Victorian aged Gritzner - I should go back and get it, shouldn't I?
 

It's rough, needs a lot of help - seized solid - but it's so pretty....

The shuttle is there, the hand crank is not. One of the thread guides is broken but could be fabricated. It would be a rescue and I know it... is it worth it to rescue it? I obviously have a soft spot for German TS machines...

[ATTACH=CONFIG]507523[/ATTACH]

I don't know if I want people to talk me down, or encourage me. LOL! It's pricy but we just don't see things like this here.

It would be hard for me to say no.

I can hear its sad little whimper from being left all alone in that shop.

How could you?

guess you know all the crank for that is. just a knob. Thats easy to make. It looks like it was very rusty, they did a wire brush job on it..

Oh ya block out the price !! If you have the money and we know you do or you wouldn't ask.

I'll send your money , Heck yes to get it !!!

There is a very easy way to get rust off metal, very machine shop use this method, I just did with two white VS's. It's called acid.

I only left it because I wanted to see if it was what I thought it was. 1850 is dubious on account of the whole "sewing machines weren't particularly functional by then" thing. I'd been thinking closer to 1880s or so, but I'm having trouble finding information on it and very few pictures.
I know! It's saying, " I had her! I know I had her! Why did she leave me?"

I was left alone (DH was off doing another errand for a bit) when I found her. My breath caught (which was especially uncomfortable with the cold I have right now!), my heart sped up and I immediately "forgot" about the other machine that I saw 2 weeks ago that I was going to spend too much money on if it was still there this afternoon.

When DH came to the shop, I showed it to him. I think he's a little stunned it stayed there.
That claw pedestal and that big wheel make my heart go pitter pat!

I saw that when I was looking for photos. Yes, the crank would be easy-ish, the bobbin winder less so...

There's no way that machine was decal-less, eh? It just doesn't look wire brushed for some reason.
I blocked out the price because I know there are some here who think that price shouldn't be discussed on the forum. :) I can pay for it - I shouldn't - but I can make an exception for this one.

I was thinking an Evaporust treatment... acid seems extreme at this point. Maybe not once I started to work on it...

If it has a shuttle, I'd run home with it for anything less than 200, maybe 300

I would agree 1880's

Evaporust is acid

no it's been brush, I done it to many times.. nothing bad about that that is why all the hi points shinny

I'd strip to bare metal do a very very thick Black.. Hi light all the embossing on the base. then look for the magnetic stencils. until you find enough that you like to do a design in gold, use paint pens ( magic markers ultra fine tip ) to fill in the colors.. then clear coat.

O and put your name on it

yes it's a 1880's. maybe late 70's

I was reasonably sure the "Victorian" in the title would get your attention, Steve!

I can bring it home for under $200 if I don't count gas. :o

The shuttle is there probably because the slide plates don't move at the moment for which I'm very glad! :)
I think I will call them in the morning and ask them to put it aside for me and go get it.

It's funny, I must have known that Evaporust was acid, I did read the label - but I usually think of acid as something that will do destruction to my hands and such and ER doesn't.
I don't know at this point how in depth I'd get with recreating it... I think it would be a display piece after I cleaned it up - maybe for use in the quilt guild talks I'd like to do more of... As it is, the french polishing is taking forever, so I don't know if I'd want to redo this machine.

these whites I just got, I was out of acid so I used CLR, let the parts sit for maybe 6 hours,, then comet and the brass wire brush. none of the lettering on the slide plate were damage ( worn down ) same with the stamping on the cover plates.

I redid afew quickly, Then I did a 16-188 that took me over a year. next time I'll just get a gallon of Black and brush it on to get the thickness.

I keep saying I'm going to take a rust bucket ( treadle) clean the metal (silver stuff) leave the machine nasty. clean the cabinet so it's not a dirt bag, use that to show how well they can work and look like H ....