folding tin skillet ??

[quinnconner]

Who on here uses em? Where did you get yours at? How do you like it? Help please....
J.J.

 

[FireMaker]

Purchased one from Cobb Creek - very nice one. We sell one from Crazy Crow that is cheaper but not as nice. Crazy crow has a 6 and 9 inch. Mine from Cobb Creek is a 6 inch. I like mine and use it to cook for 3 people on a regular basis, just takes a little planning.

 

[Cruzatte]

Who on here uses em?

I do.

Where did you get yours at?

Arrowhead Forge

How do you like it? Help please....
J.J.

Very well. I use it for all sorts of cooking, sometimes even at home. I use it for roasting coffee beans in camp, cooking oatmeal, as a soup bowl, and maybe a couple of other tasks. At home I've been known to use it to melt a small amount of butter and roasting seeds on the stovetop.

Cruzatte

 

[ameling]

I have a completely hand forged one, and have made and used a number of them from the stamped sheet-iron skillets you can currently buy. They are nice, and pack well. You do have to watch your heat more with the thin sheet iron compared to cast iron. Don't do what a bunch of the Civil War boys have been doing to theirs to clean them. They turn them upside down over the fire to "burn" the grease out of them before putting them in their packs. This will warp and wear them out reall fast. Just wipe them out and wrap them in something you don't mind getting a little grease on.

But there are problems with folding handle frypans. I and a lot of other people have not been able to find any documentation for them. The only known original one that everyone points to is in Madison Grant's Hunting Pouch book - and it is listed as a Rev War "folding mess kit", NOT a frypan. And it's provinance has been questioned. A whole lot of people REALLY WANT TO find documentation for folding handle frypans. THEY REALLY REALLY WANT TO! But, nobody has, yet.

So, personally, I don't carry mine much anymore. Only to the occasional "buckskinner" type event where authenticity doesn't matter much. It falls into that other category: if they would have had it, they would have used it. It's a neat idea, and handy, but doesn't appear to have existed back then.

If I carry along a frypan now, it's one with a LONG fixed handle as seen in numerous voyageur paintings. Or a Spider - a frypan with three long legs riveted on, and a long handle. Examples can be seen in many paintings, and in books like Collectors Illustrated Encyclopedia of the American Revolution, Early American Country Furnishings, and Where Two Worlds Meet.

So goes this Living History journey. I miss my folding handle frypan. I await further research!

yhs
Mike Ameling

 

[bnail]

Mike, thank you!
I've been beeting that drum for years. And, like the rest, I'd like to have one; I think it's neat idea. However, I think the truth lies a bit closer to what Peter Goebels says on his site, that the frontiersman took his gear off the hearth and left with his wife's admonitions ringing in his ears that if the pot (or pan) doesn't return, then neither should he!

 

[Mulebrain]

Great for camping, especially when you got to pack light! Mine was made in 1923!

Mule

 

[djnye]

hey there,

i use a very small steel fry pan that is one piece. i am not so sure that it is any harder to pack than a folding handle would be and it is one less thing to go wrong. whether now or two centuries ago, if i was presented the choice, i would reject the folding handle--so much for that rationale.

take care, daniel

 

[Mad Irish Jack]

I've been using mine for about seven years now. I have a friend, that has since left the sport, that wanted to make them for trading. He made two skillets. One had a solid metal rolled handle and the other a heavy wire type rolled handle. Both accept wooden a branch to help in the handling of them. But I just use leather for hot pads. He gave me one of each and told me to field test them and get back to him with my evaluation. I do like the wire rolled handle one better as it cools quickly and is easier to handle. Many of my reenacting friend get theirs from various blacksmiths and traders. Mine also fit into each other and are very easy to pack along.

 

[big bore 75]

I like my pan, as for the pc thing I don'y worry about itand if someone asks if it were used my answer is not sure but I likes me pan. bb75