A community for cast iron cookware. Recipes, care, restoration, identification, etc.
Rules: Be helpful when you can, be respectful always, and keep cooking bacon.
More rules may come as the community grows, but for now, I'll remove spam or anything obviously mean-spirited, and leave it at that.
Related Communities: !forgediron@lemmy.world !sourdough@lemmy.world !cooking@lemmy.world
Sigh. Always test cast iron of unknown history. Any wall mounting tips lol?
Just be sure to put a label on the back stating it should not be used and contains lead. You never know who may attempt to use it someday for whatever reason. Also, in case something happens to you and someone cleans out your place, they will know its deadly and should discard it instead of keeping it.
Sounds like a job for a paint pen.
Melt some PET water/soda bottles (e.g. with a heat gun) so the plastic drips on to the bottom side and scratch out a huge ass warning into it with a hobby knife (or any knife, really... It's just PET). Also write another warning with a sharpie in multiple locations.
Why this method? Because that plastic will stick pretty good to the bottom of a cast iron pan—making anyone thinking of using it think twice, "How TF am I going to get that off without making a gross burning plastic stink?" Or a fool will try and quickly get annoyed that it won't sit flat on their stovetop and it'll be too far away from an induction heater to work. Make the plastic nice and uneven 👍
Also, if you're just hanging it up on the wall no one will see the bottom so it won't uglify your pretty hanging pan.
Melting a water bottle with a heat gun happens pretty fast and the iron pan will absorb the heat in the plastic quickly too. So the whole process will take less than a minute. Then scratching out a warning label will take a few minutes 😁
I mean.... A hammer works pretty well, too.
Make it an art piece.
Broken Dreams, 2025
Have you tried to break a cast iron pan with a "hammer"?
At a minimum it'll take a sledge, and that will still take a bit of effort.
Besides, it's just no longer useful for food. Still fine as decoration, door stop, anchor - whatever you can think up.
A big painted "Not food safe" on the back would be a good reminder.
Yes, I have, and the first time was by accident because I figured "it's metal, metal is hard to break"
After reading some of this thread, I have decided if someone wants to gift me cast iron and it's bad, from now on I'm gonna use some of my metalworking tools to engrave a pattern into it.
A big NOT FOR FOOD engraved on the back would be a good addition just in case someone decides it's decorational engraving and still usable. Maybe even a little periodic table square for lead engraved on it somewhere as well.
I like the way you think!
is this common with old cast iron?
Not really. Though sometimes people do use the pans for weird shit and they can get contaminated that way. One example I heard was of people melting lead for fishing weights and bullets (though your cast pan would have to be really old if it was used for that).
Not necessarily. People still scavenge lead (often from car batteries) and cast their own fishing weights and bullets.
Not that it's a cast iron level of this issue, but I knew a guy who paid for college (this woud have been about 10 years ago now) by purchasing scavenged and derelict boats, then chopping\melting the lead ballast out of them to resell as raw metal. Never underestimate the value of scrap metal or people's willingness to gather it up for money.
Oh no! I will have to test the ones that I have, especially the inherited one.
Wall mounting tip: Hooks on a sturdy board (maybe hardwood like oak) that spans several studs should be sufficient.
Well, what can I do for ye?