So tell me you guys who know your CI
What is it that is keeping an American company (Lodge?) from putting out a reasonably priced as in #12 for less than $100? Something polished smoother than the Lodge stuff of today?
Labor?: Seems to me that could be solved with mechanization/robotics?
Cost of material?: Mmm, methinks iron is not that expensive, the proper alloy might take some chemical engineer a few days to work up? After that, not much except tweaking for differences in what's coming from the supplier.
Overhead? Seems to me foundries are still operating and if they are on natural gas the price of that seems to be staying low for now. Environmental regs no doubt enter into the equation, but if the company is already casting other items, amortization brings the costs down for adding another product?
Marketing?: is the market too small? Seems to me the market is growing if I can't find a good skillet in the thrift stores anymore.
Collecting aside, can anyone really justify $200 for a piece of iron?
Anyone have any thoughts about the feasibility of having a foundry cast some "blanks" and starting a small shop to polish/finish/season them and could a guy get them done at a cost that would allow a decent markup and still have it "affordable" as I described above?
I like my cast iron, Lodge for now as I turned the 100 year old family skillet over to lil' sis, but I'm not interested in spending $200 for a new one or an old Griswold.
Do any of you know anyone in the foundry business?
Thanks for all your posts folks, I do enjoy looking at the old stuff.
Geno
