A tie press is a device, based solely on pressure, to flatten neckties. Its use is necessitated by ties usually being of silk or some other textile ill-suited to the heat of ironing.
Tie presses usually operate based on two separate wooden boards which are clamped together with spring-loaded levers. A cardboard cut-out is usually included to retain the shape of the tie during pressing.
Tie presses are particularly useful for bow ties, due to the creasing and thus deformative nature of the bow tie knot, which involves crushing the ends to produce the 'bow' effect. In time, this crushing affects the appearance of the finished knot. This is particularly the case with bow ties with rectangular ends, rather than the 'bow' shaped ends in some bow ties, though both suffer from crushing to some degree or another. Four-in-hand ties, naturally, are also creased, but rarely to the same extent and, as such, usually require less regular pressing.
Famous quotes containing the words tie and/or press:
“Despotism may govern without faith, but liberty cannot.... How is it possible that society should escape destruction if the moral tie is not strengthened in proportion as the political tie is relaxed? And what can be done with a people who are their own masters if they are not submissive to the Deity?”
—Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859)
“The press is no substitute for institutions. It is like the beam of a searchlight that moves restlessly about, bringing one episode and then another out of darkness into vision. Men cannot do the work of the world by this light alone. They cannot govern society by episodes, incidents, and eruptions. It is only when they work by a steady light of their own, that the press, when it is turned upon them, reveals a situation intelligible enough for a popular decision.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)