Well, they were called sad irons. Solid irons that were heated in front of fires began to be used in Europe from the 17th century (the technique was employed much earlier in China). They were known as sad irons, ‘sad’ being an old English word for ‘solid’, though the term ‘flat iron’ became more common."
Many years ago I went to an estate sale and there was a table with a bunch of sad irons on it. I was going to leave out of the door and someone pushed me and I bumped into that table and one of those irons nearly fell on my foot. Thank goodness it missed.
@Bev aka thelmasstuff I always knew them as flat irons. So what are the irons that had hot coals poured into them; what are they called.
I once had a child hold up something that looked like this and ask me what it was. Amazing when things ubiquitous for decades are a complete puzzlement in only a generation or two. Debora
Well here's the thing I thought it was an iron right from the start. I've seen these before. As well as the ones that you put the coals inside. But after thinking about it I couldn't work out exactly how it got hot without then also scorching and or staining the clothes. So I thought I'd better not make any assumptions.
And for years my husband kept saying he felt like a hoarder with his 45’s, 33&1/3’s and his 8 tracks! My kids knew them as we had them, their friends however did not.
I grew up with a wood stove. My mother cooked and baked on it. That's where she heated the iron. I had a child size one that I learned to use on my doll clothes. Imagine today letting an 8 year old use a hot iron! Farm kids grew up fast. One of the places I was boarded at during the summer had five or six kids at any one time and the 10 year old boy was responsible for chopping the firewood. I had to take care of the chickens
