Originally Posted by
pennycandy
...The one machine that I would like to have is a metal geared vintage that can also do stretch stitches. It would replace the vintage 1990's plastic machine in a case that I picked up for $20. It works ok but it's not an everyday work horse. I haven't done an active search for a replacement since I rarely need the stretch stitch function.
They are far and few between in my area too. I know there are a few early Gritzner models taking double cams and have all metal gears. There is a thread where they track a few close Gritzner and Kayser models and discover some were imported and sold under the White brand. White was eventually sold to a Japanese company, and the earliest models are pretty close to these German ones. These are reported to be all metal, and I also think the Japanese kept to metal gears for a long time, well into the 60s even 70s.
I have seen early Phoenix and a Adler models with double cams, some report they are all metal, but some have a few plastic gears (I have seen the my self). I have yet to come across the all metal machine with double cams. I guess the 1950s were a period where they experimented, and some were unfortunately given "modern" nylon gears. Some Necchi Supernovas have double cams, they are all metal. There's probably a few brands I haven't discovered yet ;- )