amuckart

I just went and looked at the website and saw that the adjustment on these is via eccentricity in the roller which means it'll be a bit harder to get back to a "zero" point each time. What you need are two marks, one on the top edges of the uprights for the edge of the blade - which will get slightly shorter every time you sharpen it; and one inside the uprights for the height of the roller, which could get trickier to see. There would be better ways of doing it but they'd require high-precision markings and a slight rework of the way the roller is mounted.

Go here: http://www3.telus.net/BrentBeach/Sharpen/ If what' you've got is like the pictures above it's basically a small plane blade and can be sharpened in exactly the same way. With a little practice, the system Brent lays out there will produce edges better than anything else out there. They are terrifyingly sharp. It takes a bit of investment in the setup, and some practice to get right but once you've done that it's quick, simple and it works, very very well. Scribe a set of lines in the top of the sides using a machinists square. That way you can get back to the same thickness again by putting the edge up to the line you used last time.

Did you heat-treat the steel? Drill rod should be plenty hard for awl blades.

Thanks Tony, I'll let you know what I work out.

Anyone? I'm trying to get the thing apart and am stuck trying to get the bell off. I'd really like to work out if the feet and drive stones are interchangeable with available parts so I can set it up to do veg tan with. Cheers.

I'm wondering if 45k clones like the Techsew GA-5 are close enough to the original 45ks they're clones of that I could use parts like the main shaft out of one in a 45k. Anyone know, or should I look for someone who's got a parted-out 45k? Cheers.

Junkers have rarity and an odd collectiability going for them. You can get 'em for less than that if you're willing to put a bit of work into getting them going again. I don't know how thick a sole the Junker can do, I've never tried feeding something through that might stop it. It's designed specifically for soling shoes and boots though. I'd get a square awl from Dick Anderson at Thornapple River Boots. He makes some of the nicest bootmaking awls out there. You use a square awl by hand. Pricking irons are used to clean out the wax from between the stitches and make everything look neat. What specifically are you wanting to make? It sounds like you'd be well served to sign up to Crispin Colloquy at http://www.thehcc.org and chat to people there. It's a specialist boot/shoemaker's forum and the people there are plenty friendly.

It's a knob that clamps to a steering wheel to allow you to turn it more easily. You see them on big trucks sometimes. They spin on the mounting so you can hold the knob and turn the wheel real fast. Much of the weight in these machines is in the motor and the pedestal mounting but even if you're not going to power it you'll want that to hold the machine at the right height etc. They're designed to sit on the pedestal and aren't trivially mountable on something else. People-powering one of these would be darn near impossible unless you rigged up some sort of treadmill and had a spare child or something to power it. You generally need both hands to steer the work through the machine. I'm not saying it'd be impossible to do single-handed but it'd take a hell of a lot of practice! I wouldn't think a Boss would be much good for outsoling shoes. If you want a hand-cranked machine specifically for that job you're looking at a Junker & Ruh SD.28/Pedersen 308, or a Frobana Gritzner. Both are good machines, but both are near impossible to get needles and parts for. The Junker can be a little tempremental if worn, and refurbished ones run to US$600ish plus god-only knows for needles. Gritzners are things you luck into, they're not terribly common outside of Europe. You can still get needles for the Gritzner, if you're prepared to pay 8-9Euro/needle. Alternatively you could buy a square awl and pricking irons and do it by hand.It doesn't take that long with practice :D

That looks like an American Straight Needle stitcher, though I couldn't tell you if it's all there. They're good machines but a bit different to use than a curved-needle stitcher like a Landis model 12. You can use one of these for sewing soles on boots and shoes. They're apparently great for side-seams on boots too. Have you seen it running?

It worked for medieval people I've had a pewter-buckled belt for about 8 years now, and it's just fine. Of course, it was made from decent britannia metal, not recycled thrift store tankards.

Hi Ray, There are two quite different topics here. Pewter is easy to cast and melts at a low temperature requiring little in the way of safety equipment. Brass, bronze etc are very different beasts requiring serious heat and safety kit to do. You can cast pewter in high-temperature RTV, which is the easiest way. The medieval way is to use soapstone, which carves easily and burnishes smooth. You can use plaster of paris, but whatever you use it has to be completely dry. Pewter casts at a temperature that causes water to flash into steam which can blow your mold up, spraying hot metal everywhere. If you use RTV you can sculpt a model and use it to build the mold, if you use soapstone you have to carve the negative, which takes a fair bit of practice. The single most important bit of advice I've heard regarding pewter casting is to make sure your work surface tilts slightly away from you so that if you accidentally dump an entire crucible of metal it doesn't run off into your lap You can melt pewter (britannia metal) on a stovetop, or in a metal ladle with an LPG torch. Safety kit wise a face shield and welding gloves are sufficient, but a good apron is also a good plan. This may be useful: http://chestofbooks....ing-Pewter.html I presume you have Dress Accessories and The Medieval Household?

Can anyone ID this machine for me? It looks vaguely 123-esque in shape but I'm not sure qhat exactly it is. It may even be a simple domestic model, I can't get a sense of the scale from the photo. Thanks.

Hi Ray, This probably doesn't help but in a decade and more of doing 14th century reenactment and research, I've never seen a belt made like that. The only time I've seen belts interwoven like you describe is in the complex scabbard suspensions of the 13th century. There was no general shortage of long lengths of leather in medieval times; there are plenty of extant examples of long straps and hundreds of iconographical ones. It's possible that what you were seeing was a poor representation of metal mounts on a leather belt. It wasn't uncommon for belts in 14thC Europe to have metal stiffeners and decorative mounts on them.

Hi Franck, You are welcome. I have emailed you the manual. Needles for this machine have not been made for a long time and are very difficult to find. I'm afraid I don't know where to get any right now. They are more common in Europe though, so ebay or old shoe repair shops may have some. They cost a lot though - 8 Euro or more per needle is not uncommon.

Welcome to the forums. I assume you have a needle for the machine and need to know how to thread it? The machine is very simple to operate. The large handle on top is used to make it stitch and the small silver handle on the side raises and lowers the presser foot. The first thing you have to do is to firmly bolt the machine to a table, or to a piece of wood you can clamp to a table. The operating lever needs to be pulled and pushed quite firmly and this is impossible unless the machine is held down. I have manuals for the machine, and I have sent you a message to email me so I can send them to you.

I'd have done the same, and probably a damn sight less politely than you did. If there's someone else in the region who lacks the skill to do things right, then it sounds to me like they deserve each other.

Hi Rebekah, What have you done to clean it so far? The big risk with cleaning machines in this state is that anything which will lift the crud on them will also destroy the decals. If they've been painted over then anything that'll lift the paint will probably trash them, if the paint hasn't already. The fact that you've managed to uncover some of them suggests to me that it may not be paint over the top. Something I've found with machines of this age is that it's difficult to tell the difference between dirty paint and 100 year old oil deposits that have turned into black cruddy varnish over time. If the decals have actually been painted over, then they're most likely toast. That doesn't mean you can't get a good looking well working machine, just that it won't have original decals. There's also no guarantee how intact the decals are at this stage. It's much easier to clean these things up when they're in pieces, so if you're comfortable with taking a machine to bits and reassembling it again I'd go that route. Digital cameras are invaluable here. When I'm working on an unfamiliar or complex machine I take a photo of every change I make, and each screw, pin, or small part that gets removed is put in a hole in an index card and labelled so I can get it back together again. This also lets you look at parts that might be worn. Before you get too far into restoring the machine it's probably worth getting it to the point of making sure it actually sews well enough to be worth it. Machines of this age can work beautifully, but others can be just plain worn out. As soon as I've figured out what's wrong with my website I'll have a few PDFs on there showing how to get the major bits of the head apart. To clean the bare metal parts a solution of 1:20 concentrated citrus cleaner to water in a bucket works well. Put the parts in and let them soak for a couple of hours. For really stubborn dried grease 24 hours should shift it. Scrub with a stiff nailbrush or toothbrush to get the stubborn bits off then dry thoroughly (pat dry and use a hairdryer) and spray with WD40 to stop them rusting before you reassemble the machine. I'd do this at least for the parts in the front of the head and the gears and shuttle carrier at the end of the arm. For the shafts etc inside the machine a few cans of brake & parts cleaner will shift the worst of the gunk. If you can get it, re-lubricate with CRC Syntex once the cleaner has evaporated. During reassembly I lubricate all of the screws with a non-drying long-term lubricant. Personally I use CRC Lanocote, but any non-detergent, non-drying oil will work. This just makes future disassembly much much easier because it prevents the screws from seizing up. For the base, which has no decals, if you want to get it really pretty then get it soda blasted back to bare metal (soda-blasting, unlike shot or sandblasting won't damage or re-profile the iron) then degrease, prime, and paint it with automotive spraypaints. Otherwise disassembling it and scrubbing it with citrus cleaner before thoroughly drying and reassembling will do the trick. If it turns out the decals are toast, you could also do the same to the head of the machine, or just clean it and use it. If you need parts then talk to Bob Kovar at Toledo Industrial. He seems to be the go-to guy for bits for machines like this.

If it uses 331LR needles, then buy up what you can when you find 'em. The 230s are made intermittently but none of the other sizes are any more and they're way expensive. I wouldn't run Nylon through this. Bonded poly would probably work since it doesn't stretch, but synthetic threads will tend to wear the thread path much faster than linen will. Some people just dunk the whole spool in silicone lube when they're running with synthetic thread. I fill the wax pot with neatsfoot oil when I'm running linen thread, but I haven't done much with this size of machine yet. Sellari's liquid wax is the other option. The pricker feet act like an overstitch wheel, but on the #6 at least you could also get flat feet. I have a set of pricker feet for my A1, but I really want a set of pricker feet for my #6es.

The other thing you can do if you're using a leather belt is get it moving and rub a chunk of rosin on the inside of the belt. If the head is stiff though that could be part of the reason. It's a much smaller scale I know, but I have a 201k which had exactly the same problem, the belt was plenty tight but it still slipped and the machine was heavy to turn over. It wasn't until I got *all* the old oil and grease out of it and re-lubed it with syntex that it started running well. Now it runs like a dream with very little pressure on the pedal. Something I've found quite effective for cleaning out machines that have been sitting for a while is brake and parts cleaner. It's not great on any paintwork that you care a lot about but if you're willing to throw a few cans of the stuff at the problem it'll get darn near anything moving again without having to strip the whole machine.

If you're going to put a motor on it the only thing I'd say is please make sure it's reversible, and don't throw the pedals away! It'll probably outlast you and the next person might want to treadle it, and complete stands always seem to hold their value better. Bob's dead on, you might just need a new belt. If it's a round leather belt McMaster Carr sell Urethane belt that makes an excellent replacement. It's slightly tacky but very flexible. I use it on all my treadles now. Search the site for "Urethane Round Belting" and you'll find it. It's hollow and joined with little aluminium joiners that you need to purchase separately.

I think that person's selling them for AU$295.

Fibre-wise hemp and linen are basically indistinguishable once they're processed. You treat them exactly the same in use. The real trick is finding good long-staple versions of either these days, since most are processed on cotton machinery that cuts the staple down to a few inches at best. You can get old-stock hemp thread occasionally but I've found it's a bit weak (I can break 7-strand while hand sewing if I'm not careful).

Hi Suem, I have a page with a little information on this class of machine here: http://alasdair.muck...singerpatchers/ At the bottom of the page are some documents written by a chap by the name of Ken Jerrems who originally posted them on Needlebar but gave me permission to host them once they became unavailable from there. He has a pretty good set of diagrams and explanation of how the heads of these machines work. The one thing I would say about stripping a machine like this is get a good set of proper pin punches they make life much easier and will save you marring the head trying to get pins out with something improvised.

A friend pointed me at this today I think it looks like someone in China got their hands on an 1800s Bradbury or something and tried to reproduce it. Has anyone ever seen one in the wild?

I had exactly the same problem until I got used to the traditional solution used by shoemakers. Inseaming thread gets pulled really tight and shoemakers use a combination of a thumbstall, which is a little tube of leather that goes over the thumb of your awl hand, a hand leather which is a tube of leather sized to go over the palm of your off hand with a hole in it for the thumb, and awl handles that have a 'capstan' end the thread can be wound around. This is slightly difficult to explain without recourse to pictures I don't have right now, but the technique is to put the off-hand bristle through first, then the awl-hand one and pull them through almost all the way. The off-hand thread gets wrapped around the hand leather and pulled and the awl-hand thread between the fingers holding it and the work gets hooked by the back of the thumb over the thumbstall and then hooked by the butt of the awl haft and pulled. The combination of the hook over the thumb and the wrap around the awl haft makes a secure grip. Once you're used to it and it becomes part of the natural rhythm of sewing it's very little effort at all. That may have made no sense whatsoever, but I'll endeavour to dig out my kit, which is still buried post move, and take some pictures.