After a couple of passes in the oven and about 6 months worth of use. Very dark, but not quite black yet. May take 6 more months worth of use before it is completely black and in top cooking condition.
The cooking surface is very smooth and has proven to be quite handy as an alternative to a skillet.
The photo is very bright to show the milling marks made during manufacture.
This is the backside after one pass in the oven.
This is what it looked like before any seasoning took place.
Closeup of the backside before it was seasoned.
The top side of the skillet before it was seasoned. The swirl marks are polishing marks from the factory. Ultra smooth finish.
After a single pass in the oven the top side is not as dark as the bottom side.
Number 9 is a strange size designation for a pan that is 11 inches across with the cooking surface only 10 inches.
Milling marks after the first seasoning pass in the oven
This is a different pan seen on the Internet. It has been burnt and has serious heat damage. Completely useless. Rust tends to look orange and heat damage tends to look a little pink.
The griddle in this gallery has a tear drop handle like the one at the top of the picture and was made somewhere between the years 1939 and 1944. This image was pulled from the Boonie Hicks Web site. It happens to be a very informantive site worth checking out.
1943 Griswold 9 Handle Griddle 609 E
Weight : 4 lbs 7.1 oz.
A collection of images from a World War II era cast iron griddle. Hand poured, high quality precision made griddle pan. The only Griswold cast iron piece in the UserX collection. They are hard to find as collectors tend to buy them up at top dollar.
The griddle pan in this gallery is an "SBL" pan, meaning "Small Block Logo" (1939-1957) and was manufactured between the years 1939 and 1944. Have conservatively dated to 1943 although it could have been made as early as 1939 or as late as 1944. The "Large Block Logo" (LBL) designs were manufactured between the years 1920 and 1938 more or less.
The flash from the camera makes the griddle pan look brighter than it normally would. You can zoom in on the images if you mouse over them. During autoplay zoom is disabled. Shrinking the browser window will shrink its contents possibly making it easier to view the gallery.
Valued in the range of $100 - $150.