As Lodge is made here in Tennessee, all my camp ovens were purchased from their factory store in South Pittsburg when they sold seconds. Unfortunately they no longer seem to sell seconds, or at least didn't have any out a month ago when I stopped by. I will say the Griswold skillet I have is far better than any Lodge. There must have been a different process used on earlier cast iron. The Lodge finish is coarse compared to the older Griswold.
AND, at least around here, antique cast iron is less expensive. Well, Griswold might not be, depending on who you buy from, but Wagner Ware is awesome...and almost always nicely priced. I imagine the Lodge stuff is sand cast and they just don't bother to machine it smooth. I have only one Lodge piece - don't care for it at all.
What's your experience been after the acidic foods in the cast iron? For example, tomatoes (which might be more basic than acidic)?
As long as you dry the piece well after washing it, (I use the stove) and apply a THIN layer of oil, you'll be fine. Essentially, reseason after every use. In my oval roaster, I always add about 1/4-1/2 cup apple cider vinegar over my roasts & chickens and don't have ant problems
2007-03-26 Calphalon Contemporary Stainless Lasagna Pan Henkels Kitchen Shears Henkels Twin Poultry Shears
Calphalon 10" Contemporary Omelette Pan I'm almost done with major cookware purchases. I'm watching for the 12" version of this pan but it does not show up very often. Also the 1.5, 2.5 and 3.5 qt Calphalon One Non Stick saucepans and the contemporary stainless roasting pan. I have a ton of cookware but these complete the upgrades and fill in the gaps from losing half of my cookware collection. I'm tossing K-Mart bargain specials out as the cookware comes in. My final cookware purchases will be two cast iron pans and a cast iron dutch oven. I lost all of those and I will go over the threads again and research who makes good stuff when I'm ready to get some probably in about 3-4 months. They will be last. My knives are in good shape so not in a hurry to get the 3 or 4 pieces I want.
My wooden handled steak knives kept ending up in the dishwasher when I wasn't looking so I bought a set of these on EBAY for $15.01. Henkels TWIN Stainless Steak Knives
Tojiro 240mm western deba. At 400 grams and a whopping 4 mm thick, it's a beast. Japanese chef's knives are delicate instruments- you don't want to use them for chopping bones or really heavy duty tasks. Even cleavers aren't meant for that. This guy will cut a coconut in half.
The beauty of the Japanese knives is that the 1/2 bolsters allow the edge to be sharpened all the way to the heel. You do have to be very careful not to catch your finger on it.
10" sharpening steel. Always just used the little notch sharpeners until I got into this straight razor thing. Now I can't see using anything else. Puts a great edge on kitchen knives!
Actually, a steel doesn't sharpen a knife, it just aligns the edge. When using your steel (hopefully it's a smooth one), apply zero pressure. You still need sharpening stones to establish and maintain your edge.
So Tony, what would you suggest for real sharpening? Could I use the same waterstone I just got for my straights, or would that take forever?
That depends on which stones you have for your straights. If it's the ubiquitous Norton 4/8K, that's a fine stone for maintaining, but not establishing, an edge on a knife. You'll need a 1K for that. Once your knife is sharpened, polish stones (5-15K) can keep them sharp for quite some time, but eventually you'll need to re-establish the edge and bring up a burr with a 1K. If you're using the same stone for knives and razors, make sure they're lapped completely flat before using them on your razors, and that they're completed free of any metal filings from your knives. A nagura stone does a great job of cleaning the surface of a water stone.
Calphalon One Non-Stick 2 1/2 qt. saucepan. Just need to get the 1 1/2 and 3 1/2 versions and my standard cookware collection is almost complete. Then the cast iron pieces for the grill.
