Lodge Mfg. Co.

The Lodge Manufacturing Company — South Pittsburg, Tennessee (the Blacklock Foundry, 1896–1910)

Researched & written by Ethan Trex, a cast-iron cook & collector. · Reviewed August 2026

Active 1896–present (still operating) Trademark LODGE (skillet-and-egg) — but barely marked for ~50 years Type Manufacturer — the last major U.S. cast-iron maker

Lodge is the survivor. Joseph Lodge fired up the Blacklock Foundry at South Pittsburg, Tennessee in 1896—named for his friend and minister, the Rev. Joseph Blacklock—and after a fire leveled it in 1910 he rebuilt and renamed it the Lodge Manufacturing Company.^L9 It has run ever since: through a Depression it survived by casting garden gnomes and doorstops, to 2002, when it became the first maker to sell factory pre-seasoned cast iron.^L7 It outlived both Griswold and Wagner—and, unlike them, left almost no paper trail. There is one early priced catalogue (c.1910, still selling “The Blacklock Sad Iron”),^L1 and then, for roughly fifty years, Lodge didn’t put its name on its pans at all—“Before 1973 we didn’t have one,” a later CEO said.^L7 So vintage Lodge is dated not by a logo but by the notches in its heat ring.

↔ Companion pages: Griswold · Wagner · Wapak · Sidney · Favorite · BSR · Atlanta · CHF

✓ Primary — opened directly, text quoted ~ Corroborated — reliable secondary / collector authority ⚑ To transcribe — source digitized, figure pending

Documented offerings & facts

Date	Attribute	Value	Source	Confidence
1896	Blacklock Foundry founded identity	Joseph Lodge, South Pittsburg, TN — named for his minister, Rev. Joseph Blacklock. (castironcollector: Lodge was “a partner” in Blacklock.)	L7	~ corroborated
1910	Fire, then renamed Lodge Mfg. Co. identity	Blacklock burned (family diary: May 19, 1910); rebuilt nearby — “first castings poured Aug. 26, 1910.”	L9	~ corroborated
c.1910	Cast-iron skillet, maker’s list price◆ flagship price	8-inch skillet = 35¢ — full grid 6–12 in. = 27¢ / 30¢ / 35¢ / 40¢ / 50¢ / 70¢. Lodge priced by the INCH, not the “No.”	L1 c.1910 cat. p.13	✓ primary
c.1910	The “Blacklock” name survived identity	The new Lodge catalogue still sells “The Blacklock Sad Iron … made in all weights from 4 to 9 pounds.”	L1 c.1910 cat. p.5	✓ primary
1930s	Survived the Depression on novelties commerce	Kept the doors open casting cast-iron gnomes, animals & doorstops. (Not aluminum — a common error.)	L7	~ corroborated
2002	First factory pre-seasoned cast iron innovation	“An industry first that has since become the industry standard.” A manufacturing first — no patent (US 7,622,197 was acquired in 2018).	L7	~ corroborated
1974	Barely marked for ~50 years dating	“Before 1973 … our brand was not on our products.” The skillet-and-egg logo’s first registered use is 1974.	L2 Reg. 1,497,789	✓ primary
—	No founder-era patents identity	Joseph Lodge holds no findable patent. (“Oliver Joseph Lodge” on Google Patents is the British physicist — a different man.)	L11	✓ primary
1896?	The founding date isn’t primary-proven identity	“1896” rests on consensus + Lodge’s own trademark claim — in which “1896” is disclaimed; no period source confirms it.	L3·L12	~ corroborated
1957→	The last one standing identity	Family-owned throughout; outlasted Griswold (closed 1957) & Wagner (absorbed 1957) — and did not acquire either.	L8	~ corroborated

The one early catalogue — priced skillets, c.1910, sized by the inch

Lodge Manufacturing Co. c.1910 catalogue p.13, 'Stove Hollow Ware — Skillets', with a List Each price column

Size	Weight	List each
6 in	2½ lb	27¢
7 in	3½ lb	30¢
8 in	4½ lb	35¢
9 in	5 lb	40¢
10 in	5½ lb	50¢
12 in	6½ lb	70¢

Read from the scan.^L1 “Discount Quoted on Application.” The same book prices griddles (22–30¢), long pans, tea kettles, waffle irons, gem pans & more — plus sad irons, grates and andirons: a general foundry’s line.

Three brands, three ways to run a catalogue

Griswold priced its skillets by the “No.” (No. 8 = 50¢, 1888/95); Wagner spec’d its skillets by the “No.” and quoted price only on application (1924); Lodge priced its skillets by the inch (8 in. = 35¢, c.1910). One caution: a Lodge “8 inch” (4½ lb) is not a “No. 8” — match by weight, and the newcomer’s ware ran a shade cheaper than Griswold’s premium name.

The Blacklock receipt

c.1910 Lodge catalogue detail: 'The Blacklock Sad Iron'

The predecessor name, still in the book. After the 1910 rename, the old foundry’s name lived on as a product line inside the new Lodge catalogue: “The Blacklock Sad Iron — Unsurpassed in style of finish and shape. Made in all weights from 4 to 9 pounds inclusive.”^L1 A direct Blacklock→Lodge link in a primary document — and the name Lodge would reach back for again in 2019.

The survivor’s timeline

1896 Blacklock Foundry founded, South Pittsburg TN (Joseph Lodge; named for Rev. Blacklock)

1910 Fire (May 19); rebuilt & renamed the Lodge Manufacturing Company (first castings Aug 26)

c.1910 The one early priced catalogue — skillets 27–70¢, still selling “The Blacklock Sad Iron”

1930s Survives the Depression casting cast-iron novelties (gnomes, doorstops)

c.1950–65 Hand-pour molding gives way to automated molding (the Danish “Disamatic” ~1965)

1973–74 The skillet-and-egg logo created (1973) — Lodge’s first real mark; first registered use 1974

2002 First cast-iron maker to sell factory pre-seasoned cookware — becomes the industry standard

2005 Adds an enameled cast-iron line

2017 Opens a second foundry (127,000 sq ft, ~+75% capacity)

2019 Acquires FINEX (a modern startup); launches the lightweight “Blacklock” line

2022 Opens the Lodge Museum of Cast Iron, South Pittsburg

Dating a piece by its notches — because there’s often no logo

Lodge is the hardest of the three to date, precisely because for half a century it barely marked its ware. So collectors read the heat ring — the raised ring on the pan’s bottom — and count its notches.

An original schematic (notches are gaps in the raised heat ring). There is no “8-notch” Lodge — only no-, single-, and three-notch are documented.

Honest caveat. Almost this entire chronology is collector scholarship (castironcollector.com, L6), whose ranges are best-estimates and genuinely disagree between sources — the three-notch window especially (1930s–50s vs 1940s–87 vs 1940–92). The lone primary anchor is the skillet-and-egg trademark, first use 1974 (L2).

Tell	Points to
Gate/sprue mark or raised molder letter	A very early piece (Blacklock / early Lodge).
“Smashed-T” / funnel handle rib	An early Blacklock-era tell.
Raised arc “LODGE” name	The name-marked window, c. 1910–early 1930s.
No name at all	The “unmarked Lodge” era, ~1930s–1987 — date it by notches.
Raised “blob” above the size number	Late 1940s–early 1950s (a shift mark).
“SK” / “DO” letter codes	From the 1950s (skillet / Dutch oven).
“MADE IN U.S.A.”	Added mid-1960s+; its absence generally means pre-~1960s.
Egg-in-skillet logo cast in	From ~1987 (logo brand first used 1974); a raised egg in a recessed circle → post-1993.

One more: raised molder/pattern numbers are not dates (they are the mold/handle pattern), and early Lodge is noticeably smoother than the rough sand-cast surface of a modern pan.

What a Lodge is worth today — recent eBay sales

◆ Market data — vetted completed salesNot an appraisal or a catalog price.

Vintage Lodge was barely marked, so collectors price the unmarked “3-notch” pieces by their heat-ring notches — these are those.

'3-notch' skillet — unmarked vintage

c. 1930s–1950s (three heat-ring notches; range disputed)

$30–$66

median $40 · 61 sales

'3-notch' skillet — size 8

c. 1930s–1950s

$29–$47

median $35 · 18 sales thin

'3-notch' skillet — size 10

c. 1930s–1950s

$42–$70

median $54 · 14 sales thin

'3-notch' / early unmarked Dutch oven

c. 1930s–1950s

$35–$75

median $49 · 74 sales

How to read this. Each range is the middle half (25th–75th percentile) of recent completed eBay sales for vetted, comparable pieces — reproductions, damaged pieces, multi-item lots, other makers and the rarest hand-vetted pieces are filtered out before the range is computed. Cast-iron value swings hard on condition and mark, so treat these as ballparks for clean, common pieces, not appraisals. Source: vetted eBay completed sales via SoldComps; Jan–Aug 2026.

In period print

Lodge advertised almost nothing in the national press — the South Pittsburg foundry sold through the trade and let its iron speak. What the record keeps is the firm itself, from its first name onward: it began as Blacklock in 1896, until a 1910 fire rebuilt it as Lodge Manufacturing. Each item was read on the original page; all are public-domain newspapers.

In the news · 1905

“The Blacklock Foundry, of So. Pittsburg, has made an agreement with its striking moulders.”

Before it was Lodge, it was Blacklock — Joseph Lodge’s original 1896 foundry, here settling a four-month moulders’ strike, five years before the fire that would rename it.

Sequachee Valley News, South Pittsburg, Tenn. · Dec. 7, 1905. Library of Congress →

In the news · 1913

“the bookkeeper for the Lodge Manufacturing company.”

Rebuilt and renamed after the 1910 fire, the firm is a fixture of South Pittsburg by 1913 — its people named, in passing, in the hometown paper.

Sequachee Valley News, South Pittsburg, Tenn. · Jan. 9, 1913. Library of Congress →

In the news · 1920

“president of Lodge Manufacturing company at South Pittsburg.”

By 1920 the Lodge family’s foundry is well established — its president named among the county’s leading men.

The Chattanooga News, Tenn. · Jan. 5, 1920. Library of Congress →

Sources

primary · catalogue (priced)
Lodge Manufacturing Co., Cast Iron Goods (c.1910), South Pittsburg, Tennessee — 32 pp.; list-each prices for skillets/ griddles/hollow ware; lists “The Blacklock Sad Iron.” The one opened period primary. Internet Archive — lodgemfgco1910. details public domain
primary · US trademark
Trademark LODGE (skillet-and-egg), Reg. 1,497,789 — first use 1974-01-01, reg. 1988; goods “CAST IRON COOKWARE, NAMELY SKILLETS, GRIDDLES, AND CORNSTICK PANS.” The lone hard dating anchor. USPTO/Justia
primary · US trademark
Trademark “LODGE CAST IRON — AMERICAN MADE SINCE 1896,” Reg. 5,274,961 (2017) — the current logo; note “1896” is disclaimed, so the date is Lodge’s own brand claim. USPTO/Justia
primary · US patent
US 7,622,197 B2 — “Seasoned ferrous cookware” (2009) — a ferritic-nitrocarburization process. Acquired by Lodge in 2018 (from Ferroxy-Aled LLC); NOT the origin of the 2002 pre-seasoning. Google Patents
primary · US trademark (abandoned)
Trademark BLACKLOCK FOUNDRY (Serial 88067726) — filed 2018, abandoned 2020; documents Lodge reaching back for the historic name. USPTO/Justia
secondary · collector authority
castironcollector.com — Lodge history, the notch/heat-ring system & the “unmarked Lodge” problem; ranges are best-estimates. lodge.php
secondary · company
lodgecastiron.com — the founder story, the 1910 fire, the 2002 pre-seasoning, and the 1973 logo (“Before 1973 … our brand was not on our products”). Company-secondary. history
secondary · encyclopedia
Wikipedia, “Lodge (company)” — milestones: 2002 pre-seasoning, 2005 enamel, 2017 second foundry, 2019 FINEX. article
secondary · feature (family diary)
Southern Cast Iron, “Blacklock Foundry: A Tale of Fire & Family” — quotes the family diary (fire May 19 1910; “first castings poured Aug 26, 1910”). article
secondary · genealogy
Find a Grave — Joseph Lodge (1848–1931), South Pittsburg. memorial
primary · verified negative
Google Patents — no founder patent. “Joseph Lodge” returns Sir Oliver Joseph Lodge, the British physicist; “Joseph Lodge” + “South Pittsburg” = 0. Lodge Mfg’s patents (~78) are all modern. patents.google.com
primary · verified negative
Directory of Iron and Steel Works (1896, 1909) — grepped; no “Blacklock,” “Lodge,” or “South Pittsburg, TN” entry. No period trade/county-history naming the firm was located — so 1896 isn’t independently primary-confirmed.

Lodge Manufacturing Co. c.1910 catalogue cover, 'Cast Iron Goods'

The one early book. Lodge’s c.1910 Cast Iron Goods catalogue (L1) — “Manufactured by LODGE Manufacturing Co., South Pittsburg, Tennessee.” Priced skillets, the surviving Blacklock name, and then—for the next half-century—near silence. It is the survivor’s only period paper here, which is exactly the point.

Part of a citation-first cast-iron cookware reference. Companions: Griswold · Wagner. Confidence flags: ✓ primary (opened & quoted) · ~ corroborated (reliable secondary / collector authority) · ⚑ to transcribe. The notch schematic is an original drawing. Pre-1930 catalogs, patents & gazettes are public domain.