Brother KH230 was manufactured and released to the market in 1981. This is the second bulky-gauge machine released to the market by Brother (the first one was the KH210 model). I suspect the reason the bulky machines got introduced to the market relatively late as a demand from home knitters to accommodate more readily available yarns (like yarns for hand-knitting). In fact, when I used KH230, I used yarns (some relatively thick ones) targeted for hand knitters (see below).

Brother KH230 is a basic machine, meaning the patterning is accomplished only with the manual manipulation of stitches and needles. I had a pleasure working on it, which is described in my video blog and a blog article, with and without a ribber (video and blog).

Brother KH230 is a robust bulky-gauge (9 mm) knitting machine. It takes a variety of thick yarns. The yarns I used were 200 m/100 g (218 yards/3.5 oz). The machine knitted it across the full bed knitted without problems.

Brother KH230 has a built-in option for intarsia. Refer to the manual for more details. The machine comes in English and Japanese variations.

Brother KH230 can be equipped with a matching ribber – Brother KR230. Only this ribber works with KH230 and vice versa.

Knit leader setting plates for the main bed are slightly different than for the ribber: they are slightly smaller. Thus, if you are using the knit leader with JUST your main bed, make sure you use the correct knit leader setting plates.

Brother KH230 has a very unique tension and yarn guide masts.

Needles for KH230 are identical to those used on its matching ribber, Brother KR230 (I am still trying to figure out, though: the main bed and ribber needles have a groove on opposite sides. I am checking other machines with the sme needles as their corresponding ribber to see if the position of that groove is critical for knitting), but they are different from the needles used for Brother KH260 knitting machine. Needles for KH230 are available in my store.

Actually, a lot of things are different in Brother KH230 (in comparison with its later sisters – bulky KH260 and KH270 models) especially for the ribber setup. The most prominent is the cast-on comb: it is understandably shorter.

Another bulky 9-mm gauge knitting machine made by Brother is Brother KH210 . Some features of KH210 are similar but there are lot of differences. However, there are similar pros and cons.

Pros and Cons of Brother KH230:

PROS:

• This robust and well-made machine will serve you for many years especially if well taken care of.
• with the manual manipulation of needle selection, tuck-, slip- and fair-isle patterning can be created because the carriage has the corresponding settings
• lots of tool are interchangible (needle selection combs, stitch transfer tools, etc.).
• needles for the main bed and the ribber have the same dimensions. Stay tuned as I am researching whether the groove position is important or not.
• carriage has a built-in intarsia capabilities
• Brother KH230 is excellent for beginners or hand-knitters who are not ready yet to give up the satisfaction of manipulation stitches by hand or those you want more even stitches.
• Brother KH230 is relatively light-weight (especially in comparison with Brother KH260) because of narrower and slightly shorter bed

CONS:

• only manual manipulation of needles and stitches is possible to create patterns
• not many add-on accessories are compatible with this model. To the best of my knowledge, only a ribber and a knit leader (which also needs to be fitted onto KH230 with special setting plates (typically come with the setup)) can be added-on to KH230.