Nice work, but one thing is missing. The internal grate that was mostly rotted away. There needs to be an internal grating that keeps the coals from direct contact with the bottom of the iron. You got away with your test because you only ironed one piece of clothing but the coals, and this thing was meant to use actual burning coal, coal, not wood so much. as Coal produced less smoke than wood, but, the coals inside the iron would get the iron far too hot unless they were prevented from being in direct contact with the bottom of the iron, otherwise it would simply burn the clothing you were trying to iron. As is, your iron is really not useable because it would get too hot. if the coals were in contact with the bottom it would become as hot as the coals are, and that is way too hot to iron cloth with. so there is a grating inside that prevents the burning coal from touching the bottom and only the radiant heat would heat up the iron. there was a missing flap to cover the chute in the back, that you recreated just fine, and it was through that port that ash would be removed. Just imagine being an early 18th or late 17th century housewife that needs to iron a lot of clothing, putting the coals directly in contact with the bottom of the iron would heat up the iron fast but you would only be able to iron one maybe two items before it would start to burn the clothes, and that is counter productive, to say the least. SO needless to say, there needs to be an internal grating so that the iron won't become too hot, and even then, these irons were very well known to burn clothing. they weren't that good, but they were all they had for a long time.
Very nice job. What a strange iron lol! What was the purpose of that weird piece you had to cut off the inside of the iron at about 2:00, the one that looked badly broken?
