Fancy cast iron skillets

[Fly320s]

New.  Improved.  Fancy.  Craft.  Bespoke.

Whatever you want to call the trend of making the most basic item fancy, the trend has found cast iron skillets.

Here is one company doing it:  https://butterpatindustries.com

Thinner, lighter pans with tighter, smoother grain patterns.

[Ben]

Holy moly -- $300? It looks like with the thinning, they are trying to do some amalgam between cast iron and carbon steel. The rougher surface on my newer Lodge pans has never really bothered me, but if it did, I'd just take a power tool to them.

[charby]

Holy moly -- $300? It looks like with the thinning, they are trying to do some amalgam between cast iron and carbon steel. The rougher surface on my newer Lodge pans has never really bothered me, but if it did, I'd just take a power tool to them.

Took me three years of cooking to finally get a smooth finish in my 13.5" lodge skillet. My next new lodge is getting hit with a sander.

[Kingcreek]

Only when I wear my old cast iron pieces out, will I consider the new ones.

[K Frame]

Holy crap.

Not only no, but NFW no.

[Ben]

I'm really curious as to their target demographic. I'm sure some professional chefs might try them, but that's a very small demographic who would likely get them at a significant discount. Otherwise it seems like the kind of thing millennials and hipsters would buy, as long as they have Google and Facebook salaries.

[Fly320s]

I'm really curious as to their target demographic. I'm sure some professional chefs might try them, but that's a very small demographic who would likely get them at a significant discount. Otherwise it seems like the kind of thing millennials and hipsters would buy, as long as they have Google and Facebook salaries.

I saw their ad in Garden and Gun magazine, so I guess well-to-do Southerners are the target demographic. 

[Brad Johnson]

I like the idea and it does appear to be a good product but it's a big, fat NOPE! on the price.

Lodge skillet + disc sander or flap wheel = goodness.

Brad

[K Frame]

I'm really curious as to their target demographic. I'm sure some professional chefs might try them, but that's a very small demographic who would likely get them at a significant discount. Otherwise it seems like the kind of thing millennials and hipsters would buy, as long as they have Google and Facebook salaries.

Do they offer a free clip on Man Bun with every purchase?

[K Frame]

I use valve grinding compound and a wheel to polish my cast iron.

[Ben]

I like the idea and it does appear to be a good product but it's a big, fat NOPE! on the price.

That's why I was wondering about the demographic. It seems like even if Lodge or somebody went to the expense of reworking production equipment to make pans with thinner sidewalls, and went back to fully finishing their pans, it would no more than double their price, so you'd be paying maybe $75-$100 for a 10" skillet.

[MillCreek]

I think the demographic is foodies and hipsters who think that Lodge is too common.

[Nick1911]

It's just like yetti coolers or iphones... make a fairly high quality product, and sell it for about 10x the going rate of similar products.

Some people will flock to it simply because the price makes it a status symbol, regardless of the intrinsic value.

It's a great marketing trick that I've been noticing lately.

[Ben]

Some people will flock to it simply because the price makes it a status symbol, regardless of the intrinsic value.

Yet some of those same people will go out of their way to drink PBR.  

Edit: I have never been able to figure out the Yetti cooler phenomenon.

[BobR]

Yet some of those same people will go out of their way to drink PBR.  

Edit: I have never been able to figure out the Yetti cooler phenomenon.

I could almost see the Yetti thing, almost. I used to spend 7-10 days at a time on the Colorado River down by Yuma in the summer. I would put a block of ice with cubed ice packed around it in 3-4 coolers, tape it shut and then wrap with a blanket. I usually brought ice back from the desert. The Yeti may do the same thing without the wrapping, etc. but they hold a lot less ice and cost substantially more. :(

If I were still playing desert rat I would probably do as I always did, what I would spend on Yetti coolers would buy a lot of ammo!!.

bob

[Hawkmoon]

Only when I wear my old cast iron pieces out, will I consider the new ones.

If I ever wear out my old ones I'll consider new, but not at $300 a pop. But, between the cast iron cookware I inherited from my mother and what I inherited from my aunt, I don't think that's a concern.

[French G.]

Walmart has a store brand yeti now and they look well made. For cast iron, it seems to come to me free mostly. If I wanted a status symbol I would go to an antique show and buy a Griswold.

[MechAg94]

I use valve grinding compound and a wheel to polish my cast iron.

Are we still talking about skillets?   

[Scout26]

If I ever wear out my old ones I'll consider new, but not at $300 a pop. But, between the cast iron cookware I inherited from my mother and what I inherited from my aunt, I don't think that's a concern.

My great-great-great-great-grandkids can buy new when my cast iron wears out....

[Mannlicher]

I have a number of old Wagner and Griswold skillets, Dutch ovens, Chicken cookers and griddles.  Most were bought years ago.  They still are better finished than what is out there today.  Spendy then, even more so now, but worth it.

[K Frame]

Are we still talking about skillets?   

Yes. Most modern cast iron skillets don't have a smooth finish. They're pebbled.

A little valve grinding compound and a little time and you get a nice, smooth, mirror finish.

[Fly320s]

Does the compound melt into the iron, like a seasoning does?

[K Frame]

Does it melt into the heads when you're grinding valve seats?

[Fly320s]

Does it melt into the heads when you're grinding valve seats?

I've never used it, which is why I asked.

[charby]

I've never used it, which is why I asked.

Think rubbing compound to polish paint.