Pan with grey finish

SteveV

New member
I acquired an old pan with a pasty grey finish. Does not appear shiny like chrome. Not the color or texture of bare metal. Might this be what is left of plating after someone tried to clean it with lye or other method?

And then how to get this to bare metal? Electrolysis?
 
Lye should not have adversely affected any plating. It may be nickel, which in many cases was produced with a warmer, softer luster than a highly polished chromium. It may also be a finish like Griswold Du-Chro, which was left dull on purpose, with only highlights being highly polished. Electro may remove it, but at the amperages we typically use for cleaning, it may not. Although most people usually don't risk cleaning plated pieces in electro in the event it might. Another possibility is that it is made of a slightly different alloy, such as that of the CHF Ni-Resist, which was designed to be inherently more corrosion resistant than black iron. If you can supply a photo, it may help to narrow down what it is.
 
I'll work on a photo.

The pan is an Wagner Ware Stylized center placement logo size 12 pan.

In the meantime I am going to give it a quick lye bath and see what happens. It is almost as if the pan was painted grey. Wierd.....
 
Doug,

Seems like it must be nickel plated. Lye removed a layer of semi-baked oil/lard leaving a metallic surface. Reading about how nickel wears and performs it does seem like that is what I have.

So in my world of messing up in reverse this pan will work nicely at my open air summer camp and I will not have to worry about rust. And with use over time my grand kids may inherit a nice cast iron pan once the plating is worn away.

Is a nickel plated pan considered more or less valuable than iron?

Steve
 
In the world of cast iron collectibles, plated only out-values bare iron if the plating is completely or at least reasonably intact. Cooking surface wear is to be expected, but collectors seem to prefer bare iron in average condition over flaking or worn off plating. Regardless, a #12 center logo is a nice find. You'll still want to apply some seasoning to keep any spots where the nickel has worn off from rusting.
 
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