The example I have here is a BSR Cornbread Skillet. It is a “Made In USA” version of the wedge pan, not the earlier “Pat. Pending” version. It was intact and in great condition from when I found it, all the way through lye cleaning and electrolysis. There were no defects as I wiped the first coat of oil from the piece and placed it into a 490F oven for an hour. But when I pulled it out of the oven, there was now a very obvious crack in one of the sidewalls. Not trying to over-analyze the situation too much, the attached photo shows the crack. Notice that this crack occurred where one of the thin sidewalls meets the thickest part of the piece, the handle. Before you ask, yes, this piece was preheated to 250F before the oil was applied. So it wasn’t like I threw a cold piece of iron into a real hot oven. Clearly the difference in thermal expansion between the thinnest and thickest parts of the pan was still enough to cause this failure. Perhaps it would not have happened if the thinner sidewalls would have been designed and rotated to meet the outer edges only, instead of where the thicker handle attaches to the outer wall. There is no guarantee that the same thing will happen to your pan when seasoning. I have seasoned several of these pans previously without any damage occurring at 490F. But I would recommend being cautious with this style pan, seasoning it at a lower temperature range between 350 and 400F.
The Lodge wedge pan has sidewalls that are much thicker than the BSR pan. Plus the Lodge pan has a hole in the center. The Lodge design creates a smaller wedge. So one can bake larger scones when using the BSR pan. The cracked pan will still bake many scones. It would just be a bit more comforting if the pan was still intact.
