Help with ID

[Doug MacGibbon]

My mother-in-law is from Kentucky and she uses a lot of cast iron. She gave us some pieces (6 or so), which were mainly form Taiwan. My mother heard about this and gave us 1/2 dozen including a Griswold and a Wagner (gotta love competition). Well my mom sent us 4 more pieces. I cleaned them up and I have a question about one of them. It is a Number 8 skillet. The 8 is about 7/8 of an inch long. Right above the Number are the letters "JR6". There are letters and numbers at the bottom "BH4N". We are unsure about the "H". It has a scooped handle. It has a heat ring with 3 notches, at 9, 12 and 3 o'clock. I looked for hours, before I came here. Any ideas?

 

[Doug D.]

For skillets with those three notches and no manufacturer name the standard answer is Lodge. Without "Made In USA", it would date to the 1950s-early 1960s. All those extraneous letters are probably quality control related, perhaps in the early days of automation. There are some imports which mimic the three notch design, but they are usually identifiable by other non-Lodge characteristics.

 

[Doug MacGibbon]

Thanks Doug. It looks like my collection is going to be "one of each", a Griswold, a Wagner and a Lodge, plus a few unidentified pieces . I need my Mother and Mother in Law to continue to recycle these skillets in my direction. My favorite piece is actually the cover that fits on one of the skillets. My daughters have discovered the joys of fried chicken cooked they way their grandmothers did!