knock over bar and the bar for the needles by reason of this construction the individual sinkers of the piercing comb extend through the needles so that the bars for the needles and the sliders are not covered from the slider side by the bar for the piercing comb the arrangement of the bar for the piercing comb between the knock over bar and the bar for the needles furthermore makes available the possibility of bringing the relatively heavy bar for the piercing comb close to the pivot spindle for the reciprocating movement of the piercing comb on the other hand in known machines the bar for the piercing comb is reached from the axis of oscillation by way of a relatively long lever arm in the latter case thus a centre of gravity results lying relatively far away from the axis of oscillation in contrast to a centre of gravity lying relatively close to the axis of oscillation in the case of the machine according to the invention which accordingly permits a higher working frequency so that the possibility remains of replacing the piercing comb or parts thereof piercings are provided in the knock over bar in front of securing elements for the piercing comb by reason of these piercings securing elements for example screws on the bar for the piercing comb remain freely accessible an example of embodiment of the invention is represented in the figure the slider needle 1 with its slider 2 is shown these two components are actuated in known manner moreover one sinker 3 of the piercing comb is illustrated each sinker 3 is seated on the sinker shank 4 which merges together with the sinker shanks of adjacent sinkers into the.