Unless you have a vintage stove with a deep well that is made for a deep well cooker, this may not be much use to you. But if you do, or you want to try using it with a bale handle pot as a double boiler type crock pot like we’ve shown here, there is one for sale on eBay right now, and it is a beauty.
More mystery handle-less pans
We first reported on these back in 2020.
Reader Jim also came across a very nice set of these with the same distinct features – no handle, and no bottom stamp.
At the time we got an anecdotal report that these were on-off defects that were likely brought home by someone that worked at the Revere Ware factory and that is still our best theory today.
I would think they would make perfect baking pans.
Running low on large 2-screw vintage pan handles (VPAH-L) and small 1-screw pan handles (PAH-S)
Update 3/10/23: The large 2-screw handles are back in stock. We still have the small single screw handles but continue to run low on stock.
The large 2-screw handle for vintage Revere Ware pans is our most popular size. They fit the vintage style skillets and sauce pans like these.
We are running low on inventory and it will likely be 2-3 months until we get more. If we are out of them on our website, you can always check the Amazon.com stock.
On another note, we are also running low on the stock of the smallest of the single screw pan handles.
These fit the newer style pans and skillets made in the 70’s and beyond.
They are also our most popular size of that style. However, unlike the handles above, we need to manufacture more of these so it will likely be 3-6 months until we have those back in stock. If we don’t have them in stock on our website, you can also check the Amazon.com stock for those.
Be sure to give us your correct email address in our contact form
There have been a rash of bounces backs lately for customer service emails people have sent me. I feel bad because they are probably thinking we didn’t answer their request. Please take care to enter your proper email address when filling out our contact form. So I’ll post the answers here and clear my conscience. 🙂
Jane asks:
I am wondering what the weight is of RW muffins pans ? I have seen for sale the 2516 h90A – and other pans with a different h number- I am looking for an 18/10 SS pan – your help in figuring out the weight of the pans I have seen – their numbers and what they mean would be appreciated.
I’ve never owned a Revere Ware muffin pan so unfortunately have no idea of their weight. I also have no idea about the numbers off the top of my head but I am always willing to take a look if you send me a pciture; perhaps it will spark something.
Marsia asks:
My Revereware copper bottom 10″ skillet has a 1/2″ spline. I have no idea what year it was made.
The handle has been missing for years, so I don’t know if it had one or two screws,
What size should I order to replace the handle.
I would need a picture of the skillet to better assess. I can’t recall every seeing a 1/2″ spline.
Renilda asks:
I have an old Revere Ware Dutch oven. The handle on one side fell off. I have the handle, bracket, and screw, but can’t figure out how to get it to stay back on. Also have been unsuccessful in finding any videos of how to do it. Can you help? Thank you!
I’m sitting here with a tape measure and my handle off my small pot (1970 wedding gift) and I’m 99% positive I need the screws (hardware) for the smaller handle. But! I want to be positive so, could you please tell me what the heck a ‘spline’ is? Thank you! Sandi
The history and future of Revere Ware replacement parts
The Revere Ware of legend, that produced between 1939 and 1968 made a lot of fans. It was well made, really useful stuff, and iconic. Along with all that, Revere Ware the company stood behind their products, not only with a then lifetime warranty, but with a large stock of replacement parts. Take a look at this catalog of replacement parts from 1967.
They sold everything, and I mean everything. In 1967, they sold handles for pots that hadn’t produced since 1946, lids for every style, screws, you name it. In contrast, here is a similar replacement parts catalog from 1988.
Quite a bit fewer parts. But at that point, you were lucky to get anything, because, a year or two later, they stopped selling any replacement parts.
The problem started in the 1960’s when other cookware types started coming out and stealing the thunder from Revere Ware, which up until that point had pretty much been king of the castle. As their sales fell, they looked to broaden their offering to align with what people were looking for, and to reduce costs. It was at that point, in 1968 that they redesigned their iconic copper bottom cookware to use about half the metal, and with a much simpler one piece Bakelite handle design. It helped, but Revere Ware still struggled financially.
In 1982, unfortunately, Revere filed for bankruptcy, mainly due to losses in their aluminum division; while the cookware division did remain profitable, it wasn’t enough. This is presumably when the bean counters really got to work and looked for every opportunity to slash costs. From this point on, Revere was never again about making good products (they hadn’t been since the late 60s) or serving the customers well. They submitted to a takeover in 1996, and the new owners (World Kitchen) went through another bankruptcy in 2002. During these periods and beyond, they were really just trying to wring profits on the back of the brand history, and running the business as cheaply as possible.
Truth be told, the stuff produced from the 90’s through the discontinuation of the brand in 2018 ranged from poor to bad. They would sort of support warranty claims then (they still claimed to have a 25 year warranty), but didn’t have a whole lot of selection to send you in replacement, especially in the latter part of those three decades.
In the mid-2000’s, my wife and I loved thrifting; we didn’t have kids at that point. Among the things we picked up were some Revere Ware pans; I felt a little nostalgic about them, recalling my mother had some in the 60’s and 70’s. But, the handles were in poor shape so I set out to see if I could find replacement online. No such luck. What I did find was the occasional new-old-stock replacement on eBay, and, a guy named Charlie Anjard, who ran the Shine Shop. He took old Revere Ware and refurbished it. He cleaned the metal of the pans and then polished them using industrial processes. The Bakelite, he subjected to sanding with progressively finer and finer sand paper to remove the damaged Bakelite and expose the undamaged part. Everything came out looking like new.
Here is a bunch I had done by the person that took over from Charlie. The Bakelite, of course, is ours.
Charlie also put together the Revere Ware history and photo guide pages, and collected a lot of information on the history of Revere Ware, which got me even more interested in the brand.
It was at that point I thought I’d see how hard it would be to have some replacement parts manufactured; I have another business that is also involved in manufacturing, so this wasn’t too much of a stretch. I turned out to be doable and I’ve slowly expanded my offerings since 2009.
Granted, what we offer now is a fraction of what Revere Ware offered in the day. But unfortunately, as a small shoestring operation, we have to keep profitability in mind. There are two big obstacles in having parts manufactured – the cost of molds, and minimum order quantities. A mold can cost several thousand dollars. That means if we say, make 30% in the end on $10 parts that come from a mold that costs $3,000, we have to think we can sell 1,000 of them just to break even on the cost of the mold. Often times, a contract manufacturer requires that you purchase a minimum of 5,000 or so parts, which sets the bar even higher. We have to think we can sell that many in 3-5 years for it to make sense.
I think the range of parts we currently sell covers perhaps 70% of what people are looking for these days. One way to provide more would be to build 3D models of the parts that can then be printed in an appropriate materials using 3D printing services. We did exactly that for the trigger for the 3 1/2 quart kettle.
3D printed parts aren’t cheap; that one will set you back over $22 in the end, and that’s without us marking up the cost at all.
To date, we’ve sold 87 of that trigger through Shapeways. You can probably see what I am getting at here; if we had spent the money to make those triggers, incurred the cost of a mold, and ordered 5,000 of them, we would have lost money.
So, 3D printed parts aren’t cheap, but they are better than no part at all, if you want to keep your cookware for nostalgic reasons. I would love to develop more 3D models for parts, but there are a couple of problems. First, I am not a mechanical engineer; I managed to make the model of the trigger through a lot of trial and error, and it was a bit of a struggle. Second, there aren’t yet materials for every use (but presumably some day there will be).
On the bright side, 3D printing can also help prove if demand is there or not. If orders for 3D printed parts prove there is enough demand, having a 3D model makes a part that much easier to manufacture.
Revere Ware enthusiasts might be loosely called a community, of sorts. I’d love it if any members of this community of are mechanical engineers would offer to design some replacement part models for the things people are looking for. I’d be happy to host a library of these here. Some food for thought.
A tip to start out the new year – Magic Eraser sponge vs Melamine sponge
If you like mu Scrub Daddy sponge tip, you’ll love this one. Magic Eraser sponges are great, and can remove marks from walls and what not; but they aren’t cheap.
While researching how to fix a ceramic non-stick pan that my daughter (for the second time) put on too high of heat and burned in some butter, I found a tip to try a melamine sponge. So I ordered a pack of 48 for $16, or 33 cents each.
After some serious scrubbing with other means, here are some stains on the pan.
Here is after some working with the melamine sponge.
So, back to Magic Eraser sponges; as it turns out, melamine is exactly what Magic Eraser sponges are made from. Magic Eraser sponges cost around $1.26 each, or 4 times as much as a no-name melamine sponge. So, save yourself some money and buy plain melamine sponges instead of Magic Eraser sponges.
If you’ve ever used a Magic Eraser sponge, you will know they aren’t quite magic; you have to put some effort into scrubbing, and the sponges wear easily and don’t last long. Working on these burned in grease stains was no different. In the end, it did make a difference, after some working. So I can definitely recommend these sponges for problems like this, both from a cost-effectiveness standpoint, and that they get the job done.
I tried to find a Revere Ware pan that had a similar problem. However, for stainless steel pans, there are other good tools. For the inside, a Scotch Brite scrubber does a great job, and for the outside, Bar Keepers Friend works really well (as we recently wrote about) and helps keep the shine.
Keep a Bar Keeper as a Friend
We had friends over for a traditional Swiss dish called Raclette, which is essentially melted (raclette) cheese over potatoes. In days of old they would put a large wheel of cheese by the fire and scrape off the melted portion. In these modern days, we have electric Raclette grills. One of our grills has a stainless steel cover which sometimes gets melted cheese on it, which can get seriously burned in leaving those tough grease stains you often get on the outside of stainless steel cookware (and especially tea kettles which get splatter from cooking which then gets burned in as you heat the kettle).
I was reminded today just how miraculous Bar Keepers Friend is at polishing away stuff like this.
It really is the best thing to keep the stainless outside of your Revere Ware looking marvelous. It can also help smooth out the inside and remove small pits that might otherwise cause food to stick.
If you haven’t tried Raclette, you don’t need a grill, and the cheese is fairly common these days; we bought ours at Trader Joe’s (but it is popular these days and often sells out during the holidays). If you aren’t using a grill, just put your already cooked potatoes, slightly cut up, in a serving dish (like good old Corning Ware) and put it in the oven or microwave oven with the cheese on top, heat until the cheese is melted (and just a bit bubbly) and serve. It is absolutely delicious. The cheese from Trader Joe’s comes pre-sliced, making things very easy.
And if you are ever in Switzerland, I highly recommend touring a Raclette cheese factory.
Merry Christmas and Happy Revere Ware
I hope everyone had a merry Christmas, Hanukkah, Diwali, Kwanzaa, or other holiday celebration. It has been another banner year for Revere Ware lovers. If our sales for Revere Ware replacement parts are any indication, interest in Revere Ware continues to be elevated from pre-pandemic levels. 2022 has been about the same as 2020, which is to say, not as good as 2021 but significantly better than 2019. While Revere Ware as an official brand is dead, Revere Ware as a cherished brand is growing. It’s like the old adage, “Rock is Dead. Long Live Rock!”
In the spirit of Christmas, I came across this display of lids from an eBay listing. Doesn’t it remind you of a Christmas tree?
Happy Holidays everyone!
There is still time to order for Christmas (12/12/22)
Our orders typically ship the next business day from when placed. I did a little reality check today and look at at some orders shipped in the last couple of weeks to see how long the USPS is taking to deliver packages to various parts of the US. Our shipments from from Nevada.
NY: 2 days
NJ: 3 days
NC: 2-3 days
GA: 2 days
AZ: 2 days
ID: 3 days
VA: 4 days
ND: 2 days
PA: 3 days
MA: 3 days
MO: 3 days
OR: 2 days
CA: 2 days
NE: 4 days
These are pretty stellar results; anywhere in the us in 2-3 days for the most part. The USPS is back to the normal First Class shipping time we were blessed with in 2019. Compare this to 2020 (1-2 weeks for delivery) and 2021 (3-5 days for delivery).
Based on the above results, you can likely order through this weekend for delivery next week before Christmas.
That said, the USPS is famous in the last couple of years for the occasional package taking a wrong turn. Here is a perishable order I am waiting for.
Caveat emptor.
Rare new coffee pot handle for sale on eBay
If you need a new handle for your Revere Ware percolator, you can easily find another one to use as a donor for parts, which is what we recommend to people that inquire. But it isn’t that often that a new replacement handle comes up for sale on eBay, and at a good price to boot.