Anyone seen the new Blacklock series from lodge ?
The prices are 2×-3× as much on the skillets , but they're supposed to be smoother / nicer and lighter weight.
I'm a bit interested considering it's still a lot less than the fancy premium brands that have popped up in the past few years, not sure I wouldn't just rather smooth out a standard lodge but they sound good on paper.
I went to Williams Sonoma a month ago or so to pick up a Staub (French enameled cast iron) on sale and they had the Lodge Blacklock series in stock. Lodge Blacklock is just as rough as the regular Lodge line, but they are thinner and feel significantly lighter. Williams Sonoma had a sale for a ~10" and ~12" skillet set, but even on sale they were ~3x the price of regular Lodge.
Thinner/lighter cast iron will heat faster than thicker/heavier pieces but won't have as much heat retention and won't conduct as well. Conduction works better in thicker materials.
A couple other points I want to make after reading through the thread:
Modern dish soap will not harm seasoning. It's not really needed that often for cleaning, but it won't hurt anything. I generally use hot water and/or some kosher salt if something manages to stick, which isn't that frequent. Seasoning is polymerized oil, and a little dish soap won't affect it at all.
Butter is terrible for seasoning because the milk fat solids will burn at a low temp. Oils with a higher smoke point are better (canola, etc.) for seasoning.
Modern Lodge pieces have a rough interior surface, but after using them (I use metal utensils) a while and building up a few layers of seasoning they smooth out nicely. Same goes for Victoria cast iron made in Colombia. My Victoria 12" skillet is noticeably lighter and a bit thinner than my Lodge 12" too. The main downsides to a Lodge versus vintage are that Lodge will take longer to heat up, you really should bake on a couple layers of seasoning before use, and then you have to use it regularly for a while (maybe a month or two) to build up more seasoning before it is nice to use. Modern Lodge is cheap and takes a little breaking in work but you do not have to sand them or do anything involving power tools to get them to cook well. You just have to use them.
I also use French carbon steel skillets (De Buyer and Matfer Bourgeat) and they are fantastic. They come unseasoned, so you have to go through a seasoning process, but they're completely smooth. You can also find them for maybe 2x what Lodge costs, so they aren't too terribly expensive. They're also much less brittle than cast iron so they actually are nearly indestructible. They're a bit thinner than Lodge, but carbon steel has lower thermal conductivity than cast iron, so they hold heat well. They will preheat fairly quickly compared to Lodge because of the lower mass.
