What is a Recast?

Alan M

New member
The title says no question too basic, so... What is a "recast?"

Saw the phrase used in a thread a little ways down the page, when referring to a skillet with a gate mark.

Thanks.
 
A piece whose mold was made using another piece as a pattern, rather than an actual pattern, which typically would include the gates and runners. This is why most recasts are bottom gated, where the original pan would not have been.

Lots of other terms defined here: http://www.castironcollector.com/glossary.php
 
Thx Doug, will check out the glossary.

But if a recast is using an existing pan as a pattern, does that mean a recast is a reproduction?
 
Yes and no. It is a copy, but not an exact copy. Since iron shrinks as it cools, the recast will be smaller than the pan used. Actual patterns are therefore larger by design than the pans they are made to produce. The pieces we know as reproductions, however, most likely started out with an actual pan as a master pattern.
 
So under what circumstances, would a foundry use an actual pan for a pattern, as opposed to having a pattern-maker create one?
 
In the case where we see ghost marks of a foundry other than the one who made the pan or a design that is an obvious copy, there are two possibilities. One is that the producing foundry purchased used patterns from another foundry. In the case of Erie ghosts on Wapak skillets, it seems highly unlikely that Griswold would have given a competitor such a generous helping hand, even if the patterns were obsolete to them. We also know from pieces containing ghosts of their own obsolete marks that makers updated patterns, so obsolete patterns obviously still held value to their original owners. The other, more plausible scenario is that the producing foundry side-stepped the most expensive part of the pattern making process by using another actual pan in some way to create working patterns of their own.
 
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