Back in 1896, Joseph Lodge assisted his friend and minister to open Blacklock Foundry. While Lodge was not actively involved in the company in the beginning years of the company, he later helped out when the company was struggling.
In 1910, the Blacklock company burned to the ground, so Lodge later opened his own company just a few blocks away and called it Lodge Cast Iron Company. Today, Lodge is the one of the only US companies still manufacturing cast iron skillets. A new company called Finex has recently started making cast iron skillets as well, but Lodge is the oldest US company doing so.
This is the oldest skillet I currently own. Based on the years of manufacturing, this makes the skillet anywhere from 104 to 118 years old as of the year 2014!
These are called "Possible Blacklock" skillets since very little is known about the company and its products since all their records burned up with the fire. But based on similarities with Lodge skillets in its time period, we can assume that these cast iron skillets were from Blacklock.
