Huckering

Rare Fortschritt Leather Skiving Machine - Fortuna Type $1000 This is a very rare german made leather skiving machine. It cuts a wide range of skives because it has a long curved presser foot that can be adjusted a number of ways to get different angles and widths. The machine is in excellent working shape, see a sample skive photo below. There is cosmetic wear as this is an old machine. If you want a machine with great bones and a great history, this is what you are looking for. I purchased this a couple years ago from a leatherworker in Nyack, NY. He owned it since the mid 70s but it has not been used since 1995ish. Prior to him owning the machine, this skiver was used to manufacture NYC firemen's helmets in a manhattan factory. The machine is mounted on a converted wooden sewing machine table and is run with a clutch motor and leather and rubber belts. This is comparable to fortuna machines and parts such as Bell knife, sharpening stone, rollers, presser feet should be interchangeable with parts easily found on ebay if necessary down the road. Everything on it right now still appears to have plenty of life left. I will also include a heavy metal roller tool for compressing turned/glued edges. Local pickup only in Ridgewood, NJ. You may inspect items prior to purchase. Payment Methods - cash / money order / bank check only Thanks very much! The website is not letting me upload photos, so if you are interested, PM me and I'll send you a Craigslist link to photos.

I have a lead on a fortschritt skiver with table and clutch motor that used to be in an old factory that made firemen's hats in NYC. The buyer is asking $500 which seems to be a pretty fair price to me compared to cost of new chinese made machines. I saw it operational last night and it seems to be working reasonably well. My questions: Is there anything specific that I should look at that wears out over time? Belts and knife seem. Are fortschritt skivers interchangable with other skiver parts? Bell knife, feed wheel, etc? Are there any online resources that you can point me to in regards to maintainence/rebuild of this type of machine? Does $500 seem like a fair price? Thanks

Also, are there specific areas I should inspect on used 335 type machines? Worn-out or cracked components? Thanks.

I work in a luggage and leather goods shop and we are interested in acquiring a Cylinder Arm Machine, we currently use a Juki LU-562, but it's limitations for our purposes are many. The machine we seek would be used for luggage and leather goods repairs, as well as light manufacturing such as wallets, briefcases, and duffel bags. I was told a pfaff 335 would suit my needs, however there appear to be many clones out there which have very little feedback. As far as I can tell, current "pfaffs" are now known as Mauser Speziale, manufactured in china and tuned in germany. Since these are made in china, is there really any advantage over a chinese made clone such as a reliable, highlead, supreme, etc? How interchangable are replacement parts and accessories, would I be stuck paying an arm and a leg for Pfaff/Mauser parts? Is there a big difference in build quality between clones? Does support vary a lot between clone brands? Here's a description of what we are looking for: -Able to sew as thin as 2 layers of 1000D nylon to as thick as perhaps 20oz of leather -Single Phase Servo Motor (the reliable 5000 looks ideal) -Ability to handle thread weight 69 and up -Narrow cylinder arm -Available removable attachments (binders, roller guides, etc) Based on the requirements above, which of the following would you recommend? Or would you recommend something else? 1. Used - rebuilt german Adler 69 for $2100 (available at local shoe repair supplier) 2. Used - rebuilt older german Pfaff 335 $2200 (available at local shoe repair supplier) 3. New - Supreme 335 free arm machine - head only $1575 (available at local shoe repair supplier) 4. New - Reliable MSK-335B for $2299 (would have to buy this online) 5. other... Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks very much.