Still made

At a price of under ten dollars and decades of use, our non-electric waffle iron is a bit scummy. The waffle grill is seasoned, but the handles have sat over the flame too long a few times and have that certain tackiness. It was bought years ago from a cookware catalogue that no longer exists. It turns out that, whether NordicWare made the original iron or has merely licensed the right to sell it, it's out there, apparently the same item, merely costing nearly five times more than it did. Acquiring a spare is under consideration. I'd really like to find one of the super-heavy cast-iron waffle irons that were intended to be used on wood ranges. They have the same sort of handle (cast iron, with a coil of metal wound around them) as those on lid-lifters for woodstoves. These irons were made by frying-pan people, but not Lodge. Could the name be Griswold? Yes! We had one that made round waffles and one that made oval ones. You could sort of smell when the metal was the right temperature, but a drop of water on the plates would tell something, also. This is a good photograph of the kind of handle meant. There were some WagnerWare cast-iron skillets, but no waffle irons that I recall. No matter what, waffles are better than pancakes. They're never, ever gummy. Besides, it's fun to to precision pouring of the maple syrup into the holes. I like this FAQ on the history of the Griswold and Wagner foundries.