![]() They are not cheap, you could find and restore a vintage user for less money. They don't go as super-thin as some vintage (like early Griswold), which is very prone to heat warp, but find a happy medium of a solid performer that's thinner and lighter than modern equivalents, maybe similar to a '50s era BSR.Īnd then they have very nice markings on them which could add to collectibility in the future. They do still start with a cast pan but then they use CNC to mill down the cooking surface, both to make it smooth like vintage and to thin it down. With Stargazer CI, they apply some modern technology. Quality may be comparable but the significant markings are the more collectible. Then within vintage CI, you have brands and product lines with minimal or no markings while others with significant markings. It's just a limitation of the automated casting, the pieces are thicker and heavier. ![]() The other is that vintage, manually cast CI is typically thinner, and thus lighter, than modern DISA automated cast products. One is that vintage CI typically has the pebbly texture left from the sand casting ground smooth on the cooking surface while in modern times that finishing step has been dropped as a cost saving measure. There are two functional qualities of vintage CI over modern CI. The company ships out about 50 every day from Allentown.I ultimately did not buy one because it's redundant with my vintage CI collection but once upon a time I did have a dialogue going with the Stargazer owner for a while. Another company’s 10½-inch model he showed weighed around 9 pounds.įrom start to finish, he estimates, each skillet takes four to eight weeks. A 10½-inch skillet tips the scales at 5.2 pounds, while the 12-inch model weighs 1.3 pounds more. He said the Stargazer skillets are distinct for their smooth surface flared rim (which helps prevent liquid going down the pan’s sides) a long, forked, handle and reduced weight. Huntley’s goal has been to produce pans in the mid-range of cheaper models (around $15-$20) and the most expensive (around $165). Stargazer skillets come in two sizes priced about $100. “We want to make sure it won’t wobble on someone’s stove,” Huntley said. Other work stations are for grinding and calibrating, with a hand-held tool, like a depth gauge, used to measure a pan’s “flatness." ![]() The work principally involves Huntley and several employees.Įlsewhere, there’s noise coming from two “vibratory finishing tanks,” or “tumblers.” Huntley said tumblers act essentially like washing machines they are filled with skillets being tumbled with ceramic stones used to smooth the cookware. Each pan is sprayed twice with thin layers of oil and baked at 475 degrees Fahrenheit for 40 minutes. In Allentown, the skillets undergo a four-step process: grinding, smoothing, cleaning and “seasoning,” and packaging for online orders.Ī strong odor of cooking oil used for the seasoning process fills the Allentown facility. ![]() They are manufactured and machined at two U.S. ![]() The company’s skillets are not made here. Only the Stargazer name above the door, with an eight-pointed star for a logo that resembles a Moravian Star, gives a hint of what is inside the nondescript brick building. Stargazer is in the 7,000-square-foot Saab Metals plant at South 12th Street, near Lehigh Street and Interstate 78. He plans to launch at least three more products in development: a third skillet, a Dutch oven and a grill pan. Huntley estimated that as of May 1, privately held Stargazer had sold at least 10,000 skillets in less than four years, with sales growing each year. When the one-month campaign ended, the founders had raised $56,266 for a total of 677 skillets sold to 602 backers. They advertised the business via a Kickstarter fundraising campaign and within two days met their goal of $10,000. Huntley, a Westport, Connecticut, native who was living in Wisconsin when Stargazer was founded, and his partners started with a production run of 250 skillets. ![]()
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