Wapak No. 8 Skillet

“I like Lodge a lot, like half of all my cookware is Lodge stuff. But cast iron is cast iron. There's really not a lot you can do to screw it up no matter how much you try to cheap out on the process. Even if the casting process is terrible and 30% of the pans crack while cooling right out of the molds, the ones that survive being drop kicked onto your porch by the famously gentle amazon delivery drivers will still last a lifetime. Sure they might be a hair thinner but they're gonna cook identically. Case in point: People now love and use old vintage Wapak pans and say they love them and that they cook great, while back when they were made they were known to be dirt cheap knockoff casts using old patterns taken from other manufacturers with generally terrible casting and quality control. As long as the end result is made of iron and is pan-shaped it's gonna perform. Is it worth buying from Lodge still? I think so, they make their pans in the USA, have a really solid warranty, and generally have much better customer service. But the odds are that you're not gonna ever need to take a warranty claim out on a pan anyway. It's a pan.”