Browne Foodservice 573703 Thermalloy Cast Iron Stir Fry Skillet with Ergonomic Handle, Round

I've used cast iron cookware before, mostly the revered Lodge brand, and one thing I wished most was a more substantial handle. When I saw this product I just had to try it, finally getting that ergonomic feel and handling I wanted... but after using it I noticed some room for improvement.

First the annoying things I observed after using it:

My copy wasn't perfectly flat on the bottom. On a tabletop, one side is not in contact with the surface. It was very minimal to the point that oil didn't immediately pool to one side, but eventually it slowly did once it heated up and spread thin. To be fair, some of my aluminum cookware exhibits this problem too, and the levelness of the stove grill could very well be a factor.

The handle looks as if it was attached to the skillet as a separate casting process. The transition from the handle to the pan is not smooth like a one-piece design like most Lodge products.

The hole in the handle has some exposed iron (see my pictuers), as if parts of iron were scraped away after its been casted. Research suggest that cast iron does rust, so I'm a little worried about these exposes parts thats hard to get to seasoning-wise.

My eyes may be playing tricks on me, but the orientation of the handle itself seems not perfectly perpendicular to the edge of the pan. I'm talking about less than a degree off, but thats purely cosmetic I guess.

Now the advantages that redeem this pan up to excellent, but not perfect:

+ The weight of the handle is a blessing from the cast iron gods. Just like how a heavier DLSR camera body makes a heavy lens feel more balance, so does this in concept and in my experience.

+ The shape and feel of the handle is another plus just because the shape conforms nicely in my hand. Its thicker towards the end where my palm meets and substantially more rounder than typical cast iron handles. To me, it feel likes I'm holding a golf club versus a serving spoon.

+ The thickness of the pan feels substantial. I'm not talking about the height of the side walls, but the amount of material between the heat source and your food. To the best of my ability, I measured a thickness of 1/8 inches. In my experience, this pan cooked very evenly on my gas burner (see my pancake picture).

+ Since the handle has much more material, it takes longer to heat up so I don't have to resort to heat-resistant holders until later, most of the time my food is already cooked by then. But it does get hot eventually, and seemingly more so than little skinny handles. The good thing though is that all my handle holders now fit better on this thicker handle =)

+ The surface of the cast iron itself looks great. Its picking up a non-stick seasoning very fast.

So all in all, I'm very happy with my purchase and willing to recommend it despite the drawbacks I mentioned. Hopefully its an isolated thing or they refine their manufacturing process. Nonetheless, its an excellent pan! Not perfect cosmetically have you, but nearly so in performance. I would rate it a solid 4.5 stars for now, but time will tell if the exposed iron becomes a problem and I adjust my review accordingly.