What a Great Find!

Hi.

I frequently visit the Golden Nugget Antiques Flea Market in Lambertville, NJ.  It is not too far from home and, on a good day, there are a great many vendors.  Although  I was not specifically looking for one, yesterday I found a fluting iron that I have wanted.  My mother had one and it now belongs to my sister.  Now I have one too!  One of the vendors had quite a few antique irons for sale.  It can be easy to find vintage irons, though fluting irons are somewhat harder to find.

This is the fluting iron I bought.  It is known as a rocker fluter.  The rocker fluter is the most commonly found type of fluting iron.

This photo was taken of the underside of the base of the iron.

If you are not familiar with different types of antique irons, you may be wondering, what is a fluting iron?  A fluting iron was used to create pleats in clothing on hemlines, cuffs, and so on.  The person ironing the garment would heat the iron, insert the fabric to be pleated between the top and bottom of the iron and manually roll the top of the iron back and forth over the fabric.  Typically the garment would first be washed, starched and wrung out to damp dry prior to ironing.  The fluting iron was often used on petticoat edges and dress trims to give them the desired flare.

I find the fluting iron, even the most common type, to be very interesting and beautiful to behold.

Please comment on this post.  I would love to read your comments and so would other readers.  Please tell your friends about my blog too.  They can view it at http://www.antiquesfortodayslifestyle.blogspot.com/ .

Sincerely,
Lynn MacKerell