The body of the machine was cleaned using my normal methods although I was particulartly careful as the decoration on this machine is hand painted.
Efforts are underway to recreate the spool pin assembly. Mearsurements were gathered from my friend's machine and my son is in the process of creating a CAD drawing of the part. I've sent him a chunk of brass and he is going to create the part using a CNC machine that he has access to.
I did test the machine with the new hook and hook arm. I did this by sitting the machine next to another sewing machine so I could use it's spool pin. Manual thread tension was added by applying pressure on the spool with my hand. Although not easy to hand crank and apply tension at the same time I was able to create some pretty nice stitches!
I believe the reason the decoration on this machine survived so well is because the hook was broken pretty early on in it's life and therefore the machine wasn't used much. Below are pics of the machine all cleaned up and reassembled (minus the spool pin assembly which I don't have yet). This machine cleaned up really nice and I'm really pleased with how it's progressing. Enjoy the pics below!
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