Spun vs. Cast Iron pans

Someone ages ago put me onto spun cast iron which is not cheap but much lighter. I have a small fry pan which gets used every day, and a loaf tin used every five days ish.
I have a lovely old 12" fry pan too but it is quite heavy.
The only Lodge I have is a three section fry pan thing so the juices should stay separate between sections. But the raised dividers are so low they are mostly useless. It was only about £25 shipped to the UK so that may be why!

jason holdstock wrote:Someone ages ago put me onto spun cast iron which is not cheap but much lighter. I have a small fry pan which gets used every day, and a loaf tin used every five days ish.
I have a lovely old 12" fry pan too but it is quite heavy.

Jason, thank you ... I had never heard of spun cast iron before. One of my major issues in changing from stainless has been the weight since I'm an oldster with joint problems.

Thanks!

Spun iron vs cast iron

https://farmfetch.co/blogs/news/spun-iron-vs-cast-iron-cookware-buying-guide#:~:text=

Mine spun items are from Netherton Foundry in the UK and are well made.

The frying pan has wooden handles that I unscrewed early on and have not put back. Not needed so far.

It does heat up more quickly but my heavier normal thick old pan might take twice as long, can take more energy more easily to do so (getting heat up the sides of both takes patience) but that's fine.

Bacon and eggs in the spun works well. Steak is always done on the heavier one, which also gets chillis, curries, stews maybe, partly just because it's my bigger pan, partly for the better heat retention.

I think that if you are used to and like heavy cast iron you may not like spun apart from the lightness, they don't work the same but I think still better than non-stick etc. That's why I started off with one small pan to see how I got on.

My spun pan at 8" is 850g 30oz with no lid or wooden handle sections. Netherton said their 8" lid is half that again, the 10" is 1.2kg 42oz alone and 2.02kg 71oz with lid. The 2lb loaf tin works as well as any I've had before, though a bit wider, and is 1200g 42 oz. All weights approx.

I also got a small saucepan with lid from them but found using and cleaning it a pain. I need to make more effort to learn how to!

Cleaning the fry pan is with hot water and a piece of chainmail, reseasoning is usually butter, sometimes stove top sometimes in the oven.

I maybe should have bought an 8" lid too.

I do not have any experience with spun cast iron, but plenty with the 'standard' type.

At first I was wondering if spun cast iron would be more prone to cracking or damage due to the thinner walls but it seems that it might in fact be stronger?

I also was wondering why it was called spun... I think I found out why!

Metal spinning on the lathe was an optional skill we could pick up in high school metal shop, but I don't think anyone did it the year I was in there. But I'm pretty sure it was just using sheet-metal, not thick iron. I also have a book (https://www.amazon.com/Metal-Spinning-Craftsman-Instructors-Students/dp/091791483X) on the practice that I bought in the early 90s for "one day" when I set up a shop.