Originally Posted by
Sdalton82
Hello everyone,
My girlfriend and I stumbled across an old Singer treadle for sale that has all the working parts (I think) and just needs a bit of love to make it look fabulous again and get working. We're no experts and would like some advice if possible!
The model is the one shown in this thread I believe
http://www.quiltingboard.com/vintage...s-t184281.html
We'd like to know the date is possible, the number we see is G8540852, any helpers?
The wood is generally in good condition, although the fold down top has some damage. Is it possible to get a replacement, or too rare? Also, any hints on generally cleaning up the wood?
The beautiful decals are faded, I don't suppose there is a way to restore these?
Any help would be much appreaciated!
Welcome. :-)
Date appears to have been issued Jan 1921 but Singer assigned serial #s in batches so there is no way to pinpoint the exact date of manufacture. Two sources point to 1921:
G8540852
G-8515551 to G-9126000 = 1921 per
http://www.singerco.com/support/mach.../single-letter
and ISMAACS
G- 8583551 to 8584550 January 28 1921
Wood restoration is general furniture refinishing. You can wash it but try not to use lots of water because water makes shellac turn cloudy. You can "French polish" the shellac and leave it on. Or, strip all shellac off with denatured alcohol and then steel wool the cabinet smooth, and then stain it if desired and then brush new shellac on it. If veneer is missing, people either peel the rest of it off, or do a Dutchman patch, or you can get veneer sheets from Woodcraft or other supply house and re-veneer it.
Decals: Not much way to restore those unless you are good at handpainting.
Read threads here and you can also check out
http://www.treadleon.net/ for restoration tips.
I steel-wooled and wirebrushed the treadle base and painted it satin black, then got a couple bottles of gold gilt paint, decided which one looked the best color, and repainted the gold accents on the treadle base. Some people used stove polish.