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Singer 27
No Decal Pattern
Manufactured: July
20, 1897, Elizabethport, NJ
Serial Number: 14538205
Needle: 15 x 1
Bobbins: Shuttle, long bobbins
Mechanism
type: Arc shuttle
Feed: must be covered
Feet: Low shank
Above: Prior to cleaning
Below: After just wiping it off and oiling the key working areas - the pink thread cheers it up, don't you think? :)
Below: After repainting, but it has not been oiled or waxed yet
This is a "grand old sewer". :) By that I mean it has character. This machine had definitely seen better days as far as the paint is concerned. I bought this machine because I was thinking it would be my first "parts" machine, one that is disassembled to use the parts on other machines. The manufacture date is 1897, making this machine 107 years old at this writing. The black paint was in terrible shape, peeling and cracking in all areas. Those are cracks in the paint that are visible in the picture, and not just scratches. A motor and foot pedal had been added at some time, and I am guessing that at that time, the spoked hand wheel was replaced by the smaller solid wheel. I removed the motor and foot pedal. Singer confirmed this was issued as a treadle machine.
So, here arrived my parts machine, and the paint was depressing, but wouldn't you just know that it turned over after just a few drops of oil in the needlebar area?! This was a tug at the seamstress in me - how could I disassemble a machine just because it's paint was peeling? It doesn't surprise me that a very old Singer would still work, but usually they are machines that have been taken care of. This one had obviously been neglected.
A seemingly odd thing about this machine is the total lack of any decals. It looks like the black paint is all original, but there is not a sign of any decals at all. I had thought that the early VS 2 machines and 27's were very ornately decaled, but this seems to never have had decals. Graham Forsdyke has told me that he has heard of some early machines being sold without decals for industrial use at a reduced price. Although he has not come across any documentation of this, as Graham said, it's a reasonable explanation.
I have never felt the inclination to re-paint a machine, mainly because I feel the machines are just fine as they are, even when signs of wear are evident, but also because the decals are almost completely non-available, and the machine would never really be like it should be. However, with this machine never having decals, it does make a good candidate for repainting, as it would only need to be glossy black to be like it originally was. (Please click here to see the repainting of this machine)
It arrived with its original shuttle and bobbin.
This machine has been cleaned up a little this evening, and I shrugged off the paints chips that flew off as I gently dusted and oiled the machine. It will be keeping all of its parts intact, and after cleaning, it will be used in my treadle.
Below are the first stitches this machine has made just after arriving. This was after simply oiling the machine in key areas and wiping it off. There are stitch adjustments to be made, but they are certainly not major. I used the bobbin it had come with and the thread already on there.
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