ironing-msg - 10/31/06
Medieval ironing of clothes. Ironing and pressing tools.
NOTE: See also the files: felting-msg, brooms-msg, beds-msg, candlesticks-msg, lamps-msg, weaving-msg, looms-msg, Med-Lighting-lnks, p-cleaning-msg.
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Stefan at florilegium.org
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Date: Tue, 2 Sep 1997 14:42:28 -0400 (EDT)
From: Mark Schuldenfrei <schuldy at MATH.HARVARD.EDU>
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: irons
I wondered if anyone knows the history of irons, as in ironing to take
the wrinkles out of clothes. Flat surfaces you can heat up and fire are
Period, so are wrinkles. Did any of our Period cultures iron clothes?
There are mentions of primary sources that talk about ironing table linen
in "Fast and Feast", by Henisch.
Tibor
Date: Tue, 02 Sep 1997 11:47:25 -0700
From: Brett and Karen Williams <brettwi at ix.netcom.com>
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: irons
kathleen keeler wrote:
> I wondered if anyone knows the history of irons, as in ironing to take
> the wrinkles out of clothes. Flat surfaces you can heat up and fire are
> Period, so are wrinkles. Did any of our Period cultures iron clothes?
>
> Agnes
> kkeeler at unlinfo2.unl.edu
An interesting question-- cool, an opportunity to learn something. A very
specialized iron for finishing ruffs (I think the term was a 'goffering
iron') was used in the Elizabethan period, but I've yet to wander across any
specific mention of something like the flatiron prior to Victorian times. To
summarize, my current opinion is 'unproven' due to my personal lack of
evidence, which means I'd be perfectly happy to entertain evidence I haven't
seen at this point in time. I personally don't think that extrapolation of
the use of one item by virtue of the factual evidence of a similar item
constitutes a logical proof. Does anyone on the list have that evidence?
On the other hand there are extant linen smoothing 'irons' made of flat
plates of bone and (I think) ivory, but I don't know the specific method in
which they were used. Incidentally, Regia Anglorum page, located at:
http://www.ftech.net/~regia/bonework.htm
displays a drawing of a whalebone plaque used on linen. They assert that
the bone plate depicted in the middle of the page was used together with a
glass ball. Any thoughts on this process?
The historical costume list had a recent interesting post on a modern
Scandiavian linen tool called a cold mangle, that consists of flat plates
and rollers used to press linen under extreme force without the use of
heat-- the theory being that crushing and polishing the fiber by physical
force makes a superior texture, and ensures a longer textile life than the
damaging effects of exposure to a blast of warm heat as found in modern
dryers. I can make the roughly parallel correlation that mine own favorite
method of 'finishing' linen, ironing the piece dry after removal from the
washing machine, produces a crisper, shinier fabric somewhat less prone to
wrinkling than removing the same piece instantly from the dryer once dried.
I've begun to wonder about the long-run effect of the heat from the iron on
the linen fiber, though.
ciorstan
Date: Tue, 02 Sep 1997 20:18:52 -0400 (EDT)
From: ALBAN at delphi.com
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: irons
Agnes asked
>> I wondered if anyone knows the history of irons, as in ironing to take
the wrinkles out of clothes. Flat surfaces you can heat up and fire are
Period, so are wrinkles. Did any of our Period cultures iron clothes?
<<
I haven't read it yet, since it just arrived in my mailbox this afternoon,
but the newest issue of the Smithsonian magazine has a cover article on
irons, which might be useful. Or at least entertaining.
Alban
Date: Wed, 3 Sep 1997 17:55:05 -0500 (CDT)
From: Saundra Wever Frerichs <00123105 at bigred.unl.edu>
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: irons
> Shifting the question slightly to "were clothes pressed smooth during
> period?", the answer is yes. I know presses were used by the Romans -- I'm
> not sure if this was to press garments, press other finished goods, or
> whether it was part of the textile production. Linen smoothers (glass or
> other smooth ball and a flat surface) were used by the Vikings. I don't
> have sources with me, but I know that several (if not many) have been found
> in archaeological sites.
>
> As far as whether heat was used to assist wrinkle reduction, I have no idea.
>
> Ailene ingen Aedain
> Shire of Shadowdale, Calontir
Ailene,
I've seen the linen smoothers that you refer to, however, I wonder if
it is a jump of modern logic to assume that they were used to smooth
fabric. They were found primarily in women's graves, but there really
is no evidence to suggest how they were used. I have seen it
suggested that they were used in some part of the production process
of linen. I have also wondered if they might have been used to put
wrinkles into the fabric, i.e. the pleates referred to in Norse women's
undertunics.
I have no evidence one way or the other and it seems more logical to
use them to take wrinkles out, however I have seen how easy it is for
archaeologists to misidentify daily use items whose purpose is not
immediately obvious.
Just an idea to keep us talking.
Kyrstin Bjolfsdottir
Barony of Mag Mor, Calontir
Date: Thu, 11 Sep 97 15:18:53 PDT
From: "Tracy Shelanskey" <shelanst at probe.net>
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Ironing out the wrinkles
A bit late I know but a short while ago Mistress Agnes asked about ironing clothes. While reading through "The Domestoi," (Rules for Russian Households in the time of Ivan the Terrible,) I found several passages about taking care of clothes.
One example, on page 106, says:
"...But even on such occupations, protect your clothes from mud, rain and snow, and when you arrive home, take them off, dry them, iron out the wrinkles, and remove any bad odor, then put the clothes away neatly in their proper place."
I don't know if this means an actual hot iron to remove the wrinkles or not, but at least it shows they preferred un-wrinkled clothing.
Just thought I'd share,
-Tatjana Nikonovna
Lonely Tower, Calontir
Date: Wed, 26 May 1999 08:59:36 -0600
From: Valerie Robertson <VRoberts at itd.state.id.us>
To: "'sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu'" <sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu>
Subject: Wrinkles are Period (was Fiber Properties)
It helps if you think of wrinkles as wild pleats. I got started from trying
to research the bliaut controversy-are the body creases pleats, wrinkles?
*I* think they look like the stone carvers were trying to portray smocking,
but, hey, it's only an opinion. But I found lots of portrayals of wrinkled
cloth, all centering on French and German cathedral sculpture, all 12th and
13th century. When I've got my references handy, I can answer more
thoroughly.
Briony
Date: Wed, 26 May 1999 20:19:13 -0700
From: Brett and Karen Williams <brettwi at earthlink.net>
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: Fiber Properties
Seton1355 at aol.com wrote:
> Hello Briony,
> Could you please talk a bit about wrinkles being period? I believe you, I'm
> not challanging your knowledge of period wrinkles, AND I'm not surprised that
> they ARE period. I'd just like to hear more about it. Also, what is "double
> weave" please?
>
> Phillipa
>
> << wrinkles are period, and I have documentation)..........melton (a felted
> double weave, usually twill),
Well, as far as wrinkles being a period concept: consider that the
earlier period 'iron' was a glass ball and a smooth bone or ivory
plaque-- there are oodles of glass balls found in the Coppergate
excavations.
ciorstan
Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 15:05:43 -0500
From: Roberta R Comstock <froggestow at juno.com>
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: Fiber Properties
The smooth plaque = ironing board and the glass (more of a biscuit shape
than a ball; rounded top and flat bottom) = the iron. It could easily be
heated in an oven or a pot of boiling water. The thing about linen is
that no matter how smooth it may be when you put it on, it will wrinkle
when you move or bend and the wrinkles will remain until it is pressed
again.
Hertha
Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 23:09:04 -0700
From: Brett and Karen Williams <brettwi at earthlink.net>
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: Fiber Properties
Teleri wrote:
> ciorstan babbled, in part:
>
> Well, as far as wrinkles being a period concept: consider that the
> earlier period 'iron' was a glass ball and a smooth bone or ivory
> plaque-- there are oodles of glass balls found in the Coppergate
> excavations.
>
> ------------------------------------------
>
> Can you give any more information on these glass balls, or point me to some
> references? Do you mean that the ball and the plaque were assembled together
> somehow, or are these two different things that were used to press clothes?
> How do we know they were used for pressing clothes? Seems like they would
> not be too effective without heat....
>
> Teleri ferch Pawl
Sure they were. What a glass ball and plaque would do is polish the
external cells, stuck end to end, making up linen bast. I will point you
to:
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/rialto/linen-msg.html
[the new address is:
http://lg_photo.home.texas.net/florilegium/index.html
-editor]
...which has a section called "irons and linen use/abuse" that's me
blathering on about this same topic. The Filing System of Doom has
eaten my copy of Penelope Walton's Textile Production, #17 from the York
Archaeological Trust's series on the Coppergate finds-- which contains a
buncha glass 'balls', even a set of 'em in the colour plates. Oh, from
Thora's bibliography:
Textile Production at 16-22 Coppergate. The Archaeology of York, Volume
17, Fascicule 11. York: York Archaeological Trust and the Council for
British Archaeology, 1997.
They aren't really balls, as another respondent posted-- they're a
smooth, flat bottomed glob of glass. "Ball" is merely a convenient word.
There's also a reproduction plaque in the boneworking section at the
Regia site:
http://www.regia.org/bonework.htm
This is a start, but it's tired out. ;)
ciorstan
Date: Fri, 28 May 1999 10:26:33 EDT
From: <SNSpies at aol.com>
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: Fiber Properties
<< Well, as far as wrinkles being a period concept: consider that the
> earlier period 'iron' was a glass ball and a smooth bone or ivory
> plaque- >>
And what a pain it must have been to do this "ironing". We just saw a
completely preserved Viking "ironing board" at Kirkwall in the Orkneys, and
it was about 12"-14" tall.
Nancy (Ingvild)
Date: Fri, 28 May 1999 11:51:40 -0400
From: capriest at cs.vassar.edu (Carolyn Priest-Dorman)
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: RE: Fiber Properties
Teleri asked:
>I was curious about the "ironing" implements because I hadn't heard of that
>before, and particularly because of the use of glass. Don't mean to dispute
>what you say, but still wonder about this. Glass will crack if it's
>subjected to a lot of heating and cooling, especially if it's unannealed.
My guess is that it didn't have to get very hot in order to be useful: it's
more the smoothing action than the application of extreme heat that coaxes
out the shine of linen. Also, the glass would cool somewhat slowly, I
think, since it wouldn't be touching a heat-sink like metal. (If it were I,
the top of the glass would be wrapped in a wool pad to hold it; this would
also help it to cool slower.) Further, the abrasion process might serve to
keep the heat a while longer.
Most of them are black or very dark green glass blobs; the ones from York
had a high lead content. Wear marks indicate back-and-forth rubbing (Walton
Rogers 1775).
If you're interested in a technical analysis of the glass, see C. Mortimer,
"Glass linen-smoothers from 16-22 Coppergate, York," _Ancient Monuments
Laboratory Report_ 22/95 (1995). I have not read this, but found it in the
biblio of Walton Rogers.
>And how would they handle the glass object when it was hot?
Use a potholder? ;>
>Also, I wonder whether wrinkles were really an issue then.
As I understand it, the purpose of smoothing the linen is not so much to
eradicate good honest wrinkles but to bring up the inherent shine of the
fiber. If you beat and polish linen, it gets extremely soft and shiny.
(Check out heirloom damask tablecloths for a good example of this
phenomenon.)
>Can anyone point me to some books/articles/web sites about these glass
>objects?
Ciorstan already mentioned Walton Rogers, which is the best source I know of
in English. Walton Rogers cites J-P Wild's _Textile Production in the
Northern Roman Provinces_ for the earliest evidence of their use and then
mentions several other sources for individual finds throughout northern
Europe into the 15th century. The written Anglo-Saxon evidence seems to
support the name "slic"; Walton Rogers calls them slick-stones.
Jan Petersen's _Vikingetidens Redskaper_ (Norwegian with brief English
summary by tool type) reports on 28 Viking Age finds from Norway. He
mentions several finds of whalebone ironing boards (three from the
pre-Viking period) and also shows photos of four of them.
Greta Arwidsson's article "Glattsteine und Glattbretter" in _Systematische
Analysen der Graberfunde_, ed. Greta Arwidsson (Birka: Untersuchungen und
Studien, II:1. Stockholm: Almquist and Wiksell, 1986), pp. 199-202, has a
section on usage noting it as late as (if I'm reading this correctly) the
18th and 19th centuries. She also lists several finds from Amsterdam,
Dorestad, Dublin, and divers Scandinavian locations. Her immediately
following article, "Glas," pp. 203-212, mentions them again and notes the
four women's graves in which they were found.
Some of the Viking coffee table books have photos.
Carolyn Priest-Dorman =DE=F3ra Sharptooth
capriest at cs. vassar. edu Frostahlid, Austmork
http://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/thora.html
Date: Sun, 24 Sep 2006 12:11:12 -0400
From: "Terri Morgan" <online2much at cox.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Viking smoothing board
To: "'Cooks within the SCA'" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
> What's a "Viking smoothing board"?
> An ironing board of some type? A torture device?
It is an ironing board of some type - specifically, a lap-sized board (once
made of whalebone or like material) that is decorated slightly with a large
area left plain. That area is where you lay your linen edges and using a
glass , well, blob for lack of a better word (about like a paperweight),
fold over the seam edges and rub them. It makes a very nice sharp fold,
which helps with sewing a seam.
Viking-era women were occasionally buried with their boards, just like guys
had their shields. (Women also had their weaving swords, which was a nice
contrast to men's war swords.)
I scored a very nice one (Linden wood) this Pennsic from those Viking guys
under the tree...
Hrothny
Date: Sun, 24 Sep 2006 15:43:29 -0400
From: "King's Taste Productions" <kingstaste at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Viking smoothing board
Mistress Philia's String Page has a very good description:
http://www.stringpage.com/viking/board.html
I'm using a wooden plank rather than whalebone. And the glass glob
description just happens to match a green glass glob votive candle
holder I bought at IKEA some time back. I am planning on taking some
linen and hemp cloth with me to class, and having it as a class
activity. We'll try and do some smoothing and pleating. I've also got
some large silver discs (big sequins) that we'll try stamping some
images into with rubber mallets and simple tools.
Christianna
Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2006 06:25:35 -0500
From: "Betsy Marshall" <betsy at softwareinnovation.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Viking smoothing board
To: "'Cooks within the SCA'" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Since I know from personal experience- you don't need _heat_ to set a
wrinkle in linen- mostly I use what my Mom referred to as finger-pressing-
fold the edge over once or twice then run your fingers back and forth along
it (like putting a sharp crease in paper), the fabric will stay in place
long enough to get stitched down, even if working by hand. I can see the
boards and blobs (or even a nice smooth river rock!) working well for
someone with reduced finger strength, (arthritis?) or a lot of sewing
to get through.
Pyro -the ever inquisitive after labor saving techniques
Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2006 14:30:31 -0700
From: "Laura C. Minnick" <lcm at jeffnet.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Viking smoothing board
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
> Since I know from personal experience- you don't need _heat_ to set a
> wrinkle in linen- mostly I use what my Mom referred to as finger-pressing-
> fold the edge over once or twice then run your fingers back and forth along
> it (like putting a sharp crease in paper), the fabric will stay in place
> long enough to get stitched down, even if working by hand. I can see the
> boards and blobs (or even a nice smooth river rock!) working well for
> someone with reduced finger strength, (arthritis?)or a lot of sewing to get
> through.
> Pyro -the ever inquisitive after labor saving techniques
Bridget Ann Henisch, in _Fast and Feast_ discussed the laundress' use of a
'slick stone', which is essentially exactly as you just described- a slick,
polished rock that is used to press linens. Nothing is new under the
sun :-)
'Lainie
<the end>