Rare Brother KH-210 Bulky 9 mm gauge knitting machine review

This was my first “serious” machine that I worked on. It was also the first bulky (9 mm gauge) machine I worked on. It was a lot of fun!! Especially because I can easily use various yarn for hand-knitting…. (more on this later).

I could honestly say that this is the machine that made me fall in love with knitting machines and machine knitting. They are cute, great pieces of machinery and were built so well that even now, after 40-50 years of storage and use, they are still working great!

This is a rare machine and was made in Japan by Brother in 1977. You see more often KH230 model and a lot of KH260 models. This model seems to be almost identical to KH230, which was introduced to the market in 1981.

See the full video of how this machine works in here: https://youtu.be/Sjg2Y99rFkU

Before this one, I already started learning some flat-bed machine knitting techniques on Brother KH-X350. I liked it a lot but the cast-on process on KX350 was somewhat stranger…

So, when I read the manual of KH210 (which by the way came with the machine in a surprisingly great shape) and followed all the steps, I was pleasantly surprised how much easier it was to cast on using that suggested method on this machine.

Even though I cleaned this machine very well, it barely needed it. This model does not use sponge bars and maybe this is why the needles were in such a great shape. In fact, I found all metallic parts on this machine being in great shape. There was barely any rust. I did wiped all the needles well with the oily rag and then knitted several rows of waste yarn. So, if you decided to get this machine from me, all you need to do it open the lid, attach it to you table and start knitting!

So the great things about this machine are:

Feel solid

• Has all major accessories
• Has a hard copy of the manual
• Does not need sponge bar
• Great-looking
• No rust
• Box for all accessories
• All major accessories present including 9 mm transfer tools and four spare needles
• Knits worsted and thicker yarns than other machines
• Rare model
• Works great
• Simple to use
• Hard-cover case, which is in excellent conditions

There is just one spot on the main bed – to the very right. But it did not affect the functionality of the machine at all. I did not rub it too much because I did not want to compromise the integrity of the metal but the stains did not come out with just gentle rubbing with Windex and soapy water.

Couple other imperfections are:

• Slightly chipped counter (but still works great): see the picture below where I show accessories and also I show it in the video
• Spot on the main bed (shown in the picture above)
• Couple of minor accessories are missing: cast-on thread, wax, lock to transfer carriage so it does not move during transport and storage. I wrapped it with plastic to fix it to the bed so it wont move during shipping.
• Missing 4 needles on the bed but they are in the accessories kits
• The accessories box is missing a lid

I enjoyed tremendously working with this machine. I knitted a scarf, a vert with cables for my son and a sweater with similar cables. I used mock-rib for bottom rib, for the V-neck and for the sleeves.

More good things about this machine:

Everything feels solid about this machine. The carriage is a pretty dark red/burgundy color.

The sinker has two slots for two yarn threads so you can use two colors at the same time. The left picture on the left shows that the right slot is in the working position, while the left slot is in “open” (or idling) position. The picture below on the right shows both slots open to demonstrate to you that they are there

The only reason I am selling this beauty because I feel I explored everything this machine offers and I want to move on to the next level of complexity – like knitting with buttons.

So, below is everything that’s included:

• KH210 machine
• KH210 carriage with sinker
• Hard copy original manual
• Box with tools: needle push tool, 9 mm transfer tools, large latch hook, spare needles, weights, clams
• Tension mast, which folds nicely inside the case

Couple of words on which yarns successfully tried to use:

The video cited above shows that machine easily handled two types of yarns.

One was 50/50 wool//acrylic blend, 100 g/300 m (3.5 oz/325 yards) per skein marked as Light-Medium Worsted yarn. I knitted a scarf with this yarn and machine had no problems on tensions from 6 to 10. The yarn from which I made the sweater above was even bulkier: 100g/350 m per skein, and the machine handles even cabling well (cabling creates sometimes additional tension).

The other yarn was a double-thread yarn and I only knitted a swatch. The yarn had some fuzziness to it due to the nylon (aka polyamide) thread. The yarn itself is a 20/30/50 wool, acrylic, polyamide blend. Medium Worsted with 1.76 oz/131 yards per skein. However, the machine handled even this yarn without any static wonderfully on tension 5-7. (but I did not try tighter tension).

Tension mast and yarn guide        Sinker plate inside the case 

Serial number of Brother KH-210 Knitting Machine

Full view of the machine and all accessories