What is the largest Griswold Pan

[Roger Barfield]

A happier story.  My dad has had 2 old cast iron skillets in his work shed as long as I can remember.  The reason I started collecting was because he gave them to me 5 years ago when he was cleaning out the shed.  He would have probably sold them in a garage sale.  Anyway, one had 10  and made in USA, the other had something I could not read, but it was large.  It turned out to be "ERIE".  I bought the blue book to see what it meant, and if it was and if it was worth anything.  It turned out to be an ERIE #11.  :o

I electro cleaned it, and it is in perfect condition no warps, cracks, or rust.  It's my favorite skillet.  I only wish I had got my gradmothers cast iron that was sold in a garage sale when she died in 1976.

[Greg Stahl]

I have a similar story.  A friend of mine works as a sales manager for a Biotech firm.  When he got married, one day his new wife decided to get rid of all those old cast iron skillets that his mother had given to him.  When he got home from work, she showed him all the new pots and pans that she had just bought and told him that she sent the others to the Salvation Army store.  He left right away to go and get them back.  All of them were gone and the shop clerk said, "one guy came in and bought them all and was VERY happy".  I should guess so, as there were Wapak Indian head skillets and large Griswold skillets too (11, 12, 13 and 14)!!

Man was he mad at his new wife that day!

[Wulfdog]

She would have been my new x-wife.

[Wulfdog]

I guess in response to the stories above, tell everyone near and dear to you how much you love your CI so they will respect it when your not around to protect it, or run a bicycle lock through the handles and anchor them to the foundation of your home.  I can picture those cables with the alarms on them at the gun shows working on a large collection of skillets.

[moosejaw]

LOL!!!!!!

[Jerry Cermack]

You could never cover up the weld to make it restored, but you could sure continue to use it.

John, I'm not sure what you meant exactly by never covering it up, but I have had two #13 skillet that were cracked badly and been welded.  The weld was ground down smooth with the surface of the skillet, then expertly painted using shades of grey and black textured paint on the outside and grey and black on the inside to camoflage it so well, close up camera shots did not show the crack.  I sold both of them for DISPLAY purposes only, NOT for use.
They work out very well as display for those who cannot afford a nice #13 or any other scarce item.

[loebster]

Danget. You made me go out and buy a lodge 20. I was thinking before , yeah maybe if I find a griswold for reasonible I'll get one.  So I figured I would price them out. I found one on Amazon for $32.99 including shipping. So I figured what the heck, before you check, it was the last one he had. It is suposed to be new and the guy had good feedback.
So as I am purusing Amozon I decide I need 3 lodge 14's, a deep fryer, and a hiabotchi. Super saver on shipping $100  for the three pans, hiabotchi and fryer kit.

I thought I told myself no new lodge unless you get it at a garage sale cheep. I just blew over $130 on new iron.    

Which I know Lodge is the last domestic producer and they are going to host the convention next year, but they don't build it like old Griswold. The finsh isn't as nice, and it doesn't season up as well.

So while I was trying to step up my quality a notch, my quanity overuled me. Plus I have been wanting a cast Iron hiabotchi for a while, you just don't see as many around as you did 15- 20 years ago.

Look out, he's got a charge card...

It still doesn't make me feel better about the Indian. I never heard of Wapak. I was at a sale a month back and a guy had a #12 Camp Oven with an Indian on it. It said Wapack somewere too. But I never heard of Wapak and it looked like it just came out of a box,so i thought it was chinese. Can you believe that that guy wouldn't take $20 for it. He held firm at $25 so I left it there. woops... I guess I'll know better next time.

[moosejaw]

Hey Greg,

Those new Lodges season up very well.  I have bought a few new pieces from Lodge, as they were well suited for a specific purpose, and I hadn't seen anything similiar in the old stuff.  I have bought some of their new camp ovens, as I can't bring myself to use the old ones.  They are wonderful and cook just like any old camp oven.  Even the junky Korean and Chinese stuff will cook food.  I've had friends give me cast iron, most of which turns out to be foreign junk.  I clean and season it and give it to college daughter.  She doesn't know the difference, and thinks they are great.  :P

Why do I buy Lodge?  To keep the last American foundry in business.  

[Duke Gilleland]

WalMart sells Lodge, so that helps the cause. SURPRISED though, as it it AMERICAN MADE ???. Have bought some recently for outdoor use. Tougher cleaning as opposed to the OLD iron :(.

[loebster]

Actually my first C.I. was some Lodge from Walmart. A seasonal clearance. I am a Walmart junky. It doesn't matter if I need it, if it maked down low enough I will buy it. (Addictive buying paterns and C.I. what a mix...)

That batch didn't season up well. Although I may not have cleaned the wax coating off well enough. I think the next batch is going in the lye bath first. That should clean it up well.
Since then I have moved on to older iron and it does clean up better and has a smoother finish. So while I wish I could find some larger old C.I. around It is fall in michigan and the fleamaket season is over.
So I bought some logde to get some bigger pans. My current large pans being #10's

Yes I do agree that supporting the last of American C.I. manufacterers is a good goal. Who knows how much longer they can last? People just don't use as much C.I. as they used to.  And the product I do have from them is very heavy and durrible. I just haven't been able to get it to look deep and black. I will have to try that no oil heat in the oven trick.

Plus it doesn't have a smooth finish. I don't know if that is intentional or not. If the rougher finish is suposed to help food float over the seasoning. But it just doesn't look as pretty.

[moosejaw]

Getting that wax coating off is critical.  I heat the piece in the oven to soften the wax, and then stick it in very hot water and use a Brillo pad to scrub it well.  My new Lodge stuff has a nice coating on it.  The old Lodge pieces are quite smooth.  The new ones aren't.......that is the price they have had to pay from all the competition they have from cheap foreign imports.  

[Steve_Stephens]

Both Lodge and Wagner, in the recent past, have made their iron with and without ground cooking surfaces.  I think it would be up to the store if they wanted to pay the extra for the ground or "polished" surface.  We all know that, today, "cheaper" sells so maybe that's why the apparent demise of, or difficulty in finding, the polished pans.  "Just good enough" seems to sell today but these foundries can and have made better.  The modern automatic molding machinery also has a bearing on the finish of the iron casting.

Steve

[moosejaw]

Thanks, Steve,

I wondered if those auto molding machines made a difference in the finish!  

Clear one thing up for me......when the pieces of Griswold and Wagner came out of the mold, were they rough like the new Lodge pieces? Then the "all over" polishing made them smooth?  I'm unclear how the process worked.

[Steve_Stephens]

The outside, inside, tops and bottoms all had the same grain pattern or surface texture.  Different pieces, for some reason, seemed to be smoother or rougher by a small amount.  The 665 breakfast griddle, for instance, seems to always be pretty grainy.

After the pans came out of the mold they were tumbled to clean the castings and then polished (ground) on the cooking surfaces, top of handles, etc. as needed to give the very smooth surface without the grain that the outside and bottoms of a piece have.  Of course, some pieces were never ground/polished like gem pans.  Does this answer your question Marty?
Steve

[Wulfdog]

I bet if a person wanted to take the time and use an orbital sander with varying grits of sand paper, they could polish up the cooking surface of any pan.  Thing is though, up in the threads I noticed someone mentioned the grainyness keeping the food up off the metal and giving the seasoning a place to stick.  This also makes me wonder if polishing it would make that much difference.  I personally haven't tried what I suggested, but if I ever get a grainy pan I will try polishing it to see what happens.  I used to do silver smithing and I know you can put a mirror like finish on nearly anything.

[Wulfdog]

Just saw a flyer with an auction coming up this weekend with Griswold and Wagner listed in the sale. [smiley=clap.gif] Just can't wait.

[Steve_Stephens]

John,
You can use a cup shaped grindstone to refinish the inside of skillets.  I saw a No.4 skillet done that way and it was quite pitted when the owner started.    It put a beautiful, very smooth finish on it.  You might have to shape the stone some to get the corner and sides.
Steve

[loebster]

O.K. now this is bugging me.  I thought I missed an opportunity to buy an indian wapak camp over. But I have just looked at some pictures of indians and it is a different logo. If I remember right it just said Wapak on the bottom of the D.O. but it had three legs. And it had a camp top but there was a raised logo in the style of lodges raised logo, but I thought it was an indian. What the heck was I looking at? Does anybody have any late model Wapak Camp Ovens? It didn't say Made in U.S.A. so it was either old or an import. It had a rougher finish like the new lodge.

[Roger Barfield]

I can't find any pictures of a Wapak camp oven in any of my books, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist.  Maybe they married two pieces that didn't belong together or something?  I think Troy is the dutch oven expert.

[wwilderaz]

I enjoy all the posts, but the starting question as to what is the largest Griswold has really not been answered...Give me a clue!