Repairing old cast iron?

Wife was given this (and others) by her late father.  To me it looks like it has been massively overheated in one spot?

Any way to straighten it?

Good question and I certainly do not know.  But I do have cast iron skillets that have done that.

Just had a thought (and yes, it hurt.) if you have a torch and a press you could heat the base and gently press it back to flat.

No idea how to fix it, but I have two of those old Griswold pans and they are the shizzle.

Good luck, its worth saving!

(check out what they sell for... you might be surprised)

Definitely not surprised what they sell for.  Her dad would find them at yard sales 20 years ago or more.  Picked up all he could, had multiple full sets.

I'm wondering if it could be put in a kiln to relieve stresses.  Not sure how cast iron would react to that, though.

Everything I know about working with cast iron tells me to get it hot hot hot, gently (as possible) knock it back into shape, and cool it down as slowly as possible. maybe have the oven set as high as possible and let it cool to that point in the oven, then knock it down to 250 and let it cool, then ambient. Idk. If you can't use it as is, you can't really make it worse unless you just want to use it as decoration.  

In reply to barefootcyborg5000 :

Filling it with charcoal briquettes and putting it on a grill that gets up to 750+ for 45+ minutes then closing off the vents to hold the heat so it dies down slowly works as well. 

I just thought they all looked like that...

I've got a couple heirloom pieces that look similar and have been told there's not much that can be done. With new technology these will be "spinners" on a glass cook top. They'll work great on gas if they still season up well. I'd love if there is an answer as I've got a couple that could use some dent removal. 

There is nothing that can be done that wont significantly risk breaking it.  

Season it up and use it as-is for camping, outdoors, or on a gas range.  

93gsxturbo said:

There is nothing that can be done that wont significantly risk breaking it.  

This is kind of the conclusion I've come to.
Since this has some sentimental value I think I'm gonna find a bunch of crappy pieces I don't care about from thrift stores and flea markets that have similar damage, then I'll work on them individually with a couple different methods to see what works and what doesn't.  From there I'll see what I can do with this one.

I think I'll start with a friend's kiln.  Pop it in there and get it up to ~1600-1700F?  That's the normalizing temp for cast iron.

If you are not concerned about the value, just grind/sand it flat. 
 

i love my cast pans but i also advocate treating them like crap. I sand the cooking portion to a close to smooth finish. I also dont have any valuable ones. As an experiment i got the cheap bigger pan from wallworld for like 10$. Sanded it smooth, cleaned, burn some crisco on and eggs slide all over. So cheap and so good. Berk a non-stick.