re: Cast iron cookware

Martini, I am not sure if you're being serious about the "heavy unmarked but smooth" skillets that you have. I would bet anything that you have a bit of Birmingham Stove & Range. That is some of the nicest cast iron I've ever dealt with.

I have restored a few of those pieces and they are very high quality. Just fyi, BSR actually milled the surfaces of their skillets and they had a smooth as glass finish when they were new. They used a heavier wall design but it was made by highly skilled foundrymen and workers that finished each skillet by hand (we will just have to agree to disagree on quality of the castings and workmanship).

If you would be interested in finding out if that is what you have I can tell you just by a picture of the bottom of the skillet's handle or by its markings (Number (size) and Mold Marker ID (will be 1 or 2 letters and possibly a dot or comma)). They have a very interesting history and I'd be happy to share via email if you're interested.

I was messing around in my garage earlier and discovered that I had dropped a few skillets in my lye bath and had forgot about them. One is a BSR and I remembered somone on here had described some of their stuff to a T but I had never said anything. Took some digging but I found your post.

Sorry everyone for the rambling, but I figured Martini should know he has some pieces with a very interesting history.

Edit-markings like above described are the ones I will mess with and the years in your post match up to that series known as their Red Mountain series. Later series started after WWII and I don't mess with those but I do hear they are good for daily use.