What makes a cast iron skillet valuable

All together, this skillet is old, has more identification points than any Griswold ever made and, due to the decline of wood stoves at the time, was not manufactured all that often. This thing is special. By way of hand-casting from black sand molds, obsessive attention to iron quality and complete commitment to a hand-made process, it would not be inaccurate to call Griswold the Apple of its industry in its time.

Somewhere down the road, the idea that cast iron is at all durable was latched on to, proliferated and is now too big to effectively shoot down.

Cast-iron skillets are absolutely, unequivocably not durable. That makes this skillet — which, again, is just under years old and extremely rare — something of a miracle. The fact it has no chips, cracks, dings or visible signs of warping is sort of astonishing. That said, request more and detailed images of the cooking surface before buying just to be safe.

If you want your cast iron last forever, check out this step-by-step cast iron care guide:. Do you want to learn to identify real cast iron by yourself? Here are the steps you should follow:. The best way to quickly narrow down your cast iron cookware's origins is by checking the bottom for the insignia from a manufacturer.

Some of the most popular and quality vintage cast iron makers of the last two centuries were as follows:. These companies were founded in the late 's and early 's by blue-collar Americans throughout middle America Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin , providing families with high quality cast iron cookware that lasts.

The Griswold name is well-renowned as the cream of the crop when it comes to vintage cast iron. They were especially well-crafted and the manufacturer paid extra attention to detail.

You must pay attention to the sizes and shapes of logos and properly research the particular one you're dealing with. These logos often changed throughout the years and are a great indicator of the age of the cast iron.

For example, there are two Griswold logos - a newer one that is about 2 inches wide, and an older logo which is much larger at 4 inches wide. The new pans with the small logo don't have any real collectible value yet while the old logo pans can fetch a pretty penny.

This number refers to a measurement of the diameter length across the bottom of the pan, but the stamped number does not signify the exact diameter in inches. A 10 on the handle doesn't mean it is a inch pan. This goes completely against modern sizing standards. Skillets today are sold by diameter across the top - inch, inch, and so on. There is a reason for the stamped numbers that do refer to size, but by much different measurements.

Originally, cast iron was made to fit wood stoves that were commonly used for cooking in the s and s. There was an opening at the top that the cast iron pan sat upon, so the number was an indicator of compatibility between the pan and the type of stove it could be used with. These pans were often made by the same company that made the stove, and every company had a slightly different system. Here is the traditional number system from a Wagner catalog, along with their corresponding size in inches:.

Today, we don't use wood stoves and a cast iron skillet can fit on any stove, so the measurement standards have changed to indicate inches of diameter. With antique cast iron, there are certain numbers that are very common and some that are very rare.

Sometimes an old cast iron skillet may have numbers accompanied by letters as well. Sarah Pitts is a writer for BestReviews. BestReviews is a product review company with a singular mission: to help simplify your purchasing decisions and save you time and money.

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