Davis Sewing machine, patent date 1870
 

30 years or so ago, I was at a garage sale in a small town in Iowa. This was setting in the corner and I asked if it was for sale. The lady thought for a minute, said yes, she supposed she would sell it. I asked her what the price was, and she replied $10. I had my wallet out so fast that heads were spinning! The last patent date on it is May of 1870, and it was manufactured by the Davis Sewing Machine Company of Dayton, OH, which happens to be my hometown. I have never tried to sew on it (it needs a belt), just use it for decoration, but love imagining all the garments (& hopefully quilts) that were sewn on this. Has lots of interesting little tools in the drawers. Someday I would like to refinish it, show it the care it deserves.

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Cool, Davis walking foot or Vertical Feed made in 1894. Davis moved to Dayton from Watertown, NY in 1890. With a little cleaning and SM oil she'll be ready to sew up a storm. Uses Davis Long needles which are near 2" in case there are none with the machine.

Jon

Lucky you are... That could be your favorite machine in all the world for putting on binding because they feed very evenly. Mine is the easiest one I own to treadle. Jon, do you have needles that size in stock if someone would contact - maybe pm is best... Or maybe your signature line is a link. I'm thinking someone may have posted some manuals on Victorian sweatshop forum after some discussion about Davis VF.

VF2 manual is tough to find as the paper didn't age well. VSS has an NVF and VF1 manual. Davis VF Yahoo group has most of one. PDF and copies can be purchased online.

The Davis Long needles are no longer made but can be found on ebay and elsewhere. Most of the time the correct needle is in a wood tube made by Boye with a 10 on the cap. Best to verify the needle is a 1-15/16" and has a flat shank rather than round.

Jon

Jon, can a regular needle be tricked out - dropped a bit - to match the hook height?

Too short. A 20x1 needle lowered a bit would work as well as an industrial needle 1-3/4"-2" long which are plentiful.

An eBay store would have them?