Skillet & Stove

Wagner Cast Iron Identification

Wagner outlived Griswold by forty years and has no equivalent dating chart, which is why so much Wagner dating online is confident and unsourced. Here is what the collectors' own society publishes, what it does not, and the four dates that anchor everything else.

By Stephen V.Last updated How we pick

How this is funded: we earn a commission if you buy through our links, at no extra cost to you. It never changes which pan we recommend, and we’ll happily tell you to keep the skillet you already own. Full disclosure.

Start with the four dates.Wagner identification has no chart, so the only solid ground is a short list of ownership and product-line dates that the Wagner and Griswold Society publishes in its own FAQ. Everything else — logo styles, handle shapes, gate marks — is evidence to be weighed against those dates rather than a key that decodes a pan on its own. If you want a quick answer: a pan marked “Wagner’s 1891 Original” was made between 1991 and 1999, and a pan carrying both the Wagner and Griswold logos was made in the later 1970s or early 1980s.

It is worth saying clearly why this page is shaped differently from our Griswold identification guide. For Griswold, the society publishes a dated skillet chart — ERIE first series around 1880 to 1886, the slant trademark with ERIE PA USA from about 1909 to 1924, the block trademark from about 1916 to 1940, and so on. For Wagner, it publishes nothing equivalent. Its educational page points collectors at its FAQ, a Griswold trademark page, a reproductions page, a reference book list and an external size chart. That is the whole published toolkit. Which means most of the precise Wagner date ranges you will find online are somebody’s accumulated expertise rather than a citable source — often good expertise, still not a source, and we are not going to launder it into a chart here.

The four published anchors

These come straight from the society’s own FAQ and they are the dates to hang everything on.

  1. November 1952 — Randall Corp. buys Wagner. The end of Wagner as an independent company, and the beginning of the chain of ownership that eventually joined the two famous names.
  2. 1957 — Griswold joins Wagner. McGraw Edison bought Griswold on March 29, 1957 and sold it in December 1957 to Randall, which already owned Wagner. From that point, in the society’s words, “all subsequent ‘Griswold’ pieces were made in the Wagner foundry in Sidney, Ohio” — and those pieces do not say Erie.
  3. Later 1970s to early 1980s — the dual-logo era. “During the later 1970’s and/or early 1980’s many pieces were marked with BOTH the Wagner and Griswold trademarks (logos) on the bottom.” If your pan has two logos, this is your window.
  4. 1991 to 1999 — Wagner’s 1891 Original. A new line marked “Wagner’s 1891 Original” went into production in 1991 for the company’s centenary and “remained in production as a regular production item until the foundry closed in 1999.” The 1891 in the name is the founding year, not the casting year — this is the single most common Wagner dating error.

What to actually read on the bottom of the pan

The maker’s mark

Take the mark literally and in order. Does it say WAGNER, WAGNER WARE, WAGNER’S 1891 ORIGINAL, SIDNEY, or nothing at all? Is there a second logo? Is the word “Sidney” in Wagner’s block style or in a script? Script SIDNEY points at Sidney Hollow Ware — a separate company that Wagner later bought, whose old foundry went on producing SIDNEY pieces that look much like Wagner’s own marked ones. On some of those you can see where WAGNER was removed from or filled in on the pattern, which is a genuinely useful tell and an unglamorous one.

The numbers

There are usually two different kinds and they are constantly confused. The size number is the legacy sizing system shared across the whole American industry: the chart the society links from its educational page measures a No. 6 at 9.125 inches across the top, a No. 8 at 10.625 inches over an 8.875-inch bottom, and a No. 10 at 11.75 inches over a 10-inch bottom. It is not inches and never was. The pattern number identifies the mould: the society explains that each piece needs its own mould, that each pattern carries a different letter, and that the number after it is shared across like items. We lay the whole system out in what the numbers on cast iron mean.

The heat ring

The society’s own definition: “the small rim around the outside of the bottom of many (usually earlier) skillets”, there to raise the pan slightly on the stoves of the day. Note the hedge. A heat ring makes an early pan more likely and proves nothing by itself.

The casting itself

Pick it up and run a hand across the inside. Pre-war American castings are thin-walled, light for their diameter and machined smooth on the cooking surface, because the finishing step was standard then and is not now on mass-market pans. A heavy pan with a pebbled sand-cast interior and a Wagner-family logo is late, whatever the logo says. That one observation separates the eras faster than any chart.

The honest limit of all of this

Worth knowing before you spend an evening on it: attribution is a judgement call even for the people who wrote the references. In the society’s own forum, a member asking whether an unmarked pan was a Wagner laid out the features she was weighing — “the underside of the handle”, “the flat spot where the handle meets the body”, “the incised number 1 or dash mark in the scooped area where it leads to the body”, “an outside heat ring”, and a mould whose “markings [were] buttered over”. The replies from the board’s own moderator and administrator were “It looks Wagner to me”, “I’m with Roger, looks Wagner” and “I vote Wagner”.

That is not a criticism of them — pattern recognition built over decades is real knowledge. It is a warning about anything online that gives you a confident Wagner date from a photograph. If the money matters, the mark has to agree with the wall thickness, the surface finish and the handle, and the published date anchors above have to leave room for the answer.

What we would buy to restore one — or instead of one

Ranked on published specs, build and buyer fit. Select a row to jump to the full write-up. We haven’t cooked in all of these — here is exactly what we do instead.

#ProductBest forPrice
1
TOPULORS 316L Stainless Chainmail Scrubber (8 x 6 in)

TOPULORS 316L Stainless Chainmail Scrubber (8 x 6 in)

A rectangle of stainless chain mail, and the single most useful cleaning tool a cast iron kitchen can own. What earns it the slot over the branded pads is that the listing publishes the one spec that matters — 316L stainless, the low-carbon, more corrosion-resistant grade — while Lodge's own chainmail pad, at several times the price, publishes no steel grade at all.

Best for restoring old iron
$6.39 · View on Amazon

$6.999% off

Price as of October 11, 2026. #ad How we’re funded

2
La Tourangelle Expeller-Pressed Grapeseed Oil (16.9 fl oz)

La Tourangelle Expeller-Pressed Grapeseed Oil (16.9 fl oz)

Plain grapeseed oil in a tin, and the honest answer for most people. This is the oil Stargazer names in its own care guide and the one Smithey pre-seasons its pans with at the factory — so buying a bottle of it is buying exactly what the premium makers use, with no branding markup and nothing else in it. On published price per ounce it is far and away the cheapest thing here.

Best oil for re-seasoning
$6.80 · View on Amazon

$7.5810% off

Price as of October 11, 2026. #ad How we’re funded

3
Stargazer 10.5-inch Cast Iron Skillet

Stargazer 10.5-inch Cast Iron Skillet

The everyday-size Stargazer, and the one most people who want a machined-smooth pan should look at first. Same polished surface, flared drip-free rim and long stay-cool handle as the 12-inch, in a 5.2 lb body that is barely heavier than a classic Lodge — which is the point.

Best new pan with a vintage surface
$155.00 · View on Amazon

Price as of October 11, 2026. #ad How we’re funded

4
Lodge Classic 10.25-inch Skillet

Lodge Classic 10.25-inch Skillet

The pan most people should buy and stop thinking about. Pre-seasoned, made in the USA, oven-safe to anything, and about $25 — the value is so lopsided that the expensive pans have to justify themselves against it, not the other way around.

Best new pan, outright
$24.90 · View on Amazon

Price as of October 11, 2026. #ad How we’re funded

The picks in full

#1Best for restoring old iron

TOPULORS 316L Stainless Chainmail Scrubber (8 x 6 in)

A rectangle of stainless chain mail, and the single most useful cleaning tool a cast iron kitchen can own. What earns it the slot over the branded pads is that the listing publishes the one spec that matters — 316L stainless, the low-carbon, more corrosion-resistant grade — while Lodge's own chainmail pad, at several times the price, publishes no steel grade at all.

Strengths

  • Publishes its steel grade (316L), which the premium branded pads do not
  • Costs a fraction of the branded chainmail and does the same job
  • Rinses clean, goes in the dishwasher, and hangs on a ring by the sink

Trade-offs

  • No country of manufacture published, and no maker site to check it against
  • No warranty published, so it is a disposable purchase rather than a lifetime one
  • A flat sheet with no silicone core is harder on your fingers than a padded pad
  • Lean on any chainmail hard enough and it takes loose seasoning off with the food
What it is316L stainless chain mail, dishwasher safe, hanging ring
MaterialStainless steel
Size8 x 6 in rectangle
Weight0.33 lb
Heat ratingNot published
Made inNot published
WarrantyNot published

Spec note. Read from the listing on 2026-09-04, which publishes 316L stainless construction, an 8 x 6 inch rectangle (a 7-inch round version is sold under the same listing), soldered and handmade construction, and dishwasher-safe use. No country of manufacture, no warranty and no heat rating are published, so all three read 'Not published'. There is no manufacturer site for this seller, so unlike the Lodge items on this page the listing is the only source there is.

Specs read from the manufacturer and product listing, on September 4, 2026. “Not published” means the maker doesn’t state that figure.

#2Best oil for re-seasoning

La Tourangelle Expeller-Pressed Grapeseed Oil (16.9 fl oz)

Plain grapeseed oil in a tin, and the honest answer for most people. This is the oil Stargazer names in its own care guide and the one Smithey pre-seasons its pans with at the factory — so buying a bottle of it is buying exactly what the premium makers use, with no branding markup and nothing else in it. On published price per ounce it is far and away the cheapest thing here.

Strengths

  • The oil Stargazer's and Smithey's own published methods name
  • Cheapest per fluid ounce of anything here by a wide margin
  • One ingredient — nothing to react to and nothing to explain

Trade-offs

  • You are wiping oil on by hand; there is no applicator
  • 16.9 fl oz is far more than a seasoning routine will ever use
  • No smoke point published on the listing
FormSeasoning oil
Size16.9 fl oz
What's in itGrapeseed oil, expeller-pressed — one ingredient
Made inNot published

Spec note. Listing publishes a 16.9 fl oz size, model 40-05-GSO-A512-CS, and describes the oil as expeller-pressed and sustainably produced. It is sold as a COOKING oil, not a cast iron product — which is the point of including it, since the makers who charge the most for their pans specify this same oil for seasoning them. No smoke point and no country of manufacture is published on the listing, so both read 'Not published'.

Specs read from the manufacturer and product listing, on September 3, 2026. “Not published” means the maker doesn’t state that figure.

#3Best new pan with a vintage surface

Stargazer 10.5-inch Cast Iron Skillet

The everyday-size Stargazer, and the one most people who want a machined-smooth pan should look at first. Same polished surface, flared drip-free rim and long stay-cool handle as the 12-inch, in a 5.2 lb body that is barely heavier than a classic Lodge — which is the point.

Strengths

  • Machined-smooth cooking surface, slick from the first cook
  • 5.2 lb — lighter than a 12-inch Lodge and easy to handle
  • Made in the USA with a no-expiration lifetime warranty

Trade-offs

  • Costs roughly five times a classic Lodge that cooks the same food
  • Stargazer publishes no cooking-surface figure, only the 10.5 in rim
  • Still bare iron — the seasoning upkeep does not go away
MaterialBare cast iron
Diameter10.5 in
Weight5.2 lb
Oven-safe toAny oven temp
Induction-readyYes
Made inUSA
WarrantyLifetime (no expiration, defects only)

Spec note. Listing size '10.5 inch', published weight 5.2 lb. Stargazer states the pan is individually cast and machined smooth in the USA, has a flared drip-free rim instead of pour spouts, and carries a warranty with no expiration covering manufacturer defects only. No flat cooking-surface measurement is published.

Specs read from the manufacturer and product listing, on August 11, 2026. “Not published” means the maker doesn’t state that figure.

#4Best new pan, outright

Lodge Classic 10.25-inch Skillet

The pan most people should buy and stop thinking about. Pre-seasoned, made in the USA, oven-safe to anything, and about $25 — the value is so lopsided that the expensive pans have to justify themselves against it, not the other way around.

Strengths

  • Around $25 for a lifetime pan — nothing else here is close on value
  • Made in the USA and sold pre-seasoned, so it cooks the day it arrives
  • Thick walls hold heat well for searing

Trade-offs

  • Slightly pebbled cooking surface (it smooths with years of use)
  • Short handle gets hot and gives little leverage for 5+ lb of iron
  • Heavier than the machined 'heirloom' pans
MaterialBare cast iron
Diameter10.25 in
Weight5.36 lb
Oven-safe toAny oven temp
Induction-readyYes
Made inUSA
WarrantyLifetime (Made Right)

Spec note. Lodge's published weight is 5.36 lb for the 10.25-inch. It ships pre-seasoned from the foundry, so it's usable immediately — you just keep the seasoning up. Bare iron has no upper oven-temperature limit.

Specs read from the manufacturer and product listing, on July 20, 2026. “Not published” means the maker doesn’t state that figure.

Three mistakes people make dating Wagner

Treating “Sidney” as a date. It is a place. Wagner cast in Sidney, Ohio for essentially its entire American life, and from December 1957 the Griswold name was cast there too. A Sidney mark narrows nothing by itself.

Assuming a Griswold-marked pan is a Griswold.After 1957 the name outlived the Erie foundry. The society puts it plainly: most collectors do not consider Sidney-made Griswold pieces to be real Griswold, and those pieces do not carry ERIE. If you are paying a Griswold price, the absence of Erie is the thing to look for — our Griswold identification guide has the full dated chart, including the slant trademark with ERIE PA USA from about 1909 to 1924.

Reading a 1991-or-later pan as pre-war.“Wagner’s 1891 Original” is a line name commemorating a founding date, not a manufacturing date. Pans marked that way were made between 1991 and 1999. They are perfectly good pans; they are not antiques.

If you are buying one to cook in

A pre-war Wagner is a lovely pan: thin, light for its diameter, machined smooth. It is also going to need stripping and re-seasoning, because seasoning is just polymerized oil bonded to the iron and whatever is on a sixty-year-old pan is somebody else’s. Our restoration guide covers the strip, and the seasoning guide covers Lodge’s own 450–500°F method, which works the same on old iron as new.

And be clear-eyed about what you are buying the pan for. If the appeal is the thin wall and the glassy surface rather than the history, those are both on sale new, in stock, with a warranty — which is the argument we make at length in Lodge vs Griswold.

Frequently asked questions

How do you date a Wagner cast iron skillet?

By the mark, against the four ownership dates the Wagner and Griswold Society publishes. The anchors are: Randall Corp. bought Wagner in November 1952; Griswold came under the same ownership in December 1957, after which Griswold-marked pieces were made at Wagner's Sidney, Ohio foundry and do not say Erie; many pieces in the later 1970s and early 1980s carry BOTH the Wagner and Griswold logos; and the "Wagner's 1891 Original" line began in 1991 for the company's centenary and ran until the foundry closed in 1999. Nobody — including the society — publishes a mark-by-mark Wagner chart comparable to its Griswold one.

What does "Wagner Ware Sidney -O-" mean?

Sidney, Ohio, where Wagner's foundry was. The society's FAQ records that from December 1957 onward all "Griswold" pieces were also made in that Sidney foundry, which is why collectors treat the Sidney mark as a location rather than a brand. A separate company, Sidney Hollow Ware, made pieces marked SIDNEY before Wagner bought it — if the word is in a script typeface rather than Wagner's block style, that is the distinction to look at.

Is Wagner cast iron worth anything?

Some of it, and we do not publish secondhand values because they move with condition, mark and the room you are bidding in. The structural guidance from the society's own FAQ is clear enough to act on: most collectors do not consider Griswold pieces made in Sidney to be real Griswold, and "almost any pieces made after 1960 has limited collector appeal." A post-1991 "Wagner's 1891 Original" pan is a good cooking pan and not a collector's piece.

Is Wagner cast iron as good as Griswold?

As a pan to cook in, yes — both are thin-walled, machined-smooth, pre-war American castings and the cooking difference is negligible. As a collectible, Griswold's earlier marks carry more weight, which is partly scarcity and partly that the society publishes a dated Griswold chart and nothing equivalent for Wagner. If you are buying to cook, that asymmetry works in your favour.

What do the numbers on a Wagner pan mean?

They are a legacy size system, not inches, plus a pattern number that identifies the mould. The society explains that "each piece of iron has to have its own mold… each pattern has a different letter… after the pattern number which would be the same number for like items." On the size side, the chart the society links measures a No. 8 skillet at 10.625 inches across the top over an 8.875-inch bottom — so a No. 8 is a bigger pan than a modern 10.25-inch skillet.

Why does my Wagner pan have both a Wagner and a Griswold logo?

Because the two brands ended up under one owner. The society's FAQ states that "during the later 1970's and/or early 1980's many pieces were marked with BOTH the Wagner and Griswold trademarks (logos) on the bottom." A dual-logo pan is therefore a fairly tight date range and also a clear signal that it is not a pre-war piece.

When did Wagner stop making cast iron?

1999. The society records that the "Wagner's 1891 Original" line, launched in 1991 for the company's hundredth anniversary, "remained in production as a regular production item until the foundry closed in 1999." That makes the last American Wagner castings younger than a lot of people assume.

Does a heat ring mean a pan is old?

It points that way, with no guarantee. The society defines a heat ring as "the small rim around the outside of the bottom of many (usually earlier) skillets" — note "usually". Heat rings existed to raise a pan slightly on the stoves of the period. They are useful evidence alongside wall thickness, surface finish and the mark, and worthless on their own.

Should I restore a Wagner pan or buy a new one?

If you want to cook tonight, buy new. A restored Wagner's real advantages — thin walls and a smooth surface — are both sold new today: Stargazer machines its cooking surface smooth in the USA, and a classic Lodge costs about the same as lunch. If you want the Wagner because it is a Wagner, restore it; the society maintains its own cleaning and restoring guidance for exactly that.

Sources

  • Griswold and Cast Iron Information Board (Wagner and Griswold Society) — FAQ — The society's own FAQ, which is the only place it publishes Wagner dates in prose: "Randall Corp. bought Wagner in Nov. 1952"; "McGraw Edison Inc. bought Griswold on March 29, 1957" and "then sold it in December 1957 to Randall who already owned Wagner", after which "all subsequent 'Griswold' pieces were made in the Wagner foundry in Sidney, Ohio" and do not say Erie on the piece; "During the later 1970's and/or early 1980's many pieces were marked with BOTH the Wagner and Griswold trademarks (logos) on the bottom"; "In 1991 a new line of Wagner pieces marked 'Wagner's 1891 Original' was put into production to celebrate Wagner's 100th anniversary. This is the line that remained in production as a regular production item until the foundry closed in 1999"; on numbers, "Each piece of iron has to have its own mold… each pattern has a different letter… after the pattern number which would be the same number for like items"; and on heat rings, "The heat ring is the small rim around the outside of the bottom of many (usually earlier) skillets". It also records the collector view that "Most collectors do not consider Griswold pieces made in Sidney to be real Griswold" and that "almost any pieces made after 1960 has limited collector appeal" (accessed October 11, 2026)
  • Wagner and Griswold Society — Educational Resources — The society's own index of identification references, which is what it points collectors at rather than publishing a single key: the FAQ, a Griswold trademark page, a reproductions and fakes page, a references and books list, and an external skillet and dutch oven size chart (accessed October 11, 2026)
  • panman.com — Cast Iron Skillet and Dutch Oven Size Charts — The size chart the Wagner and Griswold Society links from its own educational page, giving measured top diameter, bottom diameter and depth per number. Skillets: No. 3 = 6.5 in top / 5.25 in bottom / 1.25 in deep; No. 4 = 7 / 5.75 / 1.5; No. 5 = 8 / 6.75 / 1.75; No. 6 = 9.125 / 7.5 / 1.875; No. 7 = 9.875 / 8.25 / 2; No. 8 = 10.625 / 8.875 / 2; No. 9 = 11.375 / 9.5 / 2; No. 10 = 11.75 / 10 / 2.125; No. 11 = 12.5 / 10.875 / 2.125; No. 12 = 13.375 / 11.75 / 2.25; No. 13 = 14.25 / 12.75 / 2.25; No. 14 = 15.25 / 13.5 / 2.25. Dutch ovens: No. 6 = 8.25 in top / 2.5 qt; No. 7 = 9.25 / 3.5 qt; No. 8 = 10.125 / 4.5 qt; No. 9 = 11.25 / 6 qt; No. 10 = 12.25 / 8 qt; No. 11 = 13.25 / 12 qt; No. 12 = 14.25 / 15 qt; No. 13 = 15.25 / 20.5 qt. The chart is tables only — it publishes no explanation of what the numbers represent (accessed October 11, 2026)
  • Wagner and Griswold Society — Griswold Skillet Chart (R. G. Meadows, 2017) — The collectors' society's own dating chart for Griswold skillets, crediting Steve Stephens as the primary source for the dates: ERIE first series c1880-c1886, second series c1886-c1892, third series (the first with pattern numbers) c1892-c1905, GRISWOLD'S ERIE c1905-c1907, slant trademark with ERIE c1907-c1909, slant trademark with ERIE PA USA c1909-c1924 (heat ring first, smooth bottom from about 1916), block trademark c1916-c1940, small trademark from the late 1930s to c1952, the late large trademark c1952-1957, and the VICTOR budget line in the 1940s and 1950s (accessed August 18, 2026)
  • Wagner and Griswold Society — Cast Iron and Aluminum Care — The collectors' society for Griswold, Wagner and Erie cookware on cleaning and restoring old iron (accessed August 11, 2026)
  • Wagner and Griswold Society — ERIE Skillets, by Roy Meadows — A collector reference on the markings and variations used to identify and date early ERIE and Griswold skillets (accessed August 11, 2026)
  • Wagner and Griswold Society Forum — "Is this an unmarked Wagner or Wagner Ware" — The society's own members attributing an unmarked pan, and the honest limit of the exercise. The features raised are "the underside of the handle", "the flat spot where the handle meets the body", "the incised number 1 or dash mark in the scooped area where it leads to the body", "an outside heat ring", and a mold whose "markings [were] buttered over". The verdicts from the board's own moderator and administrator are "It looks Wagner to me", "I'm with Roger, looks Wagner" and "I vote Wagner" — opinion from long familiarity, with no published diagnostic criteria given (accessed October 11, 2026)
  • Lodge Cast Iron — How to Season Cast Iron — Lodge's foundry seasoning method; seasoning is oil baked onto the pan through polymerization; re-season at 450–500°F (accessed July 20, 2026)
  • America's Test Kitchen — The Science of Seasoning — How seasoning forms — oil polymerizing into a hard, plastic-like layer — and how too much heat depolymerizes it (accessed July 20, 2026)

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