Skillet ID?

[Scott J.]

I recently purchased a #3 skillet at an estate sale. I think it's a one notch Lodge except the mold mark is recessed rather than raised. Is it (most likely) a one notch Lodge? Dates?

 

[Doug D.]

Recessed markings are always in the pattern. Adding them at the time of casting would be unviable. This would appear to be a copy made using a Lodge pan as the basis for pattern creation, a practice not uncommon by small undercapitalized foundries, the copier adding the marks for their own purposes to the aluminum pattern they made from it. There's an outside chance Lodge later altered and used an old pattern for some reason, but the casting anomalies on the bottom suggest otherwise.

 

[Scott J.]

Thanks