Usually spot on advice. I will occasionally wire wheel if the cast iron isn't usable as is and would end up in a trash heap otherwise. I restored a recast #4 from a Griswold mold that was uneven. I wire wheeled the heck out of it and made it usable again. Now it is one of my favorite skillets for one up burgers and things like that. Otherwise, I use lye bath and vinegar rinse almost exclusively. Thanks for watching!
Yes you did! Not to worry though, Easy Off Oven Clean is actually sodium hydroxide which is pure lye to soften and remove built up crud & old seasoning in your oven and on your skillets. Actually, I am not eating lye when I cook in my skillets! Cast iron is NOT porous and does NOT soak up lye or any other cleaner you might use on it. Part of the restoration process uses vinegar to neutralize any remaining lye so it is completely safe to eat from cast iron skillets. When you apply seasoning to the cast iron, it is only because of the molecules which comprise the top layer of your cast iron skillet spread when the skillet is heated which "allows" the seasoning (Crisco, vegetable oil, grape seed oil and the like) to seep in and form that barrier which makes cast iron non stick! Good question as many do not realize this. You've given me a nice subject for a future video to demonstrate when I season a skillet. Thanks for stopping by.
New collectors, please note: Do not use the self cleaning feature of your oven to strip down your cookware. It gets way too hot and can crack or warp your skillet.
This video was done as a new collector myself and it appears I used this technique. The skillets did not sustain any damage whatsoever. The Griswold (most suspectible to heat damage due to its light weight & thin side walls) remains in my collection to this day and is a wonderful cooker. I also have the #9 Wagner as well. The others were sold for a nice profit. That said, I currently do not advocate this technique because of potential damage (warping & cracks). If you have one skillet to do, then Easy Off Heavy Duty Oven Cleaner works wonderfully (see videos on how to do this), or as I now do using a lye bath in combination with a water/vinegar rinse. This technique is much safer for cast iron, although patience is required as it can take awhile if there is a lot of build up on a skillet. This video is almost 5 years old!
Who knows! lol All kidding aside, the large logo pans have much more interest and are more attractive to the collectors and they were made from 10-20 years earlier than the small logo pans. That said, the small logo pans seem to be much more rare and they are as good in quality to the larger logo pans from my own experience as I have both kinds in my collection.
LadyLibertyStacker very interesting, huh? I’m totally new to this Cast Iron fun although I’ve cooked with them all my life, but just taking them for granted as my mom did. I’m 71 years old and hers are mine now along with a few I picked up at yard sales, etc. Find one sometimes at Goodwill, etc. and having fun learning the values, etc.
Yep, I totally get it! The only thing that is slightly annoying is that seasoning will have color variations due to the different parts of the cooking surface being different temperatures due to the warp. This is minor but if you allow enough time for the skillet to heat up, then cooking is no issue whatsoever! :-)
I don't know if i'm doing it right, but my idea of prepping is knowing how to cook with flour, yeast, and other basic ingredients, and constantly rotate the stock to keep it fresh. Also coffee, dried beans, rice, and canned tomatoes. With those ingredients one can make pasta, pizza, bread, bean soup, tortillas, fried beans, refried beans, rice and beans... or beans and rice. etc.
i am done to my last 5 cast iron pieces, i gave a few to my son to use for camping an one to a friend who wanted one, but thats it, lol im keeping the rest. love watching these cast iron videos!
Thanks SB Bonnie! I was beginning to think it was something I said as I have lost about 10 subs since posting this video! I don't always have the funds to buy mega tons of silver, but something is better than nothing! Ya think!!! LOL Anyway, I am glad you enjoyed it! :-)
Sandra Watts No, that isn't correct and here's why. Cast iron is not porous in a cold state and cast iron is cold when this method is used. The only time cast iron is porous (surface level only) is when it is heated for seasoning so the vegetable oil is easily absorbed into the open spaces in the surface metal. If you have watched my other videos I have used a self cleaning oven method and lately because I do several at once, I use a lye bath which is nothing more than the main ingredient in oven cleaner. Again the CI is not in a warm expanded state. Please see the link from the Wagner and Griswold Society for more information on this cleaning technique. www.wag-society.org/Electrolysis/lye.php. Hope this helps.
Dear Lady Liberty, Thanks for the guide through, you have a very attractive monologue tone, and an enormously knowledgeable brain in thos field. May I please ask, do you sell a Wagner No. 8 or No. 9? We are not that lucky to go to any US barn sale or any US goodwill sale in China, actually this kind of skillet is hardly owned by Chinese household. Would like to hear from you on weather you are selling 1 pc to me. Greetings from China. Wang
Thank you for commenting and watching. Unfortunately at this time, I do not have a Wagner 8 or 9 for sale. In fact, I don't even own a Wagner 8 and the 9 I own is a warped, but it works well for baking, etc. Sorry about that!
WOW, I love the square pan. Deep Dish pizza awaits eh.Wonderful,reliable cooking to be had. For those unprepared that were warned need to take heed. Get it together folks and don't let this happen to you again.I hope the best for all of you.
Tomoko's Enterprize Thank you Tomoko! Here I was thinking that the score was the Griswold at $15, but it turned out that the square pan and the large skillets were the most valuable, rare AND under priced!! I was very happy to say the least!! Glad you watched even though it wasn't silver! LOL
No problem there as I love to cook and pour silver too and I am good at it the cookin. I am still working on the pouring eh. Cast can and does a different finish/taste to some things that needs to be exercised eh ?
Thank you Philip. I was VERY lucky to get these deals at this barn sale! There will be another one in November and I intend to go back and get some more if they are available! I have the guy's card and he is very flexible and lets me know when the cast iron will be available. Check out my latest cast iron video. I show what I picked up from an estate sale and an antique mall. I made an incredible find, but not quite as cheap as here! lol
Wow...L.L. your doing some serious Skillet Stacking! Here ya...about the Prepping, we took it seriously after one week no electricity after Hurricane Irene...things like that tend to wake ya up!:))) Hoping for the best for the people in TX...they will need a lot of prayer and Help!👍
PART TIME PREPPERS Skillet stacking.....I like that! Well it certainly is much cheaper to do than silver stacking! lol. I'm glad I have an adequate stack now so I can plod along and still have fun spending less $$!! Wow! A week without electricity.....that would certainly do it. I think of those poor people down in TX and hope they have a couple weeks of food if they can't leave their homes! At this point people are starting to evacuate due to the stuck storm system. Please keep them in your prayers! Thanks for stopping by my friend!
Yep! Be thinking about us! We have had 18 inches of rain the past 30 minutes or so.... LOL You know I love me some cast iron skillets! Thanks for a good video LLS! Good luck and God Bless!
silverhair stacker Yup Pops me be taking after you for some silver money!! lol. My problem is I can't part with these....all in good time of course! I sure do hope that you and your wife/family are spared the torrential rains Houston and surrounding areas are getting. Be safe and thanks for stopping by!
the “thump” test for a ring is not a full prof test, the only way is by sight and or cleaning it complete down, i have several i’ve purchased with a good amount of crud, later finding with “hair line” cracks, this is withising the “ring” test.
Yes, I suppose that could happen. You also could have some warping or fire damage that is unseen when purchasing. I guess that is the risk in buying old cruddy cast iron. It's a gamble, but I think well worth it. If they are cracked, then leave them out in your trash for the metal scrappers! You'd be helping someone at least!
I don't do this because you can't control the heat of the fire and it could case irreversible damage to your skillet (warping and red fire damage staining that doesn't hold seasoning). The closest and easiest thing to a camp fire is a self clean oven I occasionally will use for stubborn seasoning in a non collectible skillet that isn't at risk for warping. See ManLand121's video on on this very topic. It is quite interesting!
I have one #9 Wagner skillet which is a chrome plated on the exterior with all cast iron on the interior. It is slightly warped, so I mainly bake with it. Chrome or nickel pieces were minted mainly back in the 30s-40s before WWII, but when the war began, they stopped the practice as metal was needed for the war. They fell out of flavor, so you didn't see many pieces after that time period. They do crop up fairly often, but unplated pieces are far more numerous in my experience.
You know my mom who passed when I was 8 had one it was chrome outside it was huge it had a lid also it was probably 5-6 inches deep she always called it her chicken fryer somebody stole it from me 2 yrs ago I’m 64 it was the only thing of hers that I ever had very emotional. The first one I was telling you about was in a house that we were cleaning out it looks like new I really don’t think it’s been cooked in. It has lid too . Oh wel I like them thanks so much for answering me so fast Judy
MétéoMan Awesome and me as well! I actually look forward to restoring these to see what treasures lie beneath. Thank you for stopping by my friend. :-)
I would think that a #5 Griswold (they are the lightest vintage cast iron that I know of) would serve the purpose quite well! If you had a permanent bug out location, you could bury a larger piece, but you would have to make sure it was well seasoned and sealed very well first so it wouldn't rust on you! Thanks for watching!
Thank you. The Griswold #5 turned out to be one of my favorite cookers...extremely smooth and the food just slides right out. I wish they were all that way, but they are not! lol
i have a wagner with the skillet seasoning directions imprinted right on the bottom i call it a 10 inch what do i have???? i cant seem to find this in any responses
It is cast iron, but had a bunch of crud on it and built up seasoning which was carbonized. Funny you mentioned it, I just didn't like the way the self clean oven cleaned it, so it went in a lye bath soak, and now is in a water/vinegar soak to remove built up carbon the lye couldn't remove and incidental rust. It will get another wire brush treatment, then it should be ready to go. I am a bit anal about my pans! lol
jeppers I took a full pickup truck full of pans to the scrap yard,i thought no one wanted them,i thought if I caint sell brand new 10 speeds for 2 dollars the pans were worthless or people are broke
No it's not... its a crome coated #9 cast iron small lable Griswold . Should clean up nicely. Not as valuable to collectors as a large label cast iron... but will cook on very well...for some reason there not as valuable. I have and use a couple of them...she's in for a surprise when she cleans it off.
Dave Schidlmeier It actually turned out to be a #9 Wagner Ware Sidney O Chrome plated on the outside. Yep, it was a bitch to clean but it's a good cooker with a slight wobble. But for $9 I ain't complaining! lol
LadyLibertyStacker the lady said the ones that I have are like the best brand and are worth $75 and $50 in the condition there in! Imagine how much more if refurbishing
When you bring it out of the bath it will have a black slime all over it, a simple wash in hot soapy water will get rid of it. :) you can also add some 100% real lemon juice concentrate to up the acidity percentage and really get it done fast. Dont leave it more then 24-48 hours as you may develop pitting.
Thanks PB! I am glad someone is, I hesitated posting the video, but I figured my cast iron finds was better than no video as no PM packages have come in! lol Your support is appreciated! :-)
Food grinders are used for processing meat and such and grain grinders/mills are used for grinding/milling grains for flour or cracked grains. They're similar but not the same.
Yes, they would definitely be helpful in a SHTF scenario where your corner butcher is closed. Something to think about, one step at a time. Thanks for clarifying.
I've haven't seen a Birmingham Stove & Range with three notches. Besides Lodge the only other major US manufacture that I'm aware of with three notches is Martin Stove & Range. They made a block logo with three notch heat ring from 1940 to 1953 after the hamburger logo.
I don't use oven cleaner when I am doing a bunch of these skillets, preferring the lye bath method as that is most efficient and feasible, especially during the warmer months. I am working on a video now showing the restoration of a Griswold #3 pan from start to finish that I am gifting for Christmas. The old carbonized seasoning is very stubborn, so I just put that pan in an Easy Off bag this morning to hopefully finish it off before wire wheeling it and then seasoning. Thanks for the tip and stay tuned for that video sometime next week.
Thank you much appreciated! I do have other cast iron videos you might find interesting. I started out as a stacker primarily, but have evolved over time.
Those are some great pieces you found there. I Love using my cast iron, and find I like having a pan for each kinda thing I make. They are so versatile can be used with almost any type of cooking form.
DReam creationS & Adventures Thank you and I honestly felt I hit the jackpot! I have been looking for a find like this all summer visiting countless antique shops, flea market or two, estate sales, etc. I find that with the more skillets I collect, I too use various ones for different things I cook. My hubby likes salmon and I can't eat it, so I would use 2 different ones for our meal, one for his salmon and one for my meal. Stay tuned for my results video on these pans coming up!
