Field Company vs Lancaster

Field and Lancaster were founded on the same belief: vintage American cast iron pans were better. Lighter, smoother, and made to last, the Griswolds and Wagners of a century ago beat almost anything sold today. Both brands set out to bring that back by reproducing what people love most about vintage skillets: a smoother surface and a lighter weight, which make them better to cook with and a joy to use.

Where they differ is in the details. Lancaster more faithfully reproduces the vintage pan, with pour spouts, a teardrop handle, and traditional proportions. Field took the design and asked what was worth keeping and what was worth improving, updating its pan with a continuous rim, a longer handle, a helper handle, and smoother lines where each part meets the next.

• Field No.8: 10.25" diameter, 8.75" cooking surface, 4.3 lb, $165
• Lancaster No.8: 10.5" diameter, 9.25" cooking surface, 4.3 lb, $175

Choose Field for a modern take on an American classic, $10 less at every size, and a 45-day trial you can cook through. Choose Lancaster for a faithful vintage reproduction with pour spouts and a little more cooking surface.

FIELD

Field Company was founded in 2016 by brothers Chris and Stephen Muscarella, who grew up cooking with their grandmother's old Wagner and Griswold pans. Inspired by these well-worn skillets with smooth surfaces and a patina built from decades of meals, and frustrated by the rough, heavy cast iron options available at the time, they set out to make something better: cast iron that cooked like vintage. What began with a $1.6 million Kickstarter for their flagship No.8 skillet has grown into a full line of meticulously made cookware, all crafted in the USA. Lightweight, smooth, and obsessively engineered, Field Company's cast iron skillets have earned a following among chefs, food editors, and home cooks who want the performance of vintage iron without the estate-sale hunt.

LANCASTER

Lancaster Cast Iron was founded in 2018 by Mark Longenecker and Brandon Moore in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, a region with deep roots in American cast iron manufacturing. Before launching, the two spent a year visiting foundries and machine shops to learn casting and machining, then introduced their No.8 skillet on Kickstarter in 2019. Every Lancaster skillet is cast, machined, and seasoned in and around Lancaster, and the brand has earned real respect in premium cast iron for delivering on its core promise: a smooth, light pan in the vintage American tradition.

Key Differences:

• Both brands were founded to bring back what made vintage American cast iron great, and both are family businesses at heart.
• Lancaster's values center on people and place—"Family. It's Why We Cook."—and on its community of local makers in Lancaster County.
• Field's center on the object itself: "Own less, love it more." Field's aim is to make one pan so well that it's the only one you need.

Both pans start the same way: a blend of pig iron, recycled iron, and steel, poured into sand molds at American foundries. Field casts its skillets in the Midwest; Lancaster works with local makers in and around Lancaster County. What sets them apart comes after the casting, in how each surface is machined and seasoned.

FIELD

Field Company's skillets are precisely machined and pre-seasoned with several coats of grapeseed oil before they ship. After casting, each pan is machined to level the cooking surface while leaving behind faint tool marks, microscopic ridges that give seasoning exactly the grip it needs to bond quickly and durably. The result is a surface that's smooth enough to cook on immediately but textured enough to build a genuinely nonstick patina faster than most alternatives. Most home cooks notice a real difference within a handful of meals, and the surface keeps getting better the more the pan is used.

LANCASTER

Lancaster's surface is also machined and pre-seasoned, with multiple coats of grapeseed oil, through an eight-step process that includes CNC machining—explicitly inspired by the Griswold and Wagner pans of the pre-war era. Lancaster describes its surface as bringing "that smooth cooking surface back to your kitchen," and the execution is genuinely solid. It performs well from day one, builds seasoning reliably, and cooks much like a Field Skillet.

Key Differences:

• Both brands machine their cooking surfaces smooth and pre-season them before shipping, and both develop reliable nonstick patinas with regular cooking.
• Cooking performance is closely matched. Lancaster's No.8 has a larger cooking surface, 9.25 inches vs. Field's 8.75, an advantage for cooks who want maximum room.

Field and Lancaster start from the same place: the smooth, light American skillets of the early 1900s. At the No.8, they land in the same spot: on our scale, both weighed 4.3 pounds. The gap opens at the No.10: Field's came in just under 6 pounds (Wirecutter also found it "weighs the least of all those we tested"), while Lancaster's weighed 6.25. Where they really part ways is what each did with the vintage design. Lancaster kept it. Field redrew it.

Look & Feel

FIELD

Field's pan started from a question: what would a vintage skillet look like if every line on it were reconsidered? The wall curves into the base in one continuous line, the rim flares evenly all the way around, and the handle grows out of the pan instead of being attached to it. Pick a Field pan up and the proportions feel right in a way that's hard to point to—every part earns its place, and nothing is there for show.

Turn the pan over and the back is just as considered, drawing on patterns recognizable from the vintage era but unique and deliberate in its modern arrangement: the Field shield, the size, and "Made in USA," laid out as Field first drew it in 2016.

LANCASTER

Lancaster set out to bring back the American skillet as it was, and the pan reads that way: pour spouts, a stout teardrop handle, a classic profile. Lancaster calls both its handle and its spouts "traditional," and that's the right word for it. If you want a new pan that looks like the one in your grandmother's kitchen, this is it.

Lancaster followed a strikingly similar layout on the back of its pan, with bolder branding: a large covered wagon sits between "LANCASTER" and "PENNSYLVANIA, USA," a nod to the Conestoga wagons that originated in Lancaster County.

Handle

FIELD

Field's handle is where the pan most deliberately departs from vintage references. Field moved away from the traditional teardrop toward a longer handle, at 5.75 inches, with more girth to hold onto and a gentle arch through the middle that gives your hand feedback for a solid grip. That extra length balances the weight of the pan, so it feels even lighter in the hand than it is. On the underside, where the handle meets the pan, a gradual trigger grip gives your index finger a natural place to rest and pull, a detail borrowed from wooden spoon carving, where the handle narrows into the bowl. The hanging hole is shaped like the Field shield, so the pan can live on a hook rather than taking up cabinet space.

The helper handle does the same job from the other side. Vintage No.8 skillets from Griswold and Wagner didn't have one; the old foundries saved them for their biggest pans and their deep chicken fryers. But a No.8 loaded with a roast chicken needs a second grip too, so Field built one in from the first prototype. It's a small example of how Field works: keep what the vintage pan got right, and keep asking whether the rest could be better.

LANCASTER

Lancaster uses the teardrop handle found on vintage American skillets, which it describes as "a classic design, being both ergonomic and easy to use." Its first No.8 followed the vintage pattern closely, with no helper handle. At its customers' request, Lancaster began adding helper handles in 2024 and finished updating its full lineup in 2025. It was the right call: once a skillet is full of food, a second grip is the difference between a struggle and a pan you move around your kitchen with confidence.

Rim & Pour Spouts

This is the one place the two brands openly disagree.

FIELD

Instead of keeping traditional pour spouts, Field went after a simpler solution: a tapered rim. Spouts let you pour from two points on the rim; a tapered rim lets you pour from all of them. Wirecutter's testing backs this up: the Field skillet "poured easily even without spouts." The design also has the benefit of a cleaner aesthetic and thinner sidewalls, which helps keep the pan light.

LANCASTER

Lancaster went the other way. Its pans have two large pour spouts machined into the rim, which it calls "not only useful but iconic in traditional cookware." In its words: "We aren't compromising: our pour spouts are wide and, we argue, perfect." They're bigger and more clearly defined than the shrunken spouts on most modern pans.

Key Differences:

• At the No.8, both weigh 4.3 pounds; Lancaster has half an inch more cooking surface. At the No.10, Field comes in just under 6 pounds and Lancaster at 6.25.
• Lancaster keeps the vintage skillet close to how it was, with a teardrop handle and pour spouts. Field reworked it, with a longer handle and a continuous rim you can pour from anywhere.
• Field has had a helper handle since its first prototype; Lancaster began adding them in 2024.
• On pour spouts, the two simply disagree. Pick the pan whose answer matches how you cook.

FIELD

The Field No.8 skillet is $165, and Field offers free US shipping on qualifying orders. It also offers 10% off a first order for new customers, and 10% off through GovX for current and former military and their families, first responders, government employees, and teachers. Field accepts returns within 45 days, including pans you've cooked in. Return shipping is the customer's responsibility unless the pan arrived damaged or with an issue. All pans come with a lifetime guarantee, and a member of the Field team responds to every customer service inquiry.

LANCASTER

Lancaster's No.8 is $175, and Lancaster is $10 more than Field at every size from the No.6 to the No.12 ($20 more at the No.4). Lancaster offers a lifetime warranty against manufacturing defects and a 45-day return window for unused cookware only. It doesn't advertise free shipping, first-order discounts, or service discounts.

Key Differences:

• Lancaster costs $10 more than Field at nearly every size, without the free shipping, first-order discounts, or service discounts Field offers.
• Both give you 45 days to return a pan. Field lets you cook in it first; Lancaster takes back unused pans only.
• Both brands back their cast iron for life.

Field and Lancaster share more than any two brands in this category. Both make light, smooth, American-made pans that cook beautifully, and on the fundamentals—the surface, the weight, the performance on the stove—they're genuinely close. The difference is design: Lancaster stays close to the vintage American skillet, while Field reworks it with modern updates.

The best way to choose is to think about how you cook. If you're a believer in dedicated pour spouts and like a pan that looks the way cast iron always has, Lancaster's spouts, classic lines, and slightly larger cooking surface will suit you. If you'd rather pour from any side, and you move your pan around a lot—stove to oven to table, one-handed or loaded down—Field's continuous rim, handle, helper handle, and lighter No.10 are built for exactly that, at $10 less per size with a 45-day trial you can cook through.

Either way, you're buying the last skillet you'll need.

Field Company skillets are ideal for shoppers looking for:

• A light, smooth skillet redesigned for how people cook today, with a longer handle and a helper handle for moving a full pan.
• A continuous rim you can pour from on any side, with no spouts.
• A lighter pan at the larger sizes, such as the No.10.
• $10 less at every size, first-order and service discounts, and a 45-day trial you can cook through.

Lancaster Cast Iron skillets are ideal for shoppers looking for:

• A light, smooth skillet that stays close to the classic vintage American design.
• Dedicated pour spouts, for cooks who prefer a fixed spot to pour from.
• A bit more cooking surface at the No.8.
• A pan made with a community of local Amish makers in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

Is Field or Lancaster better?
Neither is better across the board. Both are light, smooth, machined American cast iron, and they cook much the same. Lancaster stays close to the vintage design, with pour spouts and a teardrop handle. Field reworks it, with a spoutless tapered rim, a longer handle, and a helper handle.

Which is lighter, Field or Lancaster?
At the No.8 they're the same: both weighed 4.3 pounds on our scale, well under most modern cast iron. At the No.10, Field is lighter, just under 6 pounds to Lancaster's 6.25.

Which is easier to lift and move around?
Both are among the lightest cast iron skillets made. Field's longer handle balances the pan's weight, and both brands now have a helper handle for a second grip when the pan is full.

Which is better for eggs?
Both. Each brand machines its cooking surface smooth and pre-seasons it, so either releases eggs well once the seasoning builds with regular use.

Where are Field and Lancaster made?
Both are made in the USA. Field skillets are cast and machined in the Midwest; Lancaster's are cast, machined, and seasoned in and around Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.