Very interesting new pan

[Edward King]

http://www.bestmadeco.com/products/the-takedown-skillet
It looks like the surface is very smooth unlike most modern cast iron.

[Russell Ware]

It is not cast iron.

From the website:
"Turned on a lathe from a flat piece of iron, our Takedown Skillet is half the weight of cast iron with similar heat-retention properties."

[Edward King]

I'm confused.  Is it steel?  What do they mean by iron?  Wrought iron.

[Roger Muse]

I'm confused.  Is it steel?  What do they mean by iron?  Wrought iron.

It is not steel, as steel is iron with carbon and other things added to it. 

Cast Iron is iron that is molten and poured into a mold.

Wrought Iron is iron that is heated enough to be malleable and then worked with blacksmith/machine tools.

Technically Iron Plate is pig iron ingots that are heated and machine pressed/rolled to the appropriate thickness.  So this iron would be similar to wrought iron. 

If the skillet is 2 and a half inches deep, they must take a round piece of iron that is thicker than that and lathe away the excess material.

This would result in a skillet that is probably thicker than a pressed steel skillet, yet isn't a brittle as a cast iron skillet.

[Valerie Johnson]

http://www.netherton-foundry.co.uk/spun-iron

They describe spun iron as being spun from a sheet of iron but they do not actually describe the sheet of iron, They do state that if dropped on a hard surface it will break

[Roger Muse]

Spun Iron is also called centrifugal casting, so the properties would be similar to mold formed cast iron.

The takedown skillet appears to be machined from thick iron plate.  As such I would assume it would be less brittle than cast iron and have properties more like wrought iron.

[Valerie Johnson]

The spun iron process is a method in which the molten iron is spun in a centrifugal manner when casting, I believe these skillets are machined but I do not believe they are machined from a solid thick plate, I believe they are machines from a rough blank that is spun cast then machined for a finished surface, I could be wrong but that is just my thoughts on this, machining a skillet from a thick sheet would require a lot of machining, result in a lot of waste and yes the waste could be recycled but it just seems like a very expensive and time consuming procedure

[Edward King]

Is there any difference in the use and care of this pan and our usual CI pans?

[Tom Neitzel]

I have a little different take on this pan and the process to make it.

In my mind the word machined here means that the metal has been mounted in a lathe and formed.  I don't believe any cutting or removal of metal is happening in the machining.

I also think the term spun is referring to forming metal through metal spinning.  That is the mounting of a metal blank, could be sheet metal, wrought iron sheet or some other metal on a lathe.  The blank would then be spun up and shaped around a mandrel that was also mounted on the lathe with a series of roller tools, either hand applied or by automated methods.

If they are saying the pan is iron, it would be wrought iron in my mind.

If you look at the pictures in the link to the Netherton works you can see a gentleman spinning a piece.

Centrifugal casting is interesting in that the mold is usually spinning with the metal poured into the middle.  It is flung out to the edges of the mold and cools from the outside edge in.  Makes nice big cylinders for the most part (think cast iron water pipe for instance.

I've attached a couple pictures.

One other think I've thought about regarding cast and wrought iron and steel is that iron has lots of carbon in it, steel has quite a bit less.

Just my interpretation.

Tom

p.s.  Here's a link to an Australian metal spinning website video area.  Start with the introduction and let it run.  It ought to make you smile.

http://southernmetalspinners.com.au/reviews/

[Jim Fuchs]

 Thank you Tom ! Very informative.  :)

[Stuart Lowery]

Might be nice...but for that size at $98 there's a lot of nicer CI skillets out there. I don't plan on taking my CI backpacking anytime soon so shaving the weight doesn't matter ;)

[Edward King]

I agree with Stuart but if someone wants a new iron pan with a smooth surface there don't seem to be many choices.  Just because it folds doesn't mean that it has to be taken out of the kitchen.