restoration

[jlw]

Since there appears to be some cast iron lovers here, I thought y'all might enjoy some pictures of a restoration project I did a couple of years ago:

My mother gave me a small skillet and a griddle that had belonged to her maternal grandmother. She found them in in storage in our old dairy barn. I have no idea how long they were there, but it was most likely 30 years or so.

These pieces were cast by the Birmingham Stove & Range foundry.

Here are a few before pictures of the skillet:




and the griddle:




I washed them as best as I could and then washed them with Coke a few times. I put them in my gas grill at full blast (around 700 degrees) and burned all of the old seasoning off of them and washed them some more with some of the Camp Chef cast iron cleaner. I also used a flexible putty knife to get off stubborn little bits of the old seasoning. I coated them with the Camp Chef conditioner and seasoned them. The griddle has received a second seasoning with Crisco.

After:








This square skillet was my maternal grandmother's and is the skillet in which she always made cornbread for us. It was unused for many years until my mother gave it to me. The seasoning was beginning to flake off, and it was beginning to rust. I used the same procedure as outlined above. It is seasoned with Crisco.

Before:





After:




My mother has since traded me a 10" cast iron skillet from the same era. I think she got it as a wedding present. She used it only at Christmas time to make candy; so, she swapped it to me in trade for a new Lodge. I don't have any pictures of it at this time, but I plan to go through the entire process described above so that it appears to "match" the other pieces.

All of these pieces will go to my little girl.

[Slanted88]

Ya done it right jW'er! Fine job, do like my cast iron! Nice to pass it on to yer baby!

[minnbill]

To cool! I dont own any Iron but would love to find some

[Texas-Hunter]

Nice job on the CI.... I love mine

[Bbqgoddess]

Wow that transformation was just amazing! Great job and thanks for all the information!

[jlw]

To cool! I dont own any Iron but would love to find some

Cast iron is a fun hobby all unto itself. Lots of history wrapped up in it as there were lots of foundries, and their is a certain amount of special care and artistry in maintaining them. The pieces pictured above are all from the Birmingham Stove & Range Company. My maternal grandmother was born just outside of Birmingham and lived there until her teenage years prior to moving to GA. There is another piece not pictured.

I can cook pancakes for my children on their great-great-grandmother's griddle or make them cornbread or fry bacon in their great-grandmother's skillet.

Cast iron cookware used to be such a valued family possession that it was commonly enumerated in wills. Just think of all of the pioneer families that bought cookware in the east and then wagon-trained it across the country and passed it through generations.

I live 30 minutes from a Lodge outlet and have amassed quite a collection at this point. Seconds run about half the cost as first run stuff and cook just as well. My little girl will get all of what we call the "grandmother pieces" but she and my boy will divvy up the rest of it.


Okay, enough rambling.


Oh yeah: you can use coals for a heat source...

[ALX]

Like this alot....Love dhat cornbread skillet especially(like dem score marks)...cause i like cornbread....Great stuff man...Makes me feel good knowin more folk use this good stuff....

[richoso1]

Points to you my friend. Great job on the CI. You've inspired me to try for the same results with a new found DO that wasn't cared for in a proper manner. Smoke and seeds forever.

[Fishawn]

Way Cool...... ...... Now I know why I drink Whiskey with my Coke (to tame that $h!t down a bit )........ Great pieces of CI their, and makes them especially Cool when you know where they came from..... I got 1 Griswold CI that was my grandmothers..... Nice job on the restoration also.

[SMOKE FREAK]

Nice work guy. I got a couple of small pans that came from my Dads ol place...crusted and rusted...not cared for in decades no doubt...but surely were very fine pans in their time...obviously with some effort I can put them back into service for a few more generations........Points for the inspirations!

[GOT14U]

Very restoration....Nothin like old cast iron...way better then this new chinese stuff

[jlw]

Very restoration....Nothin like old cast iron...way better then this new chinese stuff

Agreed. The only piece of foreign made cast iron that I have is an enameled 3-quart kitchen Dutch oven that I got from the seconds pile at the Lodge outlet. It gets used so much that it never leaves the stove top. The wife likes it because it is so easy to clean.

I wish they were doing the enameled stuff domestically.

[Bassman]

I love to see the old cast iron come back to life. We were doing a remodel in an old pawn shop when I spied a Dutch oven that was is sad shape. I told the owner that the poor thing needed some help. He gave it to me and told me to "help it". I need to re-season it a couple of times to get rid of the white spots, but it's in perfect shape. BTW, it's a Wagner.

[jlw]

I love to see the old cast iron come back to life. We were doing a remodel in an old pawn shop when I spied a Dutch oven that was is sad shape. I told the owner that the poor thing needed some help. He gave it to me and told me to "help it". I need to re-season it a couple of times to get rid of the white spots, but it's in perfect shape. BTW, it's a Wagner.

Sweet.

I have a Wagner tea kettle my mother found in an antique shop. It has some hard water deposits on the inside of it and needs some care. I really don't have a clue how to get started with it.

[Beer-B-Q]

Nice restorations on the CI...