?s About Wobble/warping and Significance Thereof...

I'm a longtime user of CI but just getting into this site and learning about the classics. I was just wondering if you could tell me the approximate % breakdown of old skillets you see that are
1. Dead Flat
2. Wobblers-can be pressed on the edges but don't spin and
3. Spinners-easily spin when the handle is pushed laterally.

For those of you who are primarily cooks and not concerned with resale value, will you buy and use wobblers or spinners? I have a glass top stove (ugh) and wobblers don't seem to have any problem in use. Spinners are most too annoying to use.

Which old pans are most/least prone to warpage?

Thanks for your replies and all the knowledge I'm gaining from this site!!!

Re: ?s About Wobble/waping and Significance Thereof...

I don’t know what the ballpark numbers are of spin and wobble.

But the BSR’s are thicker and better odds of being flat, But not ALWAYS! I have two a 7&8 one bows in the other bows out both killer smooth and cook like a champ.

Non collector here, I just like food.

Re: ?s About Wobble/waping and Significance Thereof...

I concur with the BSR's being more likely to be flat. I have a 3, 5, 7, and several 8's. The 7 has a slight rock but no bowing. It'll sit flat with a sheet of printer paper folded in half under part of it. Slight enough that it makes me wonder if it left the factory that way. The rest sit flat and don't bow. 3-notch Lodge skillets seem pretty good with respect to flatness too. Of the several in various sizes including a couple of 10's I have, one of the 10's rocks a little but the rest sit flat and don't bow.

I see a lot of warped pieces when I'm shopping for CI, and I just walk away, even if I'm looking for a user. I know eventually I'll come across one that isn't warped. One of my best users is a #8 LBL Griswold. Sits flatter than it has any right to and has a glassy smooth cooking surface. Someone loved that skillet and took very good care of it. That someone used it a lot, though, too. The LBL is almost completely unrecognizable due to sulfur pitting. I think I paid something like 6 bucks for it.

Re: ?s About Wobble/waping and Significance Thereof...

Ty, the two BSR’s of mine look like they’ve had a few households in their life. Old sulfur pitting on bottom And the home they came from had a old electric stove with the old coil type burners. I’ll bet they got very hot to fast many times with small area witch caused the slight bows? oil in the skillets tell the tail.

I grew up with gas and learned on it. My second apparent had the old electric type and wow it took me awhile to relearn how to cook with a different heat source.

I may be wrong on how the bows occurred. But it was my best guess knowing the type of stove they were used on before me.

Re: ?s About Wobble/waping and Significance Thereof...

Doug E.,

You're in a catch-22. Glass stoves don't like warped cookware. It'll slide and spin more readily and increase scratching on the glass. But the cookware that's least susceptible to warping will be more harmful to the glass top if it does get a little warped due to the heat ring already putting more weight on a reduced surface area.

As much as I love my 3-Notch Lodge and BSR's on my gas stove, I'd probably only use my smooth bottom Wagners and Griswolds if I was cooking on glass. Too easy to be pushing or scraping something in the pan a little too hard and cause the heat ring to dig in if the pan starts to slide. It wouldn't change my philosophy toward warped pieces when I shop for CI. I simply avoid them, knowing that if I buy a warped piece, I'll eventually come across one that isn't warped and regret my previous purchase.

My experience has been mainly with size. The larger skillets, regardless of manufacturer, will bow/warp more so than smaller skillets. The thinner the skillet will be more prone to warp than thicker.

GTurner said:

My experience has been mainly with size. The larger skillets, regardless of manufacturer, will bow/warp more so than smaller skillets. The thinner the skillet will be more prone to warp than thicker.

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Mine too. Sometimes I think #12 and larger vintage Wagners that aren't warped must be about as rare as unicorns.