# Identifying a handle



## snoopy55 (Mar 11, 2012)

My daughter recently brought me an item and wandered if I knew what it was.
My interests in woodworking is mainly the older tools, and this looked a bit old to her. I make it out to be a handle for some tool which can easily be removed. The only marks on it are a shield shape with a 'C' on it and an 'F' on the underside, which I figure to mean 'front' or 'forward'.

The small center knob can be grabbed between the two middle fingers and lifted, pulling up the piece with the hole in it. The hook does not move. The arched handle is attached with a screw at each end. The wood is a medium brown with a black marble effect to it.

Any ideas?


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## Pineknot_86 (Feb 19, 2016)

Some kind of splitter? Only a guess, never seen on before and I have been in a lot of antique shops.


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*My "educated" guess ...*

I say educated because I own some old one piece flat irons from my grandparents. I think it's a handle for flat irons which were heated on the wood stove but needed a means to use them without getting burned. 
This handle looks like it can be locked on the iron and released when the ironing was finished or to be reheated. :vs_cool:


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## snoopy55 (Mar 11, 2012)

Thank-You!!
My daughter and I are laughing because both of us thought it would be something for woodworking! I've seen the old flat irons, but they had metal handles with the spring across the top, not a beautiful wood arch!

Now, one final wood question, can you tell me what kind of wood that is? I'm not good at all in identifying woods.

Again, THANK-YOU!


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## snoopy55 (Mar 11, 2012)

Sorry, figured I'd better upload the pictures we'd found......


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*I'm guessing again ....*

Looks like Walnut to me based on the color. Identifying wood is best done by looking at the end grain and with a large enough sample which had not been finished with a stain. The curved could be bent. but unlikely in that small radius. It's a beautiful thing, but missing the ironing portion.... :sad2:

I found some on ebay:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Fl...=item41f4f83ac9:g:i1kAAOSwXRpbLRmU:rk:19:pf:0

There's one without the handle, just for you:








It goes for $15.26
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Antique-Mr...m=223247967344&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851


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## FrankC (Aug 24, 2012)

Imagine someone from 100 years ago traveling forward in time and going into a store and asking for a flat iron and being handed this;


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## snoopy55 (Mar 11, 2012)

woodnthings - I took it apart and can see the grains (after a slight bit of sanding) As you can see in the pics, I'm 'guessing' that it was bent. Beautiful wood and beautiful workmanship! 
Thanks for the site. I may use it if we can't find anything locally. There are a lot of resale shops close by and I want to search them for old woodworking tools, so I'll search for flat iron bases too!

FrankC, When we did a search for 'flat irons' we got over 90% results of those things! Some of the old flat irons were meant to have hot coal put in them! One even had a 'chimney' to deflect the heat and smoke! I wonder how well one of those would 'flatten' a ladies hair today????


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## FrankC (Aug 24, 2012)

snoopy55 said:


> snip I wonder how well one of those would 'flatten' a ladies hair today????


I can recall a time when ladies actually used them to straighten their hair. 

My Mom had a set with the same handle you have, another family friend had a gas heated iron.


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