re: #472 goddamnedfrank

For what it’s worth old cast iron is noticeably lighter than the new stuff, because it was sand cast and finished by hand. That finishing is why the old stuff has a much smoother finish and can actually be made non-stick with proper seasoning. The new stuff Lodge, etc produces is garbage, it always has that rough orange peel finish that no amount of seasoning can salvage.

But you probably knew that.

The old stuff was also all iron ore, whereas now they use recycled iron. (Nice video on the Lodge site, somewhere.) The old stuff was strong with less iron. And they used to machine the cooking surface, even on the OLD Lodges.