Old leatherworking machines - Show and tell

[barra]

Here is my old Jones Stitcher. At present it is mounted on a boot patcher stand. It stitches super nice when you threaten it with being turned into a boat anchor.

Barra

[wildrose]

[SteveBrambley]

Here's three old machines I use regularly.

The first is a leather cutting/skiving machine. It says "AMERICAN" and "ST. LOUIS" on it, but other than that, I don't know much about this machine. I don't use it a lot for cutting leather because it leaves a cut with ridges on it, but I love using it for skiving. One crank of the handle, and the leather is perfectly skived to a feather edge.

The next picture is my Singer 29K60 sewing machine. It was built in Scotland in 1946. I use it for quick sewing of simple lightweight leather projects. I don't use it as often as I might, because I enjoy handsewing.

The third picture is what used to be a hand-cranked grinding machine. I bought it at a second-hand shop for $15.00. I took the grinding stone off and replaced it with 6 inch diameter leather discs which I cut out from scraps of saddle skirting and rivetted together. I applied jeweler's rouge to the disc and it works perfectly for honing knives and other cutters.

Your leather cutting/skiving machine is very similar to a machine that my Grandfather once used to cut his 'bends' up into strips for making leather shoe soles, it didn't have the built in skiving attachment, we had a seperate machine to do this, I remember it as a young lad, but I don't know what became of it in the end. It is, I believe, primarily a machine that would have been used in shoe making and repairing.

Your 29K60 'patcher' is in really nice condition, this is the long arm version of a very useful machine. The only reason that I don't use ours much is because the Universal Feed Arm tends to mark the top of the leather.

Steve

[D.A. Kabatoff]

The first photo is of my Landis 3 which I have a love/hate relationship with. She has a mind of her own and protests once and a while (not unlike my wife). When everything is running smoothly the stitching is absolutely beautiful and makes putting up with the odd tantrum worth while.

The second and third machines are not my own but are machines that aren't commonly seen where I'm from so I thought i'd post them for everyone. The second photo is of a Singer 97-10... it's my understanding that this machine could sew pretty much anything you wanted to put through it and at high speed to boot! Definitly a production machine. The third photo is another monster machine and is a Champion wide throat stitcher... a needle and awl machine that produces a beautiful stitch... not sure how fussy or reliable they are but interesting to see for sure!

Darc

[TrooperChuck]

Darc:

Those are some impressive looking machines. I bet you could sew patches on car fenders with those!

Steve:

I bought the cutting/skiving machine from the old cowboy who taught me to build saddles. I actually bought two of them. The other one is like the one your grandfather had... it only cuts, doesn't have the skiving attachment. I didn't include a picture of it, because I'm leaving it in the old cowboy's shop for now. He's 83 years old and still putters around with leather. His hands and fingers don't work as well as they used to, so it's easier for him to use the cutter than to use a round knife.

I also bought the Singer sewing machine from him. He rarely used it, which explains why it's in such good shape.

[gtwister09]

Darc,

You are machine poor from the looks of all of the machines in the photos.

Regards,

Ben

[MikePatterson]

Deep throat Champion I think from the early 1900's I have used it now over 25 yrs. It still works and sews as nice as it ever did. The machine is powered by the pedals as the operator sits in the old tractor style seat. This machine has a awl that punches the hole and the hook needle comes up from the bottom to catch the thread.

Edited February 21, 2009 by MikePatterson

[Bob]

Mike Patterson, thats some machine.... it's amazing to see some of the old machines they used years ago. They were well built and quite reliable, even after many years.

[Elliot]

I believe Landis made all kinds of leather working machinery - Does anyone know what else they made?

Worked in a machine-tool shop late 60's.

They had a older Landis cylender grinder, and got talked into NEW & BETTER???? Japan or Taiwan model. After 3-4 weeks they wanted the old Landis back.

The owner wanted to save the paint off the NEW & Better, melt the rest down and start over.

It just could not do what that old junker???? would, and a better finished job.

Landis had a number of machine tools, today I don't know.

Rod

[broncobuster]

heres my oldies. one is a champion straight sticther. it has the buffing n sanding bar hooked up to it. as to date im not sure but the motor had 1908 on it.

this is a singer 111-w153 walking foot. it goes through a lot of stuff.

this is the daily machine. the one i use to sew zippers in lol. its a singer but dont know model number. I use another one similar that goes to shows with me. its my favorite n work much better than this singer. its called an Anker n ive toted it around for 30+ yrs already and knock on wood its never had to be fixed.

and finally( and not in the least my last machine lol) is one of my 29-4 I have a duplicate that also goes to shows with me. these are manually operated. I wouldnt use these any other way.

the last 3-4 machines are used on a regular basis. the big ones are special projects. Im still setting up my shop. right now we are rewiring so shop is a disaster. hope ya like and sorry for the bad pics I dont have good lighting yet in shop and my camera is not the greatest. I have many more machines but there not set up there kind of in the corner but new projects keep coming up so soon ill have to get them going lol. thanks Bronc/Bonnie

Edited February 28, 2009 by broncobuster