Greetings all, looking forward to gaining valuable information on collecting cast iron! My grandmother recently passed down a couple cast iron skillets to me that were in rough shape. No rust but after years of use (and probably not always proper care) had caked on burnt "leftovers". With what little knowledge I had gained from youtube, I decided that I would place one of the skillets on a camp fire to restore it to bare cast iron. Little did I know at the time that this was a good way to ruin a skillet! Luckily, I did not damage the skillet and was able to re-season and have been cooking in it for about 6 months. It has a beautiful shiny non-stick finish that is easy to rinse out after use. It also sits very level on a flat surface. After cleaning off the crud, I was able to find out a little bit about this skillet. The bottom has a heat ring, it is marked "Victor" and number 8. It also has a gate mark that is throwing me off. From my research, a gate mark would imply that the skillet is pre 1890's but I do not think that Griswold made Victors before 1900? The other skillet has not been cleaned yet, but it is a Lodge from the 30's (from what I understand).