Griswold Nickel?

A

AlexM.

New member
I believe this is Nickel but not sure, Pic link below, 2 before. After photos are post 1 week basement lye bath (fairly cool down there), 30 min vinegar/water soak,SS scrubbing and stove top drying. The darker center of the bottom flash rusted as it dried, the whole outside was silver after scrubbing. The last pic shows some wearoff of the finish or shinier areas along parts of the bottom edges; these areas did not flash rust. I saw some of the cleaning recommendations on here, thanks, yet did have some questions. I assume I would need to season the whole pan in this case. And RE: polishing with Mothers, this is before seasoning, correct? Also, I'm a little concerned as to whether the cooking surface is bare cast iron or just a worn through nickel surface? I can see some level finish on the spouts as shown in pic. It has been back in lye bath for several more days now in hopes of getting rid of the surface dark spots. Thanks for the help!


https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B8_C1PMVKebOeWc2czBZc2tuYjA&usp=sharing
 
Hard to say for sure, but this piece might be the Silverlike finish, which appears to have been nickel. It also seems to lack the mirror polish handle top characteristic of Griswold's chromium finish. Technically, Mother's is not recommended on plated pieces, but I have used it on the bottom and handles of a nickeled Wagner corn stick pan, and it brought out a bit of luster. Nickeled pieces, however, were not quite the car bumper mirror finishes that polished chrome was. Nickel was usually applied without any apparent preparation to the outside surfaces, whereas chromed pieces were first polished wherever a mirror finish was desired. Plating was done so that seasoning would be unnecessary. In the case of seasoning worn plated pieces, you really only need to attend to the bare iron portions so they don't rust.
 
Thanks for the tips Doug. Still in lye bath hope to get to it this week. So do you believe that plated Griswolds were likely all plated on the inside and if it appears to be all bare iron, the plating has just worn off?
 
The plated Griswold pieces I own were certainly plated inside as well as out. We can tell this was true even of pieces with partial plating remaining on the inside. It's the pieces that have no plating at all on the bottom of the inside nor mostly up the sidewalls that leave us to wonder if they were made that way or merely worn in a very consistent manner.
 
Thanks Doug,

"Finished" pics added (last 3).
https://docs.google.com/folderview?id=0B8_C1PMVKebOeWc2czBZc2tuYjA&usp=docslist_api
I ended up seasoning outside with one coat, 2 on the trouble spots as there were pin head marks appeared to be duller that I thought would rust. Came out a little goldish and the dark spot was indeed a little light pitting as you can tell by the roughness. Still a little timid to cook in this due to possible nickel issues, although it appears all gone....Would others on here?
 
Thanks, JB came out better than I had expected. Need to examine again, appears flat on cooking surface but it spins a bit. quite possibly would be interested in a trade to the extent someone in Georgia is...:icon_scratchchin:
 
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