Mom didn't use the sad-irons very much (the lifestyle didn't call for a lot of ironing) but I do recall her heating them up for a variety of dress-making projects (she had a formerly-electric Singer sewing machine with zig-zag stitching that my dad frankensteined into the body of an antique treadle Singer). We had and used a LOT of cast iron in our cabin, virtually all of it more than sixty years old and refurbished after sitting in the moss and soil for many decades. ![]() She also had several of the iron-shaped cast iron trivets. My mother had quite a few of the old sad-irons (as they are called) because she was a bottle digger and amateur archaeological excavator of garbage middens and 1900s-vintage homesites. It's my belief that you actually do want them seasoned.īecause of my folks' "back to the land" schemes in the early 1970s I grew up living the frontier lifestyle on the Yukon River, complete with no utilities of any kind and all- wood heat. Jennifer Richardson wrote:So I found a couple of old iron smoothing irons upstairs (pictures below) and wondered if anyone had any experience using them. I'd like to get into sewing and quilting at some point, so I thought they might do for pressing seams (I don't currently iron, because I am a giant slob) but I don't want to get soot or grease all over my fabric or singe it.Īny advice on restoration, maintenance, and use would be appreciated! The internet also tells me that cast iron trivets were generally used to rest them on while ironing, and that often one iron would be left heating while the other was being used, and then they'd switch out. I'd also like to experiment with my wood burning options, but the fireplace and rocket stove seem likely to result in sooty irons and ruined fabric. I'm thinking the cleanest and most convenient way would just be to heat them directly on the electric burner. We don't have a wood stove (alas), just an electric range & oven, a fireplace, and a small camping wood burning rocket stove to use outdoors. ![]() I'm also wondering about heating them up and keeping them that way. I saw that beeswax was used in the olden days to keep them from sticking to starched fabrics, but that seems to be a separate thing from the greasing they refer to. Cooking fats seem like a bad idea for something that'll be used on fabric. Googling yielded the information that pre-electrification women were generally annoyed by the requirement to keep their irons lightly but regularly greased, but I'm not sure with what. Normally to restore old cast iron cookware I would polish them up with steel wool and season them, but I'm guessing I don't really want any seasoning on my iron! You might want to check it out if you would prefer the safety of a new iron.So I found a couple of old iron smoothing irons upstairs (pictures below) and wondered if anyone had any experience using them. I found a iron on Amazon that reminds me of the vintage ones and it had great reviews as it is a little heavier than many of the new ones. ![]() At no additional cost to you, when you make a purchase I may get a small commission. I am fortunate that Builder Bob is also Electrician Bob! ![]() If you find any vintage irons, you will want to be sure the cord is safe to use and not frayed. Gosh……this was 50 years ago!!! Everything back then was cotton so you can imagine how much ironing there was to do in a family with 6 kids. I remember I got 5 cents for my dad’s short sleeved shirts and 10 cents for long sleeved shirts. Have you ever used a vintage iron? One of the ways I earned money when I was growing up was doing the ironing.
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