Carpet seaming tool

For connecting two carpet pieces together across a seam, with a strip of tape lapping the adjacent edges of the pieces and a heat-activated adhesive on the tape bonding to the underside of the pieces upon the application of heat, a tool for simultaneously applying pressure against the seam as the seam is cooling and for rapidly dissipating the heat away from the cooling seam, comprising the combination of:

• a base plate having opposed upper and lower faces, said lower face being flat and smooth,
• a handle means off the upper side of the base plate,
• said base plate having a width between approximately 3 and 10 inches and having a length between approximately 8 and 20 inches,
• said base plate and handle means having a combined weight between 2 and 20 pounds,
• said base plate also having a plurality of through holes between the upper and lower faces,
• said holes being arranged in a closely spaced array over the whole lower face of the base plate and having an open-ness ratio between 0.1 and 0.5,
• said holes each being between 0.2 and 0.5 inches in diameter, and
• said tool being adapted to be placed on, pressed against, and moved along the seam, from the upper side of the carpet, and simultaneously extend over the tape on both carpet pieces at the seam and along the length of the seam.