With all the talk about irons, I was wondering what is the "optimal" temperature for dry ironing, of cotton fabric. I know that most irons have settings that indicate cotton, linen, rayon and so on. That can vary with the iron of course. Once the optimal temperature is decided, could you use a candy thermometer to test the surface temperature of the iron? For those that might not know, and I am sure there are not many of you, a candy thermometer is used for immersion in a boiling vat of sugary liquid to measure the temperature of that liquid in the making of candy, and is used at very high temperature. I have a couple of them here. One a nice new digital one and one an older mechanical one with the temperature sensitive spring. Rhetorically he asked, why couldn't you establish the true surface temperature of the iron, and not rely on the cotton, rayon or whatever setting. It might be informative to those that are concerned that their iron isn't up to the task, because they did not buy the higher priced one. I plan to try this theory out tomorrow when I fire up the iron for quilting but I would like to know what the "optimal" temperature truly is for ironing cotton. Any guesses? I do know that there is much discussion about irons not getting hot enough. Just how hot is hot enough? In actual temperatures please.
John