Wagner vs. Griswold waffle iron?

M

MitchellC

Member
I have a Wagner 1408 waffle iron. I’d like to know your guys’ opinion of a waffle iron like mine where the paddles do not interlock at the ball joint vs a Griswold with paddles that do interlock at the ball joint.
 
The earliest waffle irons had fixed hinges, but most early 20th century irons' hinges do not really interlock securely, irrespective of brand. Most rely on two things to keep the irons from undesirably separating during use: 1.) the hinge end not being lifted out of the socket receiver in the base when turning, and 2.) lugs or tabs and slots in the neck of the handles that prevent the paddles from sliding sideways from one another.
 
Ok, another question. The pattern letters of the paddles are different. One is A and the other is F. Were the waffle irons originally sold with matching pattern letters or is one of my paddles from another waffle iron?
 
Pattern letters were to enable quality control to identify damaged working patterns, or to identify which foundryman was using what pattern, either, again, for quality control, or for piecework pay. Since all working patterns were cast from an original master pattern, there would be no reason to pair up specific working patterns into sets.

You may notice there are Griswold waffle irons with pattern number 151N that you will always find on both paddles in a set. This is because those irons use the same pattern for both paddles, and the N stands for "New", rather than as a working pattern identifier. Letters for that purpose are found on the inside surface of the handle shank.
 
I have a 151N set where one plate has no marking on the inside and the other has a 1 at the base of the handle on the waffle side and an extra comma between PA. and U.S.A. At first I thought it was a miscasting but after cleaning up my new purchase it definitely is an extra comma.
 
The comma after PA. is actually quite the norm for Griswold pan markings. If not included, it either means it was omitted from the master pattern, or the bit of raised sand in the mold that would have created it fell off, either in the transfer from creating a working pattern from the master pattern or during the final casting from a working pattern .
 
In my case I actually have two commas after PA, one right after the PA and one right before USA, somewhere between 1/4” and a 1/2” in between each comma. I’ll take a picture of it later but it’s just neat because it adds to its character.
 
That pattern marking discrepancy appears to be common. On the p/n 314/315 paddles, neither have a comma after "PA." and many 315 paddles have no period after the A in U.S.A.
 
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