What purpose does a heat ring serve?

[PamelaOryshchyn]

Well…. We managed to buy the 3 GRISWOLD number 8’s we were looking for in record time! We are super excited to give them to our kids this Christmas. Two of them are from 1935 and one is from 1917 . The 1917 pan has a heat ring. What is/was the purpose of a heat ring?
Thanks for your help in my learning.
Pam

 

[SeanD]

The heat ring would sit in the hole on a wood stove, called an Eye. The numbers mean what size Eye to use. Im no expert either, but thats what Ive read.

 

[Doug D.]

Heat ring, smoke ring and fire ring are all terms for the same thing. Reasons include sealing a pan to an appropriately-sized woodstove eye to keep the draft going up the flue and not into the kitchen; raising a pan bottom so as to not wobble on raised markings or a gate mark; or raising the pan bottom slightly off the heat source to promote evenness of heating. Or a combination thereof.

If the seller told you the pans were from specific years, they were making up stories, as our mothers used to call it "fibbing". About the closest we can come on most pans is a decade span of production, and not necessarily a calendar decade.

 

[PamelaOryshchyn]

I misspoke, the pans are circa 1935 and 1917. I had to go back to the listings and see. Thanks for the education!

 

[CraigA.]

Is the heatring pan "Griswold Erie" pan or is it a "Griswold Erie Pa USA" pan?
The Erie pans have a higher value due to age.

 

[CraigA.]

Correction,
I think this only applies to the Slant logo pans.
Sorry for the confusion.

 

[Doug D.]

 

[PamelaOryshchyn]

Is the heatring pan "Griswold Erie" pan or is it a "Griswold Erie Pa USA" pan?
The Erie pans have a higher value due to age.

It is a slant logo and says “GRISWOLD Erie PA USA”.