Universal Travel Iron

This is my new collectible. I bought it to go with my Singer Featherweight. It works great and I don't see any reason that I shouldn't use it occassionally, which is about how often I would use the featherweight away from home (if I'm at home, I'm using my fancy "no-worry" iron that keeps itself hot and then turns itself off).

Here it is in the original plastic case. The only documentation I can find is that this iron dates to the 20's or 30's. But, there's no date in the box on it.

The handle swings up and locks in place and you press the little red button in the lower left corner to release it and lay it back down.

The cord is in pristine condition and the face of the iron is clean and scratch free.

The way it works is that you plug it in and it gets hot and the guage registers how hot. There's a setting for "too hot" in red and the instructions say not to let it stay there too long or it will damage the iron. I heated it up the other day and then timed how long it took to cool down. It only took about a minute and a half to heat up to the high setting recommended for cotton and then it stayed hot long enough that I could have ironed most of a shirt. That would be a pain except that it heats up so quickly. And, my experience with quilting is that I use an iron for short bursts, and this iron is great for that.

The plastic box itself is too big for my Featherweight case. I don't have the case with the removable tray. But, without the plastic box, it will slip down beside my machine easily. I plan to make a denim bag for it so it doesn't scratch. Now, I just have to find a class to take it and my featherweight to.

I thought I got a great price because I've seen this one and similar irons on ebay for $50 to $100. But, that's because I was looking at them with the featherweight machines. Today, I did a search on just travel irons and found you can get one of these for about $15 including shipping. But, if you do a search under featherweight iron, the same iron is $80 to $100.

I wonder how many times I've fallen for something like that on ebay. Oh, well, this is not the time to think about that or to question the bargains I think I've gotten. Right now, I'm going to enjoy this one and still think of it as a bargain.

Take care and have a great Vintage Thingie Thursday. Lane