Meet the Maker: Smithey Ironware
Our trip to Charleston, South Carolina in early 2020 (right when COVID hit and everything was beginning to shut down!) introduced me to a new love…Smithey Ironware.
Beyond the beautiful aesthetic lies a heavy-duty, made-to-last (as in, last forever!) piece of cookware that will perform every cooking task imaginable.
According to House Beautiful magazine, Smithey Ironware has been bringing ‘the sleekest cast-iron cookware you’ve ever seen’ to life. Founder Isaac Morton started the brand when a gift from his sister-in-law piqued his interest in cast iron and thus a full-blown hobby (and brand) was born.
Via House Beautiful magazine:
“At the Smithey Ironware workshop in Charleston, South Carolina these vintage-inspired skillets start out as raw castings with a sandpaper-like surface. These castings (essentially, pieces of metal that have been poured into a mold) come from one of several foundries the company works with. From there, Smithey takes over by grinding each piece down, deburring it (removing raised edges and bumps in the metal), polishing it, smoothing the surface, and, of course, seasoning it with vegetable oil and allowing it to cure, before shipping it out to customers.
Unsurprisingly, the journey from hot, molten iron to beautifully-seasoned cookware requires several hours of handiwork for every individual piece.
“I would say that each skillet easily has more than two to three hours of hand work before it gets into your door, probably more,” Morton explains. “It’s coming from a foundry where people are working on it and it’s being ground there, it’s being ground down here, it’s being machined here, it’s being polished here—there are a lot of hands that touch it along the way before it reaches your kitchen.”
From the Shop
We are smitten with Smithey, no doubt about it. In addition to being the perfect naturally nonstick option for your kitchen, Outside magazine says “You could hang the Smithey Carbon Steel Farmhouse skillet on the wall and never cook a thing…it it weren’t so capable of delivering the perfect sear.”
Come check them out in store or browse our collection online!