Contemplating A Puritan Stitcher: Vamping, Staying, Fairstitch ?

[leathersmyth]

And then i have a bunch of loose ones, but have to fiqure out which are which because i also have a ton of landis 3 hooks and awls in tins....

Have to get a new battery on my micrometer to see diameter of shanks...

[Uwe]

43 minutes ago, leathersmyth said:

I also have the manual for the machines that tell you how/what you need as well as parts lists for machine...  Not sure how to send you a copy...

It would be very cool to produce good quality PDF of your Puritan manual. I'd be happy to help you do that. If you don't have a scanner, a series of full resolution photos would be a good starting point. I have software to build a good quality PDF files that is not huge. You can message me here on LW, or email me at uwe@uwe.net  - you can email me image files that are too big to post here. I'll upload the finished PDF here. 

 

[leathersmyth]

This hook lines up pretty much your sizes...  

[leathersmyth]

I have a printer/scanner combo....  Never used... So will have to play with it to scan.. Its 91 pages of...

[leathersmyth]

So, by your measurements you have the small shank hook and awl...  I have some in the small shanks that i can mail you out for you to at least play with your machine...

[Ogoki]

Also curious as to how this is going, as I did some work on a 3-needle vamper a few years back.  "Vamping" refers to stitching the vamp (front/toe pattern piece) to the quarters (exactly as demonstrated in the overly dramatic RW video).  I don't know about stitching through 3/4" of material, but they do have a very distinct, punchy, knocking character to their sound/operation, in my experience....

EDIT:  Missed the last few posts before posting...  I probably have a manual around if nobody else comes through...

Edited November 26, 2017 by Ogoki

[Uwe]

@leathersmyth I did end up buying a set of ten #2 needles and ten #3 awls directly from Puritan last year (for an eye watering $173.30!) so I'm good for basic testing. 

My Puritan indeed uses small shank (0.086") needles and awls.

91 pages Puritan manual goodness is definitely worth the effort to produce a state of the art PDF version.

[Uwe]

Mike @leathersmyth was kind enough to scan his Puritan documentation. Thank you Mike! I cleaned up and shrunk Mike's Puritan PDF: Puritan-Catalog-Manual-Parts-newer.pdf

I also discovered an older version of the Puritan catalog/manual/parts list in my archives. The two catalogs have a decade or two between them and show some common information, but they differ in which machines were in production at the time and some other details, like pricing info for parts. I miss the days when a dozen Puritan needles cost $0.75 !  ($0.75 in 1917 is over $15 in 2017)

Here's my older Puritan catalog: Puritan-Catalog-Manual-Parts-older.pdf

[leathersmyth]

Yours is def interesting to read...  

My machines came from the Mcbrine luggage factory a long time ago..

 They made leather gladstone bags, rawhide wrapped cases. 

At one point i know they were making guitar cases for gibson ( i think was that brand) so they will sew through plywood and pretty much anything else needed to sew.

Cases like...

Everyone called him Mister J ( the owner of mcbrine) When i meet him he was well into his 90's, was a very kind soul. Honour and integrity was very high in his world... 

Now a days, everything is made off shore, but when these machines were used to make up cases,they were made to last...

 I use mine when i can not get other machines to sew what i want to sew... I can drop a hat box on it and sew the binding on without even thinking. They are great machines...

 

[Dayan]

Hello Owe, I enjoyed very much your story about the Puritan. I am getting one and I was wondering what happened with your?

Do you have any update? 

 

Thanks friend.