Can you guess what this pan is and its age?

GTurner

Member
I found this in a local Goodwill. It is beyond crusted up. I have it in the lye bath now.

I created a separate lye bath for this item due to the mold on the skillet. Was that necessary? Will lye neutralize the mold? I didn't want to take a chance and mess up my current bath solution.

It is/should be a #9.

I'll have some pics soon. Most of the crud should have come off already. It's been soaking since last night.
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that is pretty crusty... outside heat ring... can't tell for sure but the rib on the bottom of the handle is probably a big clue... so maybe vollrath.
 
Wagner or something we like to call unmarked Wagner. Rib doesn't appear long enough for Vollrath.
 
MDFarley, You won the grand prize!

Oops, sorry no prize hehe

You are correct. It's a National #9. I thought it might be a Wagner or Series 3 Erie when I bought it. It cleaned up fairly well. It has very bad sulfur pitting in the bottom though. You would think that I should have seen that lol.

It's in my second lye bath right now to help with cleaning out the pits.

Is there anything I can do, short of an e-tank, that will clean the pits out easily?

---------- Post added at 05:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:36 PM ----------

Pictures coming after seasoning.
 
Without seeing any further pics it could be the circ. date is from 1914 - 1940. As for the pitting there's no real solution. A lot of the older pans were cooked on with wood burning and or coal fired stoves, The coal would have most likely done most of the pitting damage since there is a lot of Sulphur in the coal. If it still sets flat just clean it good, season it and enjoy CI cooking. BTW...I have several of the Nationals and the handle was what I based my guess on.
 
Without seeing any further pics it could be the circ. date is from 1914 - 1940.

Not seasoned yet, but here are some photos.

Thanks for helping with the dates.
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---------- Post added at 08:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:12 PM ----------

BTW, I'm a fan of etank.
I would love to have one, but I'm in an apartment without a patio or balcony. Can't do it in the apartment because of o2 and hydrogen gases released.
 
Well G,

Too bad you can't have an etank. Unfortunately, Gary McKee and Willis the Guard and "Atlanter" Georgia and NJ are to long ago and far away for met to help out.

The National cleaned up very well and the cooking surface doesn't appear to be pitted. At least it will be a good user and a great find.

Enjoy.
 
In our Trademarks & Logo section you will find your pan fits the 1914-1930 circ.era. Appears I'm correct on the pitting issue. The pattern of pitting looks like it would match the eye opening of a wood burning stove, You can see that about an inch of area that has little to no pitting and that's probably the area that wasn't exposed to the direct area of the eye. Inside looks good though. Probably not a pan for re-sale or collecting but probably still a good user.
http://www.castironcollector.com/trademarks.php#
 
MDFraley, that was the timeline that I had. I was hoping that there might be a way to narrow it a bit. It will be a great user. I don't buy to resell. In fact, I haven't sold any pieces, I'll gift them to others (about 30 pieces).

I haven't cleaning the pan yet. It will soak for a few more days.
 
After some further review, I think the date ranges for National on the trademark page need to be tweaked. The RB and BB are in conflict with each other on the subject. The lack of catalog number on this one strongly suggests it pre-dates 1924. Dual logo Nationals, later than the arc-only versions, are also seen with just size number. Could the pitting on this one have totally obliterated a center logo? Hard to say.
 
About to go in for a second layer of seasoning. You can see from the side image that there wasn't a center logo.
b240061892a4a9a9fd51c0aa1388dc22.jpg
 
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