Unmarked Skillet help

AlexM.

New member
Hi - I acquired this skillet and was hopeful after cleaning a faint indication of make was there, but no such luck. Pics are before cleaning. I did find a pic online of a Puritan presumably made by Favorite Piqua that looks almost indentical and with similar notches on the handle also attached.. Any ideas?
Lastly when I got it there was a small ding on heat ring as shown and remained metallic color, so presumably was a recent ding that's why it is silverish? Just wanted to be sure that makes sense and is not a fake...the cooking surface is virtually pristine after I cleaned it up. Thanks.

AJ
 

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I'm confused. Which skillet is yours? The photos with the pink backgrounds are too small to make out, and can't be enlarged. The one in the second post is marked Puritan, but you're saying yours is unmarked?
 
Thanks for the reply Doug. I attached the Puritan as a reference only as it looked close best I can tell. I could not edit (or delete) original post for whatever reason. So hopefully these pics work now
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It could be an early unmarked Favorite, or perhaps a copy made by someone else using a Favorite pan as the basis for a pattern. If a copy, they apparently had up-to-date (for the time) casting technology, using side-gated molds. One indicator of such a copy is if you can see artifacts of the original skillet's gate grinding points as well as the ground off gates of the copy itself.
 
I see. I am mostly concerned with it being a suitable/safe/good metal to cook on. Even if a "copy" would your best guess be that it is still in roughly the same era using good iron? Gatemark pics attached. One side is not as clean and the walls are a bit thinner on that side. Otherwise, it is in good shape (minus the handle) with a beautiful cooking surface. Thanks again for your help!

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Such a piece could have been produced any time after the original from which it was copied. The casting anomalies on the handle and elsewhere are typical of recasts. The patterns used by the major makers included runners and risers to improve the flow of molten iron into and throughout the mold, and which served to prevent voids in the casting. There is probably no cause for concern re: using the pan; or at least no more than any other pan you've acquired and don't know the history.
 
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