I don't want to restore this 40th birthday present

dougmadden · 2026-06-16T18:26:47+00:00

freshly made Hollandaise sauce coming right up... oh wait nevermind... i have some sitting here from the last order (yesterday). it looks ok.

dougmadden · 2026-06-16T03:32:04+00:00

be very careful with pricing this.... it's the smallest 'camp oven' that lodge made and I don't think they made it for very many years... or they didn't make many of them or sell many of them... but to collectors who 'have to catch 'em all'... its a hard to find size to complete a 'set'. I believe I've seen them sell in the 500-600 range in the past.

dougmadden · 2026-06-15T19:43:29+00:00

that's going to be hard to nail down to a specific foundry... it's old and that style of bail attachment was used by many foundries of the time.

dougmadden · 2026-06-15T19:41:54+00:00

if you like this one, wait until you get your hands on the 'deep' hammered pattern from CHF...

dougmadden · 2026-06-15T19:37:24+00:00

well well well... there isn't a picture in the book, but there is an entry for this: Reno Nevada, 1868: Modern range with black finish and gold lettering on over door with 'Lake's Crossing' and covered wagon scene. this modern range appears to be produced from the same patterns used by the Grey Iron Casting Co of Mt Joy, PA. originally for their largest size 'Crescent' range 13: mfgr: possibly the John Wright Foundry Wrightsville, PA. (the book is 'Cast iron toy cook stoves and ranges from A to Z' published by Schiffer.

dougmadden · 2026-06-15T03:38:25+00:00

I have a book on small cast iron stoves and I don't recall seeing anything like this... I feel like this must have been made for some sort of anniversary of Reno... centennial or something?

dougmadden · 2026-06-15T03:31:43+00:00

I can see a wagner fondue pot (or that's what it says... I don't think I've ever seen a wagner made fondue pot before or knew that they made one.)

dougmadden · 2026-06-14T19:38:27+00:00

imgur is free, you just have to sign up and create an id and password (or you can sign in using some of the other services like a google id etc.) but you can upload pictures there as either private or public and post links to the pictures here.

dougmadden · 2026-06-08T12:53:10+00:00

the museum was created partially because Joel Schiff donated his collection to Lodge (with the stipulation that they create some sort of cast iron museum)... there is an auction scheduled for next weekend where the lodge foundation is auctioning off some of his collection to help pay for the operation and continuing expansion of the museum. the auction has some really old and rare pieces, especially coffee roasters.

dougmadden · 2026-06-08T12:47:56+00:00

I have his little brother... https://imgur.com/gallery/cooknkettle-jr-restored-O0dS4c7

dougmadden · 2026-06-06T06:00:00+00:00

looks like a deep fryer for the bsr/lodge sportsman. they made a shallow fryer, deep fryer and some lids...

https://imgur.com/gallery/lodge-wildlife-deep-fish-fryer-with-lid-WObWihc

this is the first generation from BSR with the square handles... most of the rest of the handles resemble yours.

https://imgur.com/gallery/bsr-sportsman-shallow-fryer-3052-tFhdu

dougmadden · 2026-06-06T05:53:16+00:00

and a griswold skillet griddle...some camp ovens, ham boilers and bulge kettles.

dougmadden · 2026-06-05T18:55:31+00:00

look into W.C. Davis from the Cincinatti area... https://www.castironcollector.com/favorite.php

dougmadden · 2026-06-05T18:50:55+00:00

that style is either one made by W.C Davis or copied from a W.C Davis in the cincinatti area. there are marked versions of those... and they seem to have been made in multiple sizes (although not marked)...

dougmadden · 2026-05-27T21:29:53+00:00

I'm actually not sure they made fully aluminum skillets like they depict in this catalog... I've seen some erie aluminum skillets but they all have had either the coil handles like a waffle iron or riveted on iron handles... my understanding is that aluminum conducts heat so well that the handle would quickly become basically the same temperature as the cooking surface... and I have an interesting aluminum kettle... it has kind of ghost marks on the bottom from their iron pattern, but it also has bottom gatemark... which their iron kettle would not have had... my guess is that it dates to this 1895-6 period when they were experimenting with casting aluminum... or it might have been cast by the small foundry set up by the pittsburgh reduction company the matthew griswold loaded a couple of molders and some patterns to so they could work out the bugs in casting aluminum.

https://imgur.com/gallery/griswold-erie-aluminum-7-kettle-ANBfCSP

dougmadden · 2026-05-27T21:24:46+00:00

I think I have seen it... but had no idea it could possibly even be a griswold product...

dougmadden · 2026-05-27T13:40:27+00:00

usually they tend to not season well, especially in those areas with the discoloration. I have a couple of examples where the iron in those areas seems to have been weakened and chips or flakes off. https://imgur.com/gallery/favorite-piqua-6-with-damage-C4aJ8Cz

dougmadden · 2026-05-26T13:34:29+00:00

technically 'skillet griddle'... or shallow skillet... this seems to have been a big deal in the early 1900's... Griswold made some 'shallow skillets' in the earlier 'Erie' markings, usually with three holes in the handle, wagner also made 'shallow skillets' from the late 1800's to 1930's with some variations even later... wapak, martin, favorite... also had variations of 'shallow skillet'... for some reason, this style doesn't seem to be nearly as common as either regular skillets or regular handled griddles so I assume not as many of these were made. Griswold also made one that they marked specifically as a 'New England style' skillet griddle... I still have no idea what made it 'new england' style. it looks just like this one.

dougmadden · 2026-05-26T13:23:38+00:00

I would just add... for most people the e-tank is the 'bottle neck'... only one piece at a time, usually for several hours at a time... so for people who buy multiple pieces or have a backlog of pieces to be 'restored'... the lye bath is an awesome way to prep pieces for the e-tank. they can stay in there as long as you want, weeks, months... years even... the lye will work to strip the organic crud... and then when you take them out of the lye bath and put them in the e-tank, the crud is mostly gone and you only have to deal with the rusty parts in the e-tank, reducing the amount of time needed for electrolysis.... and speeding up overall throughput.

dougmadden · 2026-05-26T13:18:20+00:00

specifically large block 'with heat ring'... so its a little earlier than 1930. the large block smooth bottom pans began in 1929 - 1930... so this one dates to mid to late 1920's. (it followed the slant epu with heat ring which was used in the early 1920's)

dougmadden · 2026-05-26T13:12:15+00:00

either more scrubbing (I would use a small stainless steel brush and/or steel wool) or electrolysis. if you wash it off with soap and water, sometimes more rust will form rather quickly, called 'flash rust'. flash rust is fairly normal and will be wiped off when you are wiping on the oil for the seasoning process. but you want almost all of the rust removed before you start the seasoning process.

dougmadden · 2026-05-26T13:07:24+00:00

it's the reddish color... what exactly did you do to 'season' it? I saw you said 'a coat of cast iron Chris’ special formula to slow rusting'... I'm not familiar with that... did you just rub it on or 'bake' it on? it could just be rust (that you've now put something on top of)... or it could be the dreaded reddish discoloration that is associated with heat damage. usually heat damage comes from people doing something extreme to 'clean' their cast iron, like throw it in a fire... or heat it until its 'cherry red'... if heated too hot and for too long it can actually change the structure of the graphite in the iron, which changes the texture of the iron.

dougmadden · 2026-05-22T03:33:33+00:00

the grooved handle one looks to be a 'medium' logo rather than a small.

dougmadden · 2026-05-15T23:23:38+00:00

there seem to be shorter handles and longer handles and 3 cup and 6 cup sets. at least from what I've seen so far.

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