J.E.Cook Non-Corr. W.I.

M

MDFraley

Member
In late Dec. I bought this W.I. for $18 not knowing anything about it. Had a lot of baked on crud and both handles were missing. When my aunt passed I set things aside and just recently I started cleaning on it again. Over the weekend I spent a lot of time looking thru our (C.I.C.) patent data base and found the patent on it to my surprise. Turns out it was patented on Sept. 15th, 1925 by J.E. Cook of Meadville Penn. and assigned to Inez K. Gaylord of Oklahoma, Pat# 1,553,989. Reading the description of the design patent it says that the handles were made of hard rubber or the like. Today I made some handles from Hickory but have not permanently attached them as of this post. My question to all you pro's out there, should I leave the handles as shown in the attached pic's, paint them black, or stain them a darker color as I did for my Harker W.I. ( also shown in last pic) ? I guess one alternative is to find some hard plastic type handles and try to fit them but I think it would not look right considering the age of this piece.
Thanks for any help in advance.
http://imgur.com/a/5YKZk
 
Michael,
That was a very nice find. Did you get the base?

I would stain the handles very black and call it a day. Don't put plastic on that wonderful old WI.

Jack
 
JMoss said:
Michael,
That was a very nice find. Did you get the base?

I would stain the handles very black and call it a day. Don't put plastic on that wonderful old WI.

Jack
Click to expand...

Thanks Jack for the suggestion...As for the base...If you read the design features in the patent, the base is part of the W.I. itself which is why I took a pic of it from the side, thus it just sits on the burner supported by the extended features of the W.I. itself. The half-moon notches allows heat to vent to prevent damage from to high cooking temp. To account for any spill overage the inside of the W.I. has a channel encompassing the heart/diamond design so when the waffle is done lift it out and remove any spillage pieces before making the next batch. Question is; will it cook? Who knows...I'm thinking the aluminum (or what ever metal it's comprised of) may be hard to regulate.
 
"hard rubber or the like" was probably bakelite. A few heavy coats of flat black on the wood to cover the grain and nobody will ever know it isn't one of the original plastics. Get the temp right and it should cook just fine.

Hilditch
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top