Martin pans, quality?

[awdye]

I was out at a local flea market today and picked up a Martin #9 skillet.  Pretty thing, in good shape.  I came home and read the section on Martin in the red book today, but was wondering about opinions on their pans from the group.  Is the quality generally good?  How easy to collect?  Any things to be warned about?  I searched the archives on this site, but there was very little discussion on Martin/King...

[Steve_Stephens]

Alan, were you at Alameda or Alemany flea markets?  I've heard some people say the Martins are great castings and find them to be very good but not as good as some others.  You can easily find the 3, 5, and 8 skillets but most of the other pieces are a bit hard.  Martin made some very nice pieces like their handled sauce pans (with cover).  I think that the dearth of variety and being not that easy to find makes Martin less collected or understood.  I once bought for an acquaintence a Martin No.10 dutch oven with marked cover and the unusual cover handle that Martin used.  Nice piece.  I don't think Martin made any 'knock your socks off" pieces though.  The No.5 skillet is interesting in that the sides slope outward more than usual.  Nice pieces here and there but also a bit ho-hum.

Steve

[Fusion_power]

Martin items are very common at yard sales and flea markets in this area.  Of course, I'm only 50 miles from Florence.

By and large, the Martin skillets are pretty good.  They are very even heating, much better than most pans made in the last 50 years.  If you look on Ebay, you will usually find 5 or 6 Martin items though many of them are mis-listed.  They tend to sell at big discounts because they are relatively unknown.

[awdye]

Alan, were you at Alameda or Alemany flea markets?  

Alameda Flea.  Usually try to go to it, and hit Alemany on the odd weekends when I'm not travelling.  It was productive, 2 griswold tite-top ovens #8 and #9, 1 wagner #7 oven, 1 griswold pop-over 948A, an iron mountain chicken fryer, one dutch oven trivet, A marked lodge #7 with raised numeral on the handle, a #7 griswold slant/E and a #8 griswold slant/E.  I need to slow down, the 1/2 mile hike back to the car with a tub of cast iron was very heavy indeed...

[Steve_Stephens]

Alan, I was there at Alameda, too, and pulled out 8 pieces.  Funny, I don't remember seeing most of what you got.  Must have been a lot of iron and enough to keep two junkies in iron for the day.  If we'd look up now and then we might meet instead of passing each other by.

Steve

[awdye]

Martin items are very common at yard sales and flea markets in this area.  Of course, I'm only 50 miles from Florence.

Man, I envy you people who live near old foundry towns.  I've been working on a decent piqua collection for some time, and it's not complete.  Same with those skillets with the diamonds on the bottom.  And now I'm starting a set of Martins and you tell me they're as plentiful as watermelon seeds in your neck of the woods.  Makes me think I ought to up and vacation in those areas for a week at a time and see if I can complete some of these collections...  Seems like most of what you see here is what came with somebody when they immigrated here, and it's a varied lot.  Darrel, have you built out a collection of Martin there?

[Fusion_power]

Alan,

I have a Martin or two but haven't collected them.  The Martin #5 is one of the best cornbread making pans around.  It has a thick bottom and steeply sloping sides.  If you want, I'll start looking around and any Martin's I can find at a reasonable price I'll buy and let you have first nod at them.  I can usually find smaller skillets for between $5 and $10 around here.

There is a Martin on Ebay right now that you could probably buy for a song.  Offer the guy $5 plus shipping and make sure he doesn't charge you over $15 total.  He's had it up for bids once already and nobody would buy it for $15 plus shipping.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6200278222

Here are a couple of photos of some Martin's that I have.  The griddle has been cleaned and oiled.  The #5 skillet has been in the lye bath but has not yet had the light surface rust removed.  I should have them both finished and seasoned this weekend.  I'll let you have these if you want them for $30 which includes shipping - carefully packed - in one of those $7.70 one price boxes.

http://www.selectedplants.com/CastIron/MartinPan1.jpg
http://www.selectedplants.com/CastIron/MartinPan2.jpg