Featherweights aren’t the be all... some people swear by them others aren’t so fussed, they are very cute tho, and a fantastic portable option, personally I like the Elna grasshopper better, mine is very rough tho the paint was peeling off it, so I stripped a lot of it off, which was a shame, if I found another I’d get it
401g is the commonest variety in the UK, they’re reasonably common, I love the look they always remind me of classic cars. But some people are of the opinion they’re Fugly!
Internally they’re all metal except a cog behind the hand wheel I’ve never heard of this cog breaking or needing replacing, they’re direct drive ( a little noiser than a belt but can be smoother and firmer.)
They have a ton of built in stitches by using the 2 dials, and as they’re German the stitch lengths are in cms.
They’re slant shanks, so feet can be tricky but I do like the visibility and they are almost a high shank in terms of clearance. They use top hat cams for more stitches!
The 401a 401g and 500a all have approximately the same internals. But some argue the 500 isn’t as strong as the 401 because it was style first.
If you get one and need any parts I usually have quite a few knocking about because I dote on my 500
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