What size do you think this skillet is?

John E

Member
I've got a lead on an estate sale coming up, but the only info I have is a listing that says "cast iron pans", and this picture:

kjbz6wL.jpg


So what I see from that picture is:

Stack #1
- A dutch oven
- Something inside the dutch oven, probably another dutch oven
- Two wooden handled pieces that look like imports to me
- Some import lids

Stack #2
- BSR skillet cover
- A nice looking large skillet

Anyway, figured it might be fun and educational to play "guess how big that skillet is". I think the lid sitting inside is somewhere in the #8 to #10 range, so I'm thinking the skillet is somewhere between #11 and #13?

Thoughts?

Hopefully this game will turn into me buying some nice stuff and giving you all the answer :cool:
 
An 11 or a 12. I'd guess 12, if the lid in it is a #8, which I think it probably is.
 
It's a #12 (Doug wins as usual), seems to be an older unmarked Wagner or a very good copy. I can make out what appears to be a faint stylized logo ghost in the last picture.


 
It's a nice looking skillet and those #12 are worth a lot even if they are not marked. Hopefully it takes some of the pain out of the broken skillet from ebay. :D
 
It really is a nice piece. As soon as I picked it up, before I even turned it over to peek at the bottom, I liked it. Sure I would have preferred a nice marked piece, but I won't complain one bit. Definitely helps with the letdown on the ebay skillet! I still can't ID that one yet, I checked on it when I put this #12 into the lye. Still a good bit of crud on it but the bigger problem is the severe pitting.
 
Went and took a peek in the lye today. The only marking revealed is the 12 in typical Wagner font on top of the handle. There's one thing I find curious about this one. All of the Wagner skillets I see with heat rings have the ribbed handles, whereas this one has the flattened triangle rib that is seen on the smooth bottom skillets. This must be from the last of the patterns having heat rings, adopting the newer handle before transitioning to the smooth bottomed patterns.
 
Yeah it wiped mostly off. It was clear enough at 12 and 6 o'clock where I would expect markings to possibly emerge, and there was nothing there.
 
Do you think it might be an unmarked Griswold? I think the big ones had a heat ring. The handle sure seems right.

---------- Post added at 10:30 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:22 PM ----------

Nevermind....I just looked at the pictures I guess the Griswolds had and inset heat ring. I am still learning.
 
Can you explain "ribbed" a bit further??

Absolutely!

Here's an example of a marked one from what I suspect is around the same period (stylized logo, catalog number, heat ring)



Note the short handle reinforcement "rib" running along the underside of the handle all the way to the sidewall of the pan. Older Wagner skillets will have an even longer, more pronounced version of this same rib like this one:



Now, compare these to the handle typically found on the smooth bottomed skillets:



Note how the rib is rounded off and not pronounced like the older ones. Also, it does not run all the way to the sidewall of the pan. Instead, it flattens out into the triangular reinforcement the same as my unmarked pan.

Hopefully that clarifies things a bit!
 
After rain, more rain, travel, and even more rain, I finally got this into the etank and cleaned up.





There's definitely a Wagner Ware Sidney -O- ghost, and the quality is very good so I'm as sure as I can be that it's an unmarked Wagner.

 
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