Needled by my sewing machine

May 25, 2007 8:55 AM

Can any sewing people answer this: How can I "recycle" sewing machine needles? It irritates me that after I've sewn some clothes or worked on a quilt, I have to toss the needles or my machine will get all huffy and start bollixing the thread -- especially the bobbin side. Can machine needles be resharpened or used for something else? I live in a small Texas town and it costs a lot (gas prices, you know) to travel over 100 miles to the nearest city to buy a new supply of sewing machine needles. Thanx.
posted by Smalltown Girl to clothing, beauty, & fashion (19 comments total)

I don't know about recycling the needles, but I can tell you I've ordered sewing needles off Amazon before.

Also, you could try bending the old needles into shapes to make jewelry or something. Dangerous jewelry.
posted by brina at 9:14 AM on May 25, 2007

Needle Sharpeners

Could be worth a try?
posted by Pollomacho at 9:15 AM on May 25, 2007

Buy your needles in bulk if you're going through them that quickly. It's not like they go bad, and that link (first one I found) has 100 universals for $27.

You can sharpen them to a point (haha) but because the thread hole is near the point, you can't sharpen it that much. (I have seen needles sharpened enough that the thread would fall out.)
posted by cobaltnine at 9:25 AM on May 25, 2007

I have a question in my mind whether the dullness of the needles is the problem or if it could be the roughness of the needles. If it's roughness, sewing without thread back and forth over a cloth which has been heavily rubbed with jeweler's rouge might do the trick.
posted by jamjam at 9:36 AM on May 25, 2007

Probably your best bet is to invest in some (or lots of) quilting needles (Amazon). All purpose needles are weaker.

I sometimes sharpen machine needles by holding an emery sharpener (Amazon) under the foot and running the needle up and down several times (with the feed dog down). You can do this a few times but the needle gets duller faster.

I keep the old quilting needles for other crafty-type projects or for stuff that doesn't matter (like sewing fabric to construction paper for greeting cards, experimenting with stitch types, etc.)
posted by thehmmhmm at 9:48 AM on May 25, 2007

The woman who taught me to sew advised me to stick the needle in a wax candle and pull it back out between projects. I have not tried this, and it doesn't sound to me like it would work for long, but it might be worth a shot.
posted by dilettante at 9:49 AM on May 25, 2007

Wow! Great solutions from all of you. In my XX years on this earth, I have never heard of needle sharpeners. I'll try all of these tips -- and start buying the needles in bulk. Y'all rock!
posted by Smalltown Girl at 9:55 AM on May 25, 2007

If you have an old fashioned tomato pincushion, the little strawberry hanging from the stem is a needle sharpener.

Rereading this, I realized that if you didn't actually know what I was talking about the sentence above sounds like insane gibberish, so here's a picture of a tomato with emery strawberry.
posted by oneirodynia at 10:01 AM on May 25, 2007 [3 favorites]

... and now I see that thehmmhmm already linked to one. Oh well.
posted by oneirodynia at 10:02 AM on May 25, 2007

If you have an old fashioned tomato pincushion, the little strawberry hanging from the stem is a needle sharpener.

Wow, I never knew that. I have one in my sewing box...
posted by fake at 10:12 AM on May 25, 2007

If you have an old fashioned tomato pincushion, the little strawberry hanging from the stem is a needle sharpener.

Wow, how incredibly awesome. I always thought the strawberry was there to make it easier to fish the pincushion out of a crowded sewing box without getting jabbed by a stray pin. ok, i'm a naif.
posted by jamaro at 10:30 AM on May 25, 2007

Why not order them on-line rather than driving somewhere? Try Nancy's Notions or Clotilde. They both have tons of stuff available and you don't need your car.
posted by MrFongGoesToLunch at 10:46 AM on May 25, 2007

A machine needle sewing ordinary fabric at household machine speeds shouldn't "dull" in normal use. If you examine the needles under a good magnifying glass, with a strong light, and find that the points are blunted or chipped, it is likely that the machine's hook or shuttle mechanism is mis-adjusted, or perhaps worn. In particular, the hook or shuttle may be set for too much "needle guard" action (adjusted too close to the needle), so that the needle's point is lightly contacting the inner part of the hook or shuttle on the needle bar downstroke. This will blunt or burr a needle quickly, and needle breakage will be much more likely when sewing multiple plies of material.

The fix for this may involve replacing a worn throat plate, and re-timing the machine (adjusting the hook or shuttle's timing to the needle bar upstroke), or perhaps replacing a worn hook or shuttle if the machine has been used a lot, or irregularly lubricated.

It's also possible that you are using "ball point" needles, which are generally only recommended for knits, as your regular needle. For most sewing of woven fabric, an ordinary round point needle is preferable, as a "ball point" needle is much more easily deflected by warp and weft threads in woven fabrics. You should rarely need to use chisel point, or triangular point needles in household machines, althought they do have a place in sewing leather, vinyl, and other non-woven goods. But 99% of normal household sewing should be done with standard round point needles.

Finally, be sure to use the recommended needle family for your machine, and use a quality needle for good results. Schmetz, Gros Beckert, and Lamertz are respected brand names in needle manufacture that are worth any price premium you may pay.
posted by paulsc at 10:47 AM on May 25, 2007

I wouldn't sharpen my machine sewing needles. Sewing needles come in different sizes, shape, and make for a reason: because they're specifically designed to work with certain types of fabric and thread. I'd imagine that resharpening them would throw that size/shape balance off and will also weaken the metal and possibly cause more breaks.

Machine sewing needles are usually good for about 8 hours of solid sewing time (literal sewing, not just project time) if you ever switch to a different type of needle in the same project, you can always stick the needle to a post it with a note about how many hours you've used it for so you know how long you have left on it. Also, it pays off to use more expensive needles because they'll last you longer in the end. I've never gone wrong with Klasse Needles.
posted by nerdcore at 10:48 AM on May 25, 2007 [1 favorite]

Forgot to add that I don't recommend "re-sharpening" machine needles that have been blunted in use. The impact that caused the point damage almost inevitably bends the needle ever so slightly (you could measure with a dial indicator if you had one, but could hardly see, even if you carefully rolled the needle by its shank on a perfectly flat surface). This makes it much more likely that the needle will subsequently bend or break, sending damaging fragments into the hook or shuttle mechanism below, which may soon require replacement of the hook or shuttle.

Better, by far, to find and correct the cause of point damage.
posted by paulsc at 10:51 AM on May 25, 2007

I suspect most needles are plated (chrome, or possibly titanium nitride coated), so sharpening will also remove that, and make the whole thing rough. Nthing buy in bulk.
posted by oats at 11:05 AM on May 25, 2007

Hmm, I thought that the abrasive-filled strawberry was for cleaning rust off of needles (or pins). But I can't remember the last time I saw a rusty pin; I assume they're all made of stainless alloys now.
posted by hattifattener at 12:46 PM on May 25, 2007

Seconding paulsc's recommendation to have your machine serviced. Your needles should just not be dulling like that.

On the other hand ----- do you sew over pins? If you do, then striking the pins as you sew is more than enough to bend them in a hurry. Remove pins before you get to a spot, or ease your fabric through so that the needle doesn't strike the pins as you go.

I also second using Schmetz. It's the only needle I'll use.
posted by Flakypastry at 1:58 PM on May 25, 2007

It may not be your machine, since synthetic fibres dull needles more quickly than natural fibres do.
posted by mediaddict at 10:50 PM on May 26, 2007