Posted 6 years ago
gritton
(1 item)
My daughter recently received this treadle machine which was her great-grandmother's. I cannot find any identifying marks on it anywhere....no serial number, no name, (no "S"), nothing. She wants me to restore it for her, which I can do, but I'd like to have an idea what I'm working on. Unfortunately it sat in a barn for the last 60 years. I've tried to add the pictures that might be most helpful. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I just wondered if you found anything on your sewing machine. I have one that is similar and I am having trouble identifying it as well
I just got one exactly like this and can't figure out what it is I have been looking for hours also mine has a number 169500
Hi, gritton. :-)
I don't know if you're still monitoring this post, but I might have an answer for you.
This vintage sewing machine been bugging me ever since somebody brought it back to the front page recently with a 'like.'
It seemed fairly obvious that it was made by a company that left that space in the middle of the horizontal arm blank so that it could be badged for a vendor.
It looked pretty old and not just because it had sat in a barn for sixty years. That top leaf tension assembly was another clue that it was old.
I think I have a candidate: the Davis Underfeed Model N (it has the top leaf tension assembly, a rectangular needle plate and a stitch length mechanism on the bed in front of the pillar):
https://image.jimcdn.com/app/cms/image/transf/dimension=690x1024:format=jpg/path/s51e998845fd4a378/image/i6d40fe88dd32e598/version/1530879539/image.jpg
DAVIS KNICKERBOCKER UNDER FEED Model N
https://www.fiddlebase.com/american-machines/davis-sewing-machine-co/davis-by-models/
http://needlebar.org/nbwiki/index.php?title=File:DavisMNpartscatalog.jpg
http://needlebar.org/nbwiki/index.php/Davis
(You get a good look at the front of the machine at around the 42 second mark):
Davis Hummingbird Sewing Machine
Davis made underfeed sewing machine, badged with the name "Hummingbird" from approximately 1912.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rb1-Pma6Yhg
I'm sorry it took so long, but I suspect this four year old post fell into an unfortunate window of time when the late great vintage sewing machine human encyclopedia Bernadette had passed and nobody else of her stature was on hand to investigate.
There still isn't anybody of her stature on hand, but I've become sufficiently interested in vintage sewing machines over the course of about the last two or three years to take a crack at it.
I could be wrong, but what the heck. };-)
More samples of vintage Davis sewing machines similar to the one in this post:
https://instappraisal.com/appraisal/fold-away-davis-sewing-machine-1900-1929
The wooden cabinet is different in that it's a three drawer instead of the five drawer, and the decoration and drawer pulls are different, but the cast iron parts look the same to me.
Here are more pictures of Davis Underfeed machines, scattered throughout this post at the victoriansweatshop forum:
https://www.victoriansweatshop.com/post/davis-underfeed-label-search-11801439
One user opines that the difference between the Davis Underfeed models K and L is that the K is a full size machine, so perhaps something similar was true of the models M and N:
https://www.victoriansweatshop.com/post/show_single_post?pid=1332004939&postcount=72&forum=501752
It's true that the model N seen at fiddlebase dot com is a hand-crank mounted in a metal platform, so that might indicate that it wasn't a full size machine.
Perhaps the sewing machine head in this post is a Davis Underfeed model M.
I have this exact machine! It's a Davis, but I don't know what model. I'm trying to find a user's guide for mine.
Mine still has the word Davis on it and an M.
Terri91, So yours even has the Davis name and model letter on it. Cool. :-)
The Davis model M and (presumably) the Davis model N are what Davis called Under Feed sewing machines (not to be confused with their famous Vertical Feed sewing machines).
What the Davis UF sewing machines were was something more generically referred to in the overall sewing machine industry of the time as vibrating shuttles.
The visual tip off that the machine in this post is a Davis UF rather than a Davis VF is the rectangular needle plate (Davis vertical feed machines have an eliptical needle plate).
For a time, Davis provided copies of their model M machines to Sears, and they were called the Minnesota C, so here is a link from user Romwen at the Victorian Sweatshop forum for a Minnesota C manual:
https://www.victoriansweatshop.com/post/show_single_post?pid=1333819570&postcount=2&forum=515764
However, you might not be able to open that link if you don't have an account at VSS. I do have an account, so I can email you a copy. My email address is in my profile (click on "Read more"):
https://www.collectorsweekly.com/user/keramikos
FYI, the pictures of the front of the sewing machine head on pages 5 and 8 of the manual looks right to me, i.e.:
1. Rectangular needle plate
2. Top leaf tension assembly
3. Single thread spool pin on top of the pillar
4. Stitch length mechanism on the bed in front of the pillar.
BTW, if you're feeling generous, you could create a post with up to four pictures of your Davis model M. We'd love to see it. :-)