#3 Pan ID Questions

JeffreyL

Member
After digging around and finding I had quite a stack of 3's, I decided since they're relatively cheap and easy to store I would try and see how many different 3's I can pick up. So here's two I picked up that I'm not quite sure about...

First one is hammered, no markings on bottom except 3 dots on backside of handle. Hammering looks CHF? Or just one of the "ugly hammered"?

Second one appears to be a BSR, Backside handle ridge that meets pan wall, inset heat ring, however the markings of the 3_S, don't look consistent with the 3S pans I see from the BSR "S" series. And my understanding is the S series is smaller per size than regular pans, and this one seems normal size
 
I thought Chicago had 2 numbers on the bottoms. If I'm mistaken please correct me.

The other one this resemble BS&R, but I'm not sure if they made their 3-S pans that way. It looks like it might be a recast using the BS&R as a mold.
 
I know the Chicago had the two numbers, but I wasn't sure if maybe they made an unmarked version??

I agree I'm very suspect it's actually BSR but the characteristics match, just not the markings, I always thought recasts were generally rougher, this is a very nice casting. The measurement diameter of the top rim is almost a perfect 6"
 
The hammered finish pan is one of the "ugly unknowns". CHF's hammered finish is much nicer.
 
The difference between the BSR 3 and the 3S is nominal. What is the top outside diameter of yours, not including pour spouts?
 
Catalogs give 6-1/4" OD for a 3S and 6-5/8" for a 3. The photo gives me no reason to think it's a recast. It's important to remember recasts are generally poor quality, bottom-gated, sloppy copies. This one follows the BSR convention of the 3S by having a pattern letter or other symbol at 12 o'clock to differentiate it from the S, which in this case was part of the size designation. That the 3 and S are neater than the typical Red Mountain hand inscribed type would make me look for ghosts of earlier markings.
 
it must still be made in the earlier time frame though because the pour spouts are bigger than that of the late red mountain, early century, time frame

ill check for ghost marks and drop it in the lye tank to see if it uncovers anything
 
I looked before dropping in lye tank, no visible ghost but the seasoning is thick, also re-measured, and including the thickness of the sidewalls, , the diameter measures between 6 3/16 and 6 1/4"
 
Absent concrete proof to the contrary, yes.

I have looked through the Cast Iron Chaos site on numerous occasions and I don't recall seeing or hearing of a pan made like that.

This is why this site is so necessary for the CI community.
 
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