Grooved Handle Griswold

RonD

Member
I am starting to go through my skillets and trying to ID them and get a general timeline just because.

I have two grooved handle Griswolds a #3 and a #4 and both are flat and smooth the #4 is great and the #3 i have yet to use. So my question is i have read on the home page and the one picture that has a grooved handle it says that it is a late grooved handle, was there much difference and time frames of each style?
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The small logo Griswold skillets had three different handle types .

The first was know as the "early" handle" and was basically the same as the Large Block Logo handle . The early handle was made from 1939 to 1944 . After that there was the "grooved" handle and what was called the "late" handle . The late handle had the same handle hole as the grooved handle , but the same underside as the early handle . It seems unclear which one came after the early handle , but they where used from 1945 till 1957 when the Griswold Company was sold .
 
I had always heard and read that it was uncertain which came after the "early" handle . But I had always thought the "late" handle came last because it's the handle style that was used on the few pieces with what is called the medium logo and the medium logo was made last .
 
I'm not sure that I understood your last post, but I believe that the "Medium" or "Late Large" logo has the grooved handle. I'm also thinking #3 was the only skillet with that logo. Correct me if I'm wrong.
 
Ok , well to be honest I have never seen a late large logo with a grooved handle . What I have seen that I have bought and sold where three pieces with the late large logo but without the Erie PA on it (which would be from after Griswold was sold) and they all had the "late handle" . So I made the assumption that the late handle came last and that they simple stopped putting the Erie PA on them once they where made in the Wagner foundry .
 
The Blue Book lists a grooved handle in size 10. I've been told that they don't exist. Is this the case or are they just very rare? I've had two sets of the Nos. 3 to 9 and while they take a while to accumulate "in the wild", it's do-able.
 
I've never seen one, nor do I know of anyone who has. There is supposedly a photo of someone holding one, but it's authenticity has been questioned.
 
Well, that pretty much settles that. And I've had this on my wish list for awhile. At least now I can say that I have a full set in the Nos. 3-9. Thanks.
 
The Blue Book lists a grooved handle in size 10. I've been told that they don't exist. Is this the case or are they just very rare? I've had two sets of the Nos. 3 to 9 and while they take a while to accumulate "in the wild", it's do-able.

The reason the blue book lists a No.10 grooved handle skillet is because I had included on in my skillet chart in the 1980s Cast Iron Cookware News I published. That is too long ago to remember all the facts but I did think that I had a full set, including the grooved handle 10, in the small TM sets. Or was I probably a bit premature in publishing that thinking that there HAD TO BE such a skillet. In the intervening years I have never seen a grooved handle 10 so it can probably be taken as fact that they were never made by Griswold for whatever reason.

As for the "names" of the different small TM handles, the early handle had the teardrop hole and was similar to the older block TM skillets. The next handle was what some sources call the "late handle" which, from the top, looked just like the grooved handle. Facts are that that handle was the "mid" handle and should have been so described. The grooved handle, c.1955, was the latest handle on small TM regular skillets and also was used on the late square skillets with the handle on the side of the pan (3103, 2106 and 2108). The "late large TM" was a trademark slightly different from the old block trademark and was used only on the No.3 regular skillet but, also, on the three square skillets I mentioned above.

What one poster mentioned above about a "late large TM" was actually a post-Griswold TM from the Wagner foundry era that did not include ERIE PA on the pan. Compare that trademark, it is not like any used by Griswold in the details.
 
As for the "names" of the different small TM handles, the early handle had the teardrop hole and was similar to the older block TM skillets. The next handle was what some sources call the "late handle" which, from the top, looked just like the grooved handle. Facts are that that handle was the "mid" handle and should have been so described. The grooved handle, c.1955, was the latest handle on small TM regular skillets and also was used on the late square skillets with the handle on the side of the pan (3103, 2106 and 2108). The "late large TM" was a trademark slightly different from the old block trademark and was used only on the No.3 regular skillet but, also, on the three square skillets I mentioned above.

I have a grooved handle on a chicken fryer with the late large logo.IMG_20181112_231604~800x600.jpg
 
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