Originally Posted by
rootboy
Not many American made items can claim the longevity of the products from Singer & Co. Started about the time of the Civil War.
Here is my model 201. During and after restoration. The clear coat was shot, so I had to apply new decals. Cost me 20 bucks, with its original mahogany cabinet. Runs great.
Beautiful work there, as always.
Elias Howe invented the modern sewing machine, Isaac Singer improved on that design and after some lawsuits from Howe were settled they became partners and pretty much took over the sewing world, there production was so integrated they also raised the trees that they made their cabinets and cases from so employed many carpenters and labourers. Like Schwinn and Raleigh they controlled pretty much every aspect of their business and sold the production rights to other companies before their patents expired.
There are some hand built machines out there that are like hand built bicycles, they are exceedingly rare and much sought after and a small works of functional art... now I see a good number of people customizing old machines with new paint and powder too.
I just finished servicing a later model Kenmore for a young friend who wishes to sew, this is a Janome built machine which runs and stitches well and is very easy to use... this came with the same 25 year warranty as my 1976 Kenmore and this was probably a good idea as it is not nearly as robust, there is a lot of plastic where just about all of my machines have nicely machined gears and there were a lot of small springs which can cause issues when they fatigue.