Long, Skinny Iron Cleaning Tool - for lye or molasses

[Tom Neitzel]

I've been busy building a special container to clean some of my wafer irons.  The old long handled, hearth style irons.  They can be over 2 feet long.

With lye, it doesn't matter if the whole piece is immersed, it will clean, then you just stick the other end in and it will clean up just fine.

Both EvapoRust and Molasses will cause problems if the whole item is not immersed in the liquid or there are places that gas bubbles can form.  A permanent black line will be created where the liquid ends (bubbles look even worse).  A work around that I've used is to hide the line at a corner or joint.

I always am careful to make sure there are no places for gas or air to get trapped when using these liquids.

A person could lay a long item down flat in a tub, but it needs a big tub and lots of liquid.  Cheap with molasses, pricey with EvapoRust.

A few years ago I built a cleaning tube from 3" drain pipe that worked well with my lye.

So, I went looking and found a 2 foot lenght of 6" PVC sewer pipe at Lowe's.  Found a cap on eBay and finally glued it all together.

But, surprise, as you can see, my wafer iron is a bit longer than my finished tube (by the way, if you look at the balls on the handles they indicate a German or Northern European origin).

So I figured I would just add a coupling.  Well, 6" pipe fittings are not something that you find at your local big box store, but I did find a neoprene coupler.

I've attached a few pictures to show what I did.

Tom

[Tom Neitzel]

It's now holding 3 gallons of molasses solution and will sit for a few days.

This is most likely an early 19th century iron, possibly from Belgium.  I was agonizing over cleaning it, but decided to do it to see if I could find a touchmark (like the other two HPB irons I have.)

When I put it in the lye, I found that the nice black coating was paint.  It had me fooled, I thought it was from use.  I just don't understand why folks do that.  What you see in the photos is the lye cleaned iron.  In fairly decent shape with a bit of rust.  Not cast iron, but instead, hand wrought iron with the design stamped in.

Tom

[Cheryl Watson]

What you see in the photos is the lye cleaned iron.

Tom, I can't see the iron... :-/

[Tom Neitzel]

What you see in the photos is the lye cleaned iron.

Tom, I can't see the iron... :-/

I should have been more specific.  The iron is showing in the first set of photos.  You can see the full length on the far left.  It is in the molasses right now.

By the way, for those of you on the east coast, the surface under the container is bare ground with some green weeds in it.  It is not white all year long.


Tom

[Cheryl Watson]

I was so distracted by the sight of Green, that I failed to distinguish the WI in that pic.... :P

I think we will see green soon, major snowmelt the last three days and I have been sneezing non stop, so the grass has been quite desperate and will probably appear overnite..........

[Russell Ware]

Tom, that's a great idea. I have a 26 inch long wafer iron that is also painted black. One day I plan to strip it, so I can see the lettering on it (it's a size 3).

[Mark Zizzi]

Pretty neat, Tom.  [smiley=thumbsup.gif] If anyone else wants to try it, I saw some 6" couplings on ebay.

[Tom Neitzel]

Tom, that's a get idea. I have a 26 inch long wafer iron that is also painted black. One day I plan to strip it, so I can see the lettering on it (it's a size 3).

That iron looks to be in great shape.  Most likely English.  You can tell the German from the English by looking at their balls. :o

German are rounded and at the end of the handle, the English have a pointy bit out the end.

Here's a terrible copy of an 1896 catalog page from an English foundry that shows many of their irons.  I don't see this one, but you can see the one that looks like the Great Seal of The US.  I think folks say that seal is to commemorate the State of Tennessee entering the Union.

Tom

[Jim Glatthaar]

Great idea, Tom.  Do you have any problem with leaking where the coupling is attached?

[Tom Neitzel]

Haven't so far.  It's been 2 days.  That coupling is intended to connect two pieces of just about any type of 6" pipe - cast iron, PVC or ABS.  I spent more on this goofy thing than I had expected.  Once you move out of the common household stuff, it gets a lot more expensive.  I was looking at plastic coupling and with shipping they were about the same price as the neoprene one - about $16.00.  I think the end cap ran me about $11 or $12.

Tom

[Tom Neitzel]

Just for fun, here's a current eBay auction for one of the "Great Seal" wafer irons.  You see them every now and then, usually somewhere between $500 and $2,000.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ANTIQUE-WAFER-IRON-with-THE-GREAT-SEAL-OF-THE-UNITED-STATES-Circa-1800-/251858823112?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3aa3f4a7c8

Nice looking iron, but check out the balls and tell me if you think it is:

1.  Made in the US, and

2.  From the early 1800s.

Likely not, but maybe the seller is an expert  :-/ and can provide a bit more provenance.  A nice looking iron.  Ready to jump on that BIN? ;)

Tom

Ran across another one, this time from maybe the 1700s, cheaper too.

Check out the balls.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/OLD-ORIGINAL-PRIMITIVE-EAGLE-WAFFLE-IRON-PAN-BLACKSMITH-HAND-MADE-/191533633242?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c984b4eda

[Jim Glatthaar]

Very nice piece, Tom.  I can see why you love those seal pieces.