1897 Jones Family Cylinder Shuttle Sewing Machine

Friends, I bought it! So I am now the proud owner of a Jones Family Cylinder Shuttle sewing machine (aka Family CS). Checking the serial number and decals against the information on Fiddlebase, I believe my machine dates to 1897, which is when Thomas Baldwin finished building my house, so this machine is absolutely the right age for my home.

With the kind assistance of my middle son, I have cleaned and oiled it. Having watched lots of sewing machine restoration videos on YouTube, I knew the best cleaner for most parts is sewing machine oil, and it really does do a great job. I cleaned the bare steel parts with a metal polish. This all took several hours. Then I tried it out, winding a bobbin on the unusual Jones bobbin winder, which was obsolete by 1900. What a joy this was!

Of course, having a new old machine to play with, I wanted accessories for it. I did lots of searching online to learn what accessories were used for the Family CS and to find them. So I now have a collection of original Jones presser feet and foot attachments (mostly hemmers and binders), many of which came in a lovely embossed box:

The biggest challenge was finding bobbins that fit my machine. Singer ’long bobbins’ are too short, with only 28mm between the caps. My machine needs bobbins with 29mm between the caps so that the back plate on the winder can rest against the bobbin axle or the cotton on the bobbin. This plate is tensioned against the bobbin, and seems to regulate the winding so that it is even. The bobbins also need a hole in one of the caps to receive a pin in the winding mechanism. Alas, one lot of reproduction bobbins I bought that were sold as “fits Jones” were too short between the caps. Luckily I found a different seller on ebay that does sells reproduction bobbins that fit my machine, and I now have several of these.

Another thing I wanted was an original Jones case key. Comparing internet images and completed listings on ebay, I worked out that this was what the original Jones case key looked like.

Unfortunately they are clearly a very rare find. Whereas there are many sales listings for various antique keys that match various Singer key styles, I only found two product listings that included images of a key that looks like this Jones key, and one of those was on the website of a bathroom company in the US! The other was of a key amongst a pricey job lot of antique keys on ebay. Happily for me the seller agreed to sell me that one key at a much lower price than the full listing, and it is now on its way to me.