Big ol griddle

[Ray Armstrong]

I have wanted to find a gridddle for a long time and have been waiting for the right deal to come up. While i was at a flea market over the weekend I seen this one and was suprised to see how large it is. It measures 21" X 31" and is #45. I have never heard of the brand name of it so I decided to search the internet a little to see what I could learn. I know it is made by Grey & Dudley probably in 1941. I started by googling G&D and the other information molded to the casting, and found nothing. Then I tryed ebay to see if there was any thing for sale by the same name and found this.

 http://cgi.ebay.com/1912-LHD-GRAY-DUDLEY-WASHINGTON-HARDWARE-NASHVILLE-TN_W0QQitemZ360066647218QQcmdZViewItemQQptZCollectibles_Paper?_trksid=p3286.m20.l1116
 
Next I looked at the pan man's web site to see if he had anything similar for sale. Nope he dident have any. I emailed him with some questions and in the mean time disscused it with some kind folks on an outdoor cooking forum I visit preiodicaly. One of those guys suggested it was part of a wood fired cook stove. That makes the letter in the auction make more sense. When Dave, the pan man, returned my email he said it is possible it was made for the military and to try the good folks at the WAGS forum and see what they think. So here we are. Do you guys think it is part of a wood fired cook stove made for the military? Any other suggestions or ideas where it came from?  

Heres the griddle before cleaning.



And after.








I dident use a grinder on it to clean it, someone else did though. I did use a fairly fine wire wheel on a small grinder,gently, to clean the rust and old seasoning off of it.

[Chuck Rogers]

We had a member looking to buy one at one of his local haunts. From what we could learn, it was indeed made for the military. It's a griddle and not part of a stove. Look back through the general information threads and you will find it. It wasn't that long ago. Oh, by the way, Welcome to Wags. That is a nice find, and are those the before and after pics of your griddle? If they are, nice work. It cleaned up real well.

[Chuck Rogers]

Sorry, didn't read the end of your post. Those may not be grinder mark that you see. Most of the better CI was ground or polished. If yo can still see the marks, that's a good thing. If you look around here on Wags, you will find the proper way of cleaning and seasoning C I. If you used a stainless steel wire brush, good for you. You can't mark the iron with it because it's softer than the iron. Just look under the cleaning and seasoning section. You'll find all the info you need.

[Chuck Rogers]

Click on this. I found the thread about the griddle. http://www.griswoldandwagner.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1229121421 I think this is what you found.

[Chris Stairs]

Ray,

Welcome to Wags.
  Nice job cleaning up your griddle. I'm not sure but those marks on the cooking surface look pretty precise for a hand held grinding job. It might have been surfaced when new with an end mill or factory grinding machine. Like Chuck said, if that's original, it's a good thing. The machined surface is better for cooking. Maybe the pictures don't show the marks you were talking about?
  

[Ray Armstrong]

Well I guess there are two of them we know of now. You cant see it in the pics but there are grind marks in two of the corners and the top edge of those corners are gouged abit. The other grinding on the rest of the surface Im sure was done at the factory. In a few days I get it in my smoker, its too big for the oven, and season it.

I have a 3 burner camp chef camp stove I am intending to put it on to cook with it. The griddle is only 6" wider than the stove, front to back, so it should be interesting to see how much of the griddle gets hot. This has been a fun project so far. Thanks guys

[Duke Gilleland]

GREAT FIND!!

[Steve Tullos]

Wow - That's a nice griddle! That thing would be great for cooking at family reunions or parties...