Canary in the Coal Mine

Early one Saturday morning in October my Sister and myself clamored into her car to chase after a few things listed in local estate sale ads. We made it to Avalon early and had to wait for a few minutes then dashed in, grabbed the few things we had seen from online photos, paid for our stuff and went back to the car. With the important things taken care of... I returned and casually went through the crowds only to escape again with 2 Singer puzzle-boxes and a student manual. We left that sale and drove across town to another estate sale where I thought there might be more than one vintage sewing machine.

The difference in the two sales was like night and day. No really. At the second sale I needed a flashlight to look through a long dim basement. Although there were a couple of dusty overhead lights, the entire area was stacked so high with box after box... that the lighting was really poor.  Slowly, from one table to the next filled with various household excess (including a boat & trailer) I began to find signs of sewing.

At first it was a plastic sewing box with thread, then an old desk drawer with scissors... as I went further in my little circle of torch light caught a spindle leg. I had to move three boxes and a plastic file bin to open the little cabinet. Inside was an old Kenmore. My own research for the 50's Kenmore page did me in at that moment because I recognized the model.  In the dim light I could see the lines of one of the first Japanese Kenmore machines: a model 37. In every regard it appeared to be complete. The attachment box was in the door along with a 24 cam set.  The hand wheel only did a half turn and the machine was covered in dirt.

Even while I unscrewed the machine from it's tiny cabinet, it was so dim and dark in those basement shadows that I honestly thought the machine was beige...

It wasn't.

At home, on the bench, after a good oiling and removing the bobbin, case, and carrier... the machine did a full turn. I cleaned and oiled and oiled and cleaned mechanics. I took some thread out of tight spaces in the bobbin area and a nice pad of lint out from under the feed dog plate.  The hand wheel did 360 then without issue. When I felt that the motor should be able to turn it over... it did.  I tried the switch, and the light came on. Things were looking up for this example of a first Japanese Kenmore! Eventually, it sewed a straight line which wasn't all that good (skipped stitches) until I realized I'd forgotten to set the presser foot... duh. The next stitch was far better and then the zigzag came to life as well.  I was really enjoying this little machine. The controls are intuitive and the threading path was simple.

The only thing that wasn't coming along all that well... was cleaning off the yellow.

My first attempt to get the finish back to brilliant was a piece of cotton cloth and some sewing machine oil. That's all I did, went over it lightly and then I went for a sponge, dish soap, and warm water. It was getting better.

The fed dog plate was almost too easy to rub clean, but the bobbin slide plate may never look great - it is really scratched.  On the metal control handles I used a little four ought steel wool. The same was used on the top tension dial face and shaft as well as the little thread guides.

Eventually I got to the really filthy part, behind the motor. Again, soap and water and once it dried I went over all the paint with an oily rag.

My issue... is that I've seen what the paint used to look like behind the thread guide arms and I haven't quite got there yet. I mean if you're going to have a bright yellow sewing machine... it should be a bright yellow!

I sat and thought about it. Having had the experience of cleaning off a filthy 28 Sphinx and then the re-leveling of the shellac on the 66... and since there wasn't a decal anywhere on this machine... I grabbed the can of denatured alcohol and a clean cotton rag and began to gently rub the paint down in a well hidden corner behind the motor. The rag showed a dirty residue and the finish looked a little brighter. I went for it.

I've gone over the entire machine once and it's nearly back. I may have to try it again. I've also noticed that the light in the shop isn't all that great and it certainly doesn't help with the yellow. This machine really should be indoors under a little lamp.

As much as I enjoy the wild color... I should mention that this first year Japanese Kenmore is a very well equipped
machine. Not only is there the built in light and zig-zag controls that hint of Necchi influence ... there's a great little tab for flipping up the presser bar. The threading is simple. The stitch length dial is big and easy to find and use. The feed dogs drop with a dial on the deck. There's a left-center-right adjustment for the needle position and to top all that off, it came with 24 decorative stitch cams. Wow. Now I should say that a lot of machines of that era offered many of these features, but this one takes it a little further. At sixty-one years old all it needed was a good cleaning to lay down a very good stitch - and it surprised me at how quiet it was.

There are people that will argue that the quality of sewing machines went downhill once they began to be built in Japan... and it just isn't true. I'm not going to say that all of the machines that came out of Japan during this period were durable little work horses... but the Kenmore line has proven itself as being pretty darn good. This machine must have given all the big names a lot of concern - and the color choices lead the industry.