New collector. Didn't know this was a thing until today!

[MCohen]

I've only been collecting for about a year. I recently got an itch to own a popover pan, and I havent been able to find one locally.

Found this guy on ebay, and I thought maybe the silvery color was a trick in the lighting/bare metal. Open it up today, and apparently I bought a nickel plated Wagner B 1323 for under $50. This is where the lack of knowledge comes in.

How can I clean the gunk out safely? I can post more closeups, but it looks like a majority of the crud is on the bottom between cups, with some bronzey (patina?) showing underneath. There appears to be a small amount of surface rust in some places as well. I have a lye bath setup as well as an electrolysis setup. I know that the lye bath will be safe, but will electrolysis strip the plating?

The finish appears to be in pretty solid shape, short of some "loosening" on the bottom of 2 of the cups. It feels like it pulled away from the cast iron, but has held on overall. When you touch it it crinkles like tin foil. Is there a way to fix this? Or is it just part of the character now?

Thank you for taking the time to look. I can post more pictures as needed.

 

[Doug D.]

Lye would be safe, and there doesn't appear to be anything on it that would call for trying electro. However, the loosened plating on the bottoms of those couple of cups would make me not want to submerge it in a lye bath. Makes me think it was left soaking at some point in the past and water insinuated itself through pinholes or somesuch. Not likely anything will remedy that. I'd opt instead for the oven cleaner spray in a bag treatment or Dawn Power Dissolver, if you can find some.

 

[RickC]

Didn't know this was a thing until today!

Oh, it's a thing! Welcome to the cool kids club. :icon_thumbsup:

I hope you're ok with dipping into your 401K. You're gonna' need it with all the great iron you'll start spotting/wanting here,there and everywhere.