The joy of a good old device
I'm not, it must be said, the worlds most practical man. I can do a few things however, and have enough practical background to recognise when something is a truly beautiful example of a tool. Something made to be used, but also made itself of metal and wood and human ingenuity and a thing of beauty in its own right.
I was out in the world and got shown a device, actually a number of them, but this particular one stood out. The first thing that drew my attention was the 'Made in Western Germany' stamp as well as the beautiful metal tooling. The stamp means its likely older than me and indeed this dated from not really all that long after the creation of West(ern) Germany as an entity.
It's essentially a specialised sewing machine for stitching leather and especially zips into leather boots. The current owner paid a very handsome amount of money for it from a firm that was no longer in business but still wanted it to be in use and used for its purpose rather than sat on a shelf. It it for this reason its been christened Michael after its former owner.
The setting marks are in German, with dünn (thin), mittel (medium) and dick (thick) settings on a well oiled setting needle allowing the user to choose the thickness of leather. The foot (I believe that’s the correct term) is set so stitches can go all the way down a zip with nothing pressing against the boot. I believe the belt is new and perhaps a few other new parts but I see no reason this machine can't still be stitching in 80 years time. Its owner took the time to point out a much newer Chinese machine that wasn’t nearly as good.
Always lovely to see such an item as well as its owners amazing craftsmanship and I was lucky enough to have a decent tour of the workshop. I hope she forgives my use of the pictures. A useful antidote to the endless stream of AI piss (either generated or subject matter) that passes for blogging and a reminder of honest human craftsmanship out in the real world.