...Old Charcoal Pressing Iron - Made in Ipoh Malaya

Old Charcoal Pressing Iron
Made in Ipoh Malaya

No one for sure when charcoal pressing iron was first discovered, however during the 1st century BC, the Chinese were using metal pans filled with hot coals to iron their fabrics.

Below, I have posted one I believe was made in Malaya. This iron is at least 70 to 80 years old or even older. It has been in my family as long as I can remember. On the back of this iron, it has few Chinese characters written and it reads as - 店福生商. If you read these from right to left, and based on Google translation, it tells me that it literally means - "Fusheng Store". On either side of these writings, there are also two more characters each. On the right it says 怡保 (Ipoh) and on the left the two characters are 新街 (New Street). I believe the company that made this iron was called Fu-Sheng and was located at New Street in Ipoh. In case you wonder, Ipoh is a city located about 180 kilometer north of Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. Ipoh is the capital city of Perak state. Ipoh (Kinta Valley) was once the richest town in the whole of Malaya due to tin mining and also the state (Perak) had their first car registered in the country. At one time, there were more Mercedes-Benz on the roads in Perak than in any other States in the country.

The condition of this iron is still in an excellent condition. We had two of these irons but the other one (slightly larger than this one) has gone AWOL.

The operation of a charcoal pressing iron is very simple. Like all others, all you need is to place burning charcoal in the center of the iron and let it heat up before using it. Some of these charcoal irons come with a cast iron mesh floor fire grate to support the heated charcoal for better burning and air circulation. I do not believe this one has that option. However it does have a cast iron ring to support the hot iron at intervals when it is not in use. This type of iron is not designed to have it stand upright like those current electrical irons.

Millions of this type of iron were made around the world. In the United Kingdom, they called this flatiron but they are not the same as the charcoal pressing iron. The flatiron has a solid base block of iron and does not use charcoal for heating up. Today, you can still find them on sale from secondhand shops or online. Needless to say, they are not rare, but I have not seen one that comes with a ring stand. In addition to these, I have also seen such irons that are made for the purpose of display only too. The reason I said this is because those that I saw do not have a smooth and flat base/bottom that you can use as hot iron. The finishing was not that great.

Some of the charcoal pressing irons that I saw are quite creative in their designs too but the one that I have is very simple and basic.

Today, I believe it is very rare to find anyone using such iron domestically, especially in the developing or the first world. The last time I used this iron was back in the late 90s and that was just for fun. Instead of charcoal, I used BBQ heat beats and it was not very effective as heat beats do not burn as fast as charcoal thus not generating sufficient heat for the iron.

If you have one, feel free to share with us here too.

Fu-Sheng Charcoal Pressing Iron 

Left side of the iron

Rear side of the iron with details of manufacturer

Footnote➱
I am unable to locate any streets in Ipoh that are called New Street. I am not surprised if the name had changed as the authority changed many of the streets with British names some 40 years ago. If any visitors from Ipoh can confirm this would be great.