We recently came across this very interesting piece on eBay.
And look at the gorgeous Revere Ware collection the seller has.
That is the first time I’ve seen a Revere Ware skillet with solid copper handles like that.
Archive | February, 2018
Google Trends and interest in Revere Ware
We occasionally get asked by people outside the US and Canada whether we ship to other countries. We don’t presently. Every country has unique shipping requirements and takes some effort to support; sales to that country have to be worth that effort.
Google Trends allows you to peer into Google search queries to see how popular they are over time and by region. Here is a search for Revere Ware:
What this shows is pretty clear:
1. Interest in Revere Ware is declining over time. In the last 14 years, interest has dropped by about 3/4.
2. Interest is entirely limited to the United States.
For us, this means that, there almost certainly isn’t enough demand in other countries to justify the effort to support shipping there. We do support Canada, which we only sell the occasional part to, but that work is already behind us.
Lastly, it is interesting to see that Google searches mirror what we see ourselves in interest in our products; a yearly cycle of interest that peaks around the holidays and is lowest around mid-summer. This must have something to with replacement parts for Revere Ware being the perfect holiday gift for that hard to shop for parent or grand-parent.
Removing old 2-screw handles
Consider the handle above, which has clearly been on that pan for quite some time. You can see that lots of grease has crept between the handles over time, and gotten baked on by the heat of stoves. Such crud makes it very had to get old handles off sometimes, and these are by no means anywhere near the worst I have seen. Additionally, despite being stainless steel, the screws and barrel nuts are known to rust together, or get stuck on with thick grease.
Our own recommendation for the removal of suck stubborn handles prior to replacement has been to simply break the handles off if they won’t come off by gentler methods.
Reader Phil has some better suggestions on this topic.
I’ve been restoring pre-1968 revere ware so i can have a set of amazing cookware, without spending thousands of dollars. I have been using a few tricks to get seized handle screws out, without destroying the handles completely.
#1. Use heat. I use a stick type soldering iron, tinned so you get good heat transfer to the nut and bolt sections of the handle hardware. The solder wont stick to the hardware because its not fluxed, but it will heat it up and boil any grease holding the hardware together. Also if metallic corrosion is present it will expand the hardware to hopefully free it up.
#2. While hot, use a precision flat tip screwdriver (similar to eye glasses screwdriver) to wedge between the ‘head’ of the nut hardware part and the handle hole it sits in, and lightly turn the precision screwdriver to hold the nut section, while using a standard size screwdriver to turn the bolt section of the hardware and separate the two.
If done correctly, you can save the handle without damaging it, and be able to inspect and clean the ‘tang’ (the metal that the handle bolts to). Be warned though, ive removed handles that appeared good on the outside, only to find the inside was overheated and dish-washered numerous times and the Bakelite was brittle and cracked on the inside. If that’s the case, buy new handles from RevereWareParts.
We certainly appreciate the last part. 🙂
Why Revere Ware
While the source of this “product review” looks like one of the spam sites that exists just to get better search engine results by copying and publishing other’s content, the content is mostly on point and I have yet to find another version of this that might be the original.
Revere Ware cookware is legendary for its design and functionality. It features unique copper bottoms on well-constructed stainless steel pots and pans. You may remember these pots and pans from your grandmother’s kitchen, but the Revere company has a much longer history. It was actually founded by Paul Revere himself. In 1801 he founded Revere Copper Company which provided copper parts for military ships, and it later transformed into a cookware company. In 1939 the famous copper-bottomed Revere Ware kitchenware was introduced. It was revolutionary at the time not only for having heat-diffusing copper on the bottom, but for the edges being rounded to make them easier to clean. Additionally, Revere Ware cookware was lighter and easier to handle in the kitchen than most pots and pans of that era. Its handles’ unique design was modeled after the handles of a silversmith’s hammer, a design that proved so popular that it has been copied by many other companies since. Today the Revere line of products upholds its famous legacy through quality construction, classic design and exquisite performance. It continues to make up 25% of the cookware market.
Revere Ware cookware’s hallmark copper bottoms are not simply an aesthetic choice. Copper is a metal that has superior heat conduction characteristics. It spreads heat from the burners of your stove quickly and evenly to the food in your pot or pan, reducing uneven cooking and scorching. It also cools more quickly than other metals to ensure your food is cooked only as long as you intended. In this way, the cook is given more control over heat than with pots and pans of other materials. This is why copper or copper-bottomed cookware has long been the preferred equipment for French cooking, which relies upon delicate sauces that cannot tolerate overcooking or undercooking. Copper has the added benefit of being lighter than many other metals, making it easier to manage in the kitchen.
Competitively priced, Revere Ware kitchenware is often chosen as a less expensive but equally high quality alternative to All Clad. It is durable and long lasting. Many a grandmother is still cooking on the Revere Ware kitchenware she received for her wedding, and it is not uncommon to find a kitchen containing Revere Ware that has been passed on for generations within the family. Because Revere products rarely warp, are resistant to breaking and cracking, and are easy to clean, they tend to stay in fantastic condition for many years.
I agree with everything above except the text in red. I’m almost certain Revere Ware cookware does not make up 25% of the cookware market today, although this might have been true when this entry in the International Directory of Company Histories was published in 1998, which is perhaps where the author got that fact, now far out of date.
The Revere Ware copper bottom cookware on the market today is no where near the same quality as was made back in the day, pre-1968. We have heard lots of stories of poor construction, such as copper bottoms that fall or or simply wear off from scrubbing after a few years.
As for the rest, it is a pretty good description of why perhaps hundreds of thousands or millions of people continue to use their vintage Revere Ware to this day; great design, quality construction, iconic appearance, and longevity.
The Revere Ware era
This advertisement from Life Magazine in 1956 does a good job at characterizing the Revere Ware era, when it was most popular and extremely well made, and it contains some of my favorite pieces, including the domed Dutch Oven, the classic tea kettle, the coffer percolator, the square skillet, and the griddle.
Mystery casserole pan
Customer Tony is curious about his unusual vintage Revere Ware pan.
It has the process patent stamp on the bottom so we know it is from before 1968. Given the two handles, it appears to be some kind of casserole pan. The holes seems to show that there might have been Bakelite handles on it.
We looked through all of our vintage catalogs, prices lists, brochures, and ads and haven’t seen anything that looks exactly like that. Revere did make casserold pans with copper bottoms, but they did not have Bakelite handles and had sloped sides.
Has anyone ever seen these in original form, with Bakelite handles?
Square skillet deal
We wrote last week about tracking eBay searches to find rare Revere Ware related items or to get a good deal on something that typically sells for a lot. Our example was square skillets, which usually go for hundreds. This week one of our saved searches happened to find a great price on exactly that, a square skillet.
That’s about half of what they typically list for.