Originally Posted by Charlee
Well Ladies and Gents, "Hazel" is home! :) There's going to be a lot of work to do to make this cabinet nice, I'm not going to get away with my usual scrub with Howards Restor-a-Finish and paste wax this time!
The last patent date on the slide is 1885, serial number 426889, and she's got a wooden pitman. Nancy, did you ever clear up the wooden pitman age thing? Everything I've found to date indicates a pre-1890 machine...but I'm just not confident that it's correct...
The attachments are interesting too....several of them are broken :( , but some are still good. This machine is going to be fun to play with if I ever get her back together!! She's apart in my dining room right now...
Congratulations, Charlee, on your Davis!
Charlee, I think you can rest assured that your Davis is a pre-1900 machine! No, I have not got an answer to the wood pitman issue, but in my research it seems Billy was right when he said the wood pitman is a clue to a pre 1900 machine. Starting in 1900, the big companies did away with wood pitmans. Maybe, some of the really small companies used them, the jury is still out on that? Like everything else, there is probably no black and white on that issue - but, it seems Singer, and the bigger companies didn't used wood after 1900.
Nancy