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Button Hole Sewing Machines at Good Wear Leather
Here at Good Wear, John has been using a button hole sewing machine since 2010. He owns three machines, and this past
November, the operational machine broke down. Here's an accounting of what has happened.
2010-2012:
John purchased a Durkopp-Adler 558. These are superb machines, and this one worked on all formats of leather and
cloth. The machine was found by Mark Fisher in Minnesota, and was stored at Mark's house. Mark did all the sewing and
servicing of the machine. It worked wonderfully, and three videos can be seen of this machine under Mark's care.
In 2012, John decided to have the machine transported to his house in Washington State. The company that moved the machine
severely damaged it in transport. John's idea first was to have this machine re-built, but the local industrial sewing machine shop
wanted $2,300 to do the work. That same shop had a Reece 101 button hole sewing machine
available. Many people in the vintage clothing world have stated that the Reece 101 is a superior machine to almost anything available
today, so John decided to purchase the Reece 101. It was available, it was ready to use, and it was considered to be the most historically
prevalent model for American vintage clothing.
Videos from Mark showing the Durkopp-Adler 558 in operation:
Video 1
Video 2
Video 3
Durkopp after transport, showing damage
The Reece 101 was the next machine in use. This machine required a significant amount of servicing to operate correctly. Every format
of leather required adjustment of the thread tension on the Reece 101. About every 10-12 months, the loopers or spreaders would
break, requiring a local industrial repair man to stop by the house at his convenience and work on the machine. This machine held
up well until November of 2017.
2017:
In early November, John was setting up the Reece to sew horsehide, and the left hand looper and eyelet broke in half during one
button hole operation. He called the man who services the machine, and over 5 hours, the man did all he could, but could not get the
machine to operate correctly. The service man came back a week later and took the Reece 101 home. Over four months, the man purchased a number of
parts, and came back in February with the machine.
It did operate, but not well with leather. It would sew cloth, but wasn't set up in the same manner as it had been in November, and
it just wouldn't sew leather correctly. John spent several days trying to adjust many aspects of the machine (one would be amazed
how many parts can be adjusted), all to no avail.
Back in September of 2017, this same service man had told John that he owned a Reece 104
(1970s Reece model) that he could sell, and that John should buy it. John passed on the idea, though he had a friend who wanted a button holer, so
that friend purchased the machine in September.
Going back to December of 2015, John had purchased a second old Durkopp-Adler 558, in the hopes that this machine would be set up and
working soon, as the first Durkopp, according to Mark, would sew any leather with no issues of any kind, without need of adjustment.
The plan: replace the Reece 101 once it's ready. It just sat there for two years, though, as the Reece 101 was doing fairly well
until the November break.
In February, once it became obvious that the Reece 101 was not going do its job, John decided to try two things.
Plan 1: clean up the Durkopp-Adler 558, and deliver it to the local
industrial sewing machine shop. They could get it up and running (the owner has stated "I've never met a sewing machine I couldn't fix
and get operational."). This same shop had taken the first broken Durkopp and fixed/sold it.
Plan 2: Purchase the Reece 104 that was offered back in September. John contacted his friend, who bought the Reece 104, and asked
if that machine would possibly be available, even for occasional use. His friend hadn't set up the machine, and was happy to sell it to
John, so John purchased it. The machine needed quite a bit of work to replace the 3-phase motor with a single-phase, and then set it
up to sew leather.
The first choice was done immediately, and in early March, John had the second plan, purchasing the Reece 104, done.
But, the Reece 104 would
not sew leather well! Two weeks was spent tinkering with the machine, and it would not work. John asked the service repair man for help with
the machine, but no answer was given. It's possible that this man, who works on button hole sewing machines on his spare time, was no longer
interested in this type of work. He had mentioned to John that he would not drive to some other worksites using Reece machines as the work
just wasn't worth the effort.
This was not a fun predicament to be in. Five months had passed since the Reece 101 had its break in November.
Now, there were several opportunities. The first, and most important, was to get the Durkopp-Adler 558 ready to sew. John drove down to the shop
every 2-3 weeks to peek in and see if they'd done any servicing. Each time, the answer was that nothing had been done yet. The machine was still
sitting in the hallway, not having even been turned on, to see how it ran (keep in mind, this machine also has a 3-phase motor, which cannot be
run in a house without setting up a phase converter, and John's plan was to replace the motor with a single-phase motor).
After two months of this, John and the people at the industrial sewing machine shop agreed that buying a modern electronic eyelet button hole
machine was the best method to move forward. John was told that a CHNKI-made button
holer was the best choice. It would take 6-8 weeks to have one shipped from China. All agreed to this schedule.
Two weeks later, John followed up to see how it was going. He was
told that the machine had to be purchased from a CHNKI dealer in the USA, and that the machine had to be a leather model, as it would have
heavier clamps and other parts. Two more weeks, and still no new information about one being available via the dealer.
On the next unannounced pop-in visit, John was told that they found out CHNKI button hole machines are made by the same company in Taiwan as
most other modern button hole machines, so there was no advantage to buying that company's machine, versus a lower priced model from a similar
company. John was told that one of these would be best to buy, and they would find one to purchase.
One more visit showed that nothing was done, and even the Durkopp-Adler was still not touched, so John decided to purchase a machine from
another source. There is a shop in Los Angelese and another in Texas where one can get a modern button holer that works well with leather.
Why use the local shop? John would have their servicing of the machine at any time. When one buys a machine from Texas or Los Angeles, one
has to do servicing with a tech on the phone, which can be very difficult, especially if a part breaks that cannot easily be seen, or
adjustment can be time-consuming. Having a professional to adjust a button holer is so much easier, especially if they are only 17 miles away.
But at this point, any machine that is available now looked so much better than an idea that still hadn't been initiated. Both operations
asked for a pile of leather, and said they would make a video of that leather being button holed.
New machines cost between $8,500—$16,000. This is a huge amount to pay for one sewing machine, and John was more hoping a vintage machine would
be operational, but a new one would be bought if that was all that would work.
At this time, John happened to speak with David Himel about a project, and in that call, John expressed the pain of the button holer situation.
David told John that he used certain needles on his three Reece 101 machines, and they were vintage needles. Reece, which was a massive
powerhouse of button hole machine creation, had a whole series of different needles for different materials. Heavy cotton or leather would
have a number of specific needles that were required, while typical cloth, like shirts, would have a different needle.
In this day and age, the only modern needles one can find for a Reece 101/104 are 501-SC. This was the common thin cloth needle available from
Reece years ago. Leather requires a much thicker needle. David Himel uses vintage Reece-made 506 needles, which are amazing, as they have the
right blade design, right eye-hole for the thread, and right thickness for leather (these needles don't bend during the sewing process, no
matter how thick the leather is).
Now that John could see David's three formats of needles, he thought of looking on eBay for vintage Reece needles. John had known from back in
November that the 502 needles would be a big improvement over the 501-SC needles, as the repair man told John to look for those. None could be
found back in November, dispite massive searches that John tried.
But, on this day, in an eBay search, there was one box of vintage Reece 502-3-SC needles! This is the heaviest of the 502 series of needles. John
figured it can't hurt to try them on the Reece 104 machine, just to see if -maybe- they would work.
eBay sale of vintage Reece needles (and yes, John also purchased the vintage Reece 501-SC
needles, but the 506 needles were long gone when John found this eBay sale).
They worked! First it was an attempt on goatskin, and it worked perfectly. Then horsehide, then capeskin, then cowhide. On all of these formats
of leather, the Reece 104 machine did beautiful work. John's hands were shaking, it was so startling to see the machine actually sew leather just
fine. Nine months have gone by since the Reece 101 broke, and it was a little bit emotional to see this happen.
The button holes are beautiful. They look even better than the Reece 101 button holes.
Image 1
Image 2
Image 3
Once the machine was running, many aspects of the button hole shape, and some parts, had to be adjusted. They were set for cloth, so that the
two parallel lines of stitching were too close to the after-cut. John adjusted the machine, and then the right side looper and spreaders loosened
to the point that they were no longer working, and two vintage 502 needles broke.
The guy who runs the industrial sewing machine shop in Seattle said that all sewing machines can be adjusted to perfection by reading the manual.
Reece machines are intensely complicated, in comparison to a typical sewing machine, but John read through how to position the right and left
loopers/spreaders, and he actually got them in the right position! Keep in mind, they have to be 1/64" from the needle in the most downward
position of traverse. This is huge, too, as this was always only done by the service man who came
to the house. Now, replacing and timing the loopers/spreaders can be done by John.
The clamps were adjusted, and at this point, the machine is running exactly as it should. It may not be the best looking machine, but it does its
job wonderfully. Vintage needles made by Reece are the correct format to operate with a Reece machine. We have about 140 needles at this point,
and will be looking for any others we can find. Our needles are in the original 1940s boxes, and each needle has Reece impressed in the base.
The luck of one conversation led to this machine operating. Otherwise, it would have been a few more weeks with a $10,000 bill to be paid.
John is now ready to make jackets with button holes, after nine months. Thank you for reading this, and hopefully it helps in understanding the
delays in button hole jackets being made.
This is a long shot, but if anyone reading this should know of a source to purchase vintage Reece 101 needles in the size of 502, 504, or 506, we
would love to hear from you about them.
A fascinating history of early Reece machines. We own a
1935 Reece 101 model, and a 1970s Reece 104.
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