I'm researching a Singer treadle machine I purchased this weekend. As best I can tell it is a 15-30 Tiffany. The decals are intact, but overall the head appears very dull and decals look dark and brownish. I will use this machine to sew. In the process of my research I found this site and a thread from back in June about a 15-30. Can anyone advise me on how to restore the appearance of the head.
I'll get a bobbin for it tomorrow at local shop. They were very enthused to hear of my acquisition.
The serial# starts with letters "AB..."I think that means a build date of 1926-28. Does that sound right?

what is the rest of the serial number.

I don't think you can restore the finish of the head. If the dullness is just dirt, then baby oil (allowed to sit and loosen the dirt) will help wipe off the dirt. You have to be really careful about using soaps and other cleaning products on the heads, as the chemicals in them can dull the finish and change the decals. That may be what happened to this one.

In the Tutorials forum, Billy, aka Lost51, has a tutorial on cleaning old machines with decals. There are special cleaners that won't hurt the decals. I'm guessing that yours is just dirty.

Thank you, I will try that.

Go to the 'vintage sewing machine' thread on this board. Billy, "lostin51", has complete tutorials on cleaning our beautiful 'old girls'. Good luck.

The cleaning process that Billy uses seems to make a huge difference in the appearance of the machine. It almost looks like a different machine when he is finished. Happy cleaning and post a picture when you're done to give the rest of us some inspiration please.