the shaft 2 39 and a relatively taut needle thread in conventional sewing machine needles of the type illustrated in fig1 and 3 the chamfer portion 6 39 as well as the eye 4 39 is stamped into the shaft 2 39 by means of a burr producing stamping operation during this process material from the shaft is forced from the subsequently formed chamfer portion 6 39 into two lateral burrs situated on a center line of the needle shaft such as is shown by the dash lines in fig3 b and 3c these burrs are ground down after the needle has been removed from the stamping mold thus the material volume of the needle shaft is reduced by the volume of the lateral burrs in the region of the chamfer portions 6 39 moreover the cross section of the shaft is significantly flattened and reduced in the area of chamfer portion 6 39 thereby significantly reducing the resistance to buckling of the prior art needle 1 39 the sewing machine needle and associated needle thread are illustrated in fig1 during the puncturing operation and with the needle 1 39 reaching the dead center position the protection of the sewing thread afforded by the thread guiding channel 5 39 of the prior art needle 1 39 has proven to be.