Summary for refinishing copper bottom pans Discussion
Refinishing of Revereware copper bottom pans is only partly possible, according to the thread. Donald Plane asked whether a copper fry pan with burner rings and rough “pimples” from overheating could be refinished and who might do the work. Marti Johnson suggested the discoloration might come off with soy sauce, lemon juice and salt, or a buffing wheel, but said the pimples likely mean the copper has detached from the stainless steel substrate, leaving the pan effectively stuck with that damage. Ted Mooney added that Revereware quality varies by era, noting that older vintage pieces are generally thicker and higher quality than newer licensed products, and that the original U.S. plants are long closed. The practical takeaway is that surface discoloration may be cleaned or buffed, but structural blistering or separation is unlikely to be economically refinished.
Q. I ruined a friend’s copper fry pan by leaving it too long on a burner that was too hot. It now has rings from the electric burner, and part of the bright copper has tiny pimples or something that makes it rough. Can this be refinished? Who does this work?
Donald Plane
– Maitland, Florida
2000
A. I have copper-bottomed pots and pans myself, and I think you will get the discoloration out with soy sauce, or lemon juice and salt and some elbow grease, or a buffing wheel.
But as for the pimples, I believe they represent the copper dis-attaching from the stainless steel substrate, and I decided I was stuck with them.
Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com – Pine Beach, New Jersey
Need quick confidential answers? $25
Need project assistance? $100/hr.
RFQ: I want to have my copper bottom Revereware refurbished. The Revere company used to do it but they no longer offer that service. I am willing to ship it anywhere in the U.S. Thank you for any help.
Feather K [surname deleted for privacy by Editor]
homeowner – Ashland, Oregon
2004
Ed. note: This RFQ is outdated, but technical replies are welcome, and readers are encouraged to post their own RFQs. But no public commercial suggestions please ( huh? why?).
February 6, 2011
Q. Per the company (World Kitchen,Inc.) that owns the registered trademark of Revere, they state:
Why older Revereware seem heavier than newer cookware: it is lighter because “the same cooking results were achieved when using lighter materials.”
“REVERE® Bakeware is tin coated steel.”
Is the copper clad of today lighter because it is 18/6 and the older stuff heavier because it was 18/10 or 18/8? I can’t find info on the content of older RW cookware.
I have cookware from 1970 and a heavy SS muffin tin from my deceased mom. I want but can’t find another SS muffin pan. I can only find a “stainless steel premium surface” on a Fox Run pan.
How would that hold up to to cleaning and surface pitting?
Marti Johnson
– Hudson, Wisconsin, USA
A. Hi, Marti.
It is difficult to know the engineering details of a proprietary product like Revereware. I imagine that when it was actually made by Revere Copper and Brass Works it was 18/8 or 18/10 (since those are well-established standard grades), and that the nickel content was reduced to 6% because nickel is expensive or to make it suitable for induction cooktops. But the reason it is lighter is because it is thinner, and cheaper. They may claim it cooks as well, but that sounds like a very subjective opinion — you might try to check with Consumer Reports; and thinner cookware certainly dents and warps easier. Actually “vintage” Revereware is from 1968 and earlier and bears a trademark saying “Process Patent” according to The Shine Shop, mysite.verizon.net/vzeoywo4/theshineshop2/id7.html ^ www.revereware.org/info/id7.html — a great site for Revereware enthusiasts.
We live in an age where billion-dollar megacorps take logos (“metballs”) whose reputation for quality was earned through decades of our fathers’ and mothers’ sweat & tears, and then license it (“meatball whoring”) to be put on Asian products of lower quality. My understanding is that today’s “Revereware” is made in Indonesia, and that Revere Copper and Brass Works and the USA plants where your pots were manufactured are long shuttered. I don’t know what the buyer of the Revere meatball claims to do to maintain the quality once associated with the Revere name, but a universal lesson is to hold on to older stuff as long as possible because it is nearly always of more expensive construction and higher quality (more nickel, thicker) than what you buy under the same logo today.
Yes, stainless steel might be good for muffin pans, but I think tin plating can be fine too.
Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com – Pine Beach, New Jersey
Need quick confidential answers? $25
Need project assistance? $100/hr.
February 7, 2011
Q. What about plating copper on copper? I’m talking about common Revereware copper bottom stainless steel pots and pans.
Just a bit of history – after 1968 the Revereware company changed their copper plating (to save money) and all copper bottom stainless steel pans and such had a copper plate layer that was about 1/2 the thickness of prior pots and pans.
There are plenty of reports out there from cooks that indicate this thinner plating destroyed the heat transmitting ability of the pans – the new pans tend to develop hot spots while the old pans (made before 1968) do not.
There are even people who have reported that their copper plating simply came off the bottom of the pans after use, so clearly the company had adhesion issues in some production runs.
Would it be possible to take one of these copper bottom pans, polish the copper, then plate more copper on to it with garden variety copper sulphate
⇦ on
eBay or
Amazon [affil link] and scrap copper and get a thicker layer that wouldn’t be too bad?
Ted Mittelstaedt
– Portland Oregon
January 21, 2017
A. Hi Ted. It’s not impossible, but …
There is a huge difference between a high school science class where a teacher shows the science of using electricity to move some copper from an anode to a workpiece … vs. the practical technology of generating a thick, smooth, dense, adherent, layer of copper. You are certainly welcome to try; I think it will be a good learning experience where you’ll learn that it is easy to do crumby plating, but not at all easy to do good plating. I think you’ll start to appreciate why plating shops use high purity copper, proprietary additives, etc. Best of luck.
Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com – Pine Beach, New Jersey
Need quick confidential answers? $25
Need project assistance? $100/hr.
January 2017