How to Date a Lodge Cast Iron Skillet

Read a Lodge pan in this order: count the notches in the heat ring, look for letter codes like SK or DO, check whether it says “Made in USA”, and look at the logo. A single notch at 12 o'clock points at the 1930s; three notches at 9, 12 and 3 cover roughly the 1940s to 1987; SK and DO codes arrive around the late 1950s; “Made in USA” from the mid-1960s; and the raised egg-in-skillet logos date the modern era from 1987 onward.

A word on precision. Dating cast iron is a matter of ranges, not years. The marks below are well documented, but Lodge produced enormous volumes over long periods and features overlapped. Anyone who tells you a pan is from 1953 rather than 1958 is guessing. This page will get you to a decade, which is what the evidence actually supports.

First, the company timeline

Joseph Lodge was a partner in the Blacklock Foundry, established in South Pittsburg, Tennessee in 1896. Blacklock burned down in 1910 and was rebuilt as Lodge Manufacturing Co., which has produced continuously since — and is today the only surviving major US producer of cast iron cookware.

One date matters more than any other for how a pan feels in the hand: in 1950Lodge converted from hand-pouring to an automated molding process. Pre-1950 Lodge pieces are generally finer-surfaced than the pebbly modern castings people know. If you are wondering why a family pan feels smoother than a new one, that is usually the reason — not, as the folklore claims, decades of seasoning alone. Our smooth vs rough guide goes further into the finish question.

The other date worth knowing is 2002, when Lodge began seasoning its cookware in the foundry. A pan sold in bare, unseasoned gray iron predates that changeover.

Step 1: count the notches

Turn the pan over and look at the raised heat ring around the base. Lodge interrupted that ring with notches, and the count is the most useful single dating feature on a mid-century Lodge:

• Full, unbroken inset ring— early Lodge (also used by Birmingham Stove & Range, so the ring alone does not confirm the maker).
• One notch, at 12 o'clock opposite the handle — 1930s.
• Three notches, at 9, 12 and 3 o'clock — roughly 1940s to 1987. This is by far the most commonly found vintage Lodge, and it is a wide window: three-notch pans from the late 1940s through the early 1960s are very hard to separate from one another.
• No heat ring at all— later production, once flat bottoms became standard for modern stovetops.

Step 2: look for letter codes

Lodge began using letters as model designations in the late 1950s: SK for skillet, DO for dutch oven, Cfor cornstick pan, and so on. So a pan reading something like “8 SK” is late-1950s or later, and a three-notch pan with no letters is likely earlier than one with them.

This is the single most useful cut inside the long three-notch window. Notches plus letters plus “Made in USA” puts you in the 1960s to 1987 band; notches with no letters points earlier.

Step 3: check for “Made in USA”

Lodge added the “Made in USA” mark from around the mid-1960s onward. Its absence on an otherwise letter-marked pan suggests the late 1950s to early 1960s; its presence pushes the piece to mid-1960s at the earliest.

Step 4: read the logo

Lodge's marks split the modern era cleanly:

• Arc logo— the early script mark, roughly 1910 into the 1930s. Uncommon.
• No logo, notches and letters only— the long mid-century period through 1987. Most vintage Lodge falls here.
• Block-letter LODGE with an egg-in-skillet as the O, size markings at 6 o'clock — 1987 to 1993.
• Raised egg logo with size markings beneath in a recessed circle— 1993 onward. This is the mark on almost every pan currently in circulation.

If your pan has the modern recessed-circle egg logo, it is not vintage — it is a normal Lodge from the last thirty years, and it is worth what a used Lodge is worth. That is not a disappointment: it is still the same excellent pan we rank in the best Lodge skillets.

What the numbers mean on a Lodge

The same rule as every other maker: the big number is a stove-eye size, not a diameter in inches. A No. 8 Lodge is close to a modern 10-inch pan across the top. Small raised letters or digits elsewhere on the base are usually molders' marks — identifying an individual molder or shift for quality tracking — and they carry no dating information.

Is a vintage Lodge worth more?

Usually only modestly, and the honest reasons are specific. Lodge produced in very large numbers, so scarcity is not driving prices the way it does for Griswold or Wagner — see Wagner vs Griswold for the genuinely collectible names. What a pre-1950 hand-poured Lodge does offer is a finer casting surface than the modern pan, which is a real cooking benefit rather than a collector one.

Before you pay a premium for any of it, check the condition — a warped or cracked pan is worth nothing regardless of era. Our go/no-go guide takes about a minute to apply.