What do you make of this??

[Frank Dimos]

My sister-in-law gave me this no 8 chicken fryer to clean and season. It belonged to her 62 year old husband's grandmother, so it's been around awhile. He works at a steel mill and took it there many years ago to have it cleaned.

It looks old with the raised number 8 (no other markings), but it doesn't have a heat ring or bottom gate. The handle is flat and attached to the body oddly for an old skillet. It is not a thin walled skillet. These things all seem to indicate that it's not all that old. It had very little rust on it, but appears deeply pitted inside and out in an almost even fashion.

I think they sandblasted it. What do you think? And can anyone put this in an era? Even with the raised number, I think it's got to be 30's or later given all the other attributes.

[Frank Dimos]

More pics.

[Duke Gilleland]

 :'(Sandblasted :(

[Dwayne Henson]

Dang!

[C. Perry Rapier]

I don't know if this is sandblasting or not. I had a piece sandblasted once, just to see what it looked like, and it sure was not this bad, not even close. Looks like this poor piece was sandblasted with some kind of steel shot.  :'( :-/

[Frank Dimos]

Perry, I didn't think about the material that might have been used, but you very well could be right. He worked at a steel mill that makes roller bearings and stainless steel, among other products. I've never seen anything like it, not that I'm terribly experienced. But I HAVE seen alot of abused pieces.

What about era? I can't get over the raised "8". I've always considered raised letters and numbers like this a sign of age, but nothing else about this piece indicates an 1800's piece.

[Keith Rumgay]

I would say acid dipped.  :'( :'(

[Robert Boswell]

Looks to me like it is just rust pitting. It probably laid around outside or on the dirt floor of a shed at some point then was cleaned to remove the rust. 

[Mike Shoughrow]

Nice piece. Looks to be factory hammered. I'm jk. Lodge used raised numbers around the 1920s. The absence of a gate mark makes me think it's not terribly old . Why it has no other markers marks I have no idea. Very well could have just been lodge molds used by someone else. As for the pitting looks like it was just buried in the ground for awhile. Must have been real bad at one point if it was brought to work to be cleaned. Still a neat piece of cast iron and probably has quite a few stories to tell.