Steve’s Seasoned Classics
An Online Museum of Ohio’s Cast Iron Heritage
Dedicated to the descendants of Henry J. and Cecelia Brandewie Thaman
Preservation • Documentation • Research
What This Is
Steve's Seasoned Classics is a museum-grade archive documenting Ohio's cast iron heritage — the foundries, the makers, and the iron they left behind. More than 100 documented pieces. 48 confirmed Ohio makers. 160 years of manufacturing history. The focus is deliberate: obscure and defunct Ohio foundries whose work the collecting world has largely forgotten, preserved here alongside the major names that defined the industry.
Every piece is conserved under the SSC Archival Black™ protocol. No grinding. No sanding. No metal loss. Original patina, machining marks, and casting evidence preserved intact — because those features are the history.
The Anchor Pieces
The Crown Jewel A Shinnick Hattan & Co. No. 9 kettle, cast in Zanesville, Ohio and dated June 23, 1863. The oldest datable piece in the collection. The only Civil War–era artifact. The anchor of the Pre-1905 Collection — and the narrative spine of a forthcoming book, The Kettle and the War.
The Centerpiece A complete production run of Wagner Ware Sidney "-O-" skillets — No. 0 through No. 14. One of the most complete and condition-verified size runs known to exist. Designated for permanent preservation and future donation to the Shelby County Historical Society in Sidney, Ohio.
Where to Start
The Collection Ohio Foundry Corridor, Favorite Piqua Ware, Columbus Hollow Ware, Wagner Ware, Pre-1905 artifacts, and more.
Library Identification guides, authenticity resources, historical research, and publications.
Restoration The SSC Archival Black™ protocol, seven-phase conservation process, and finishing systems.
Iron Pot Kitchen Heritage recipes cooked in the iron. Fried chicken, cornbread, pot roast, and more.
Contact Identification inquiries, restoration questions, and general correspondence.
How This Started
(trim version — keep the story, cut the length)
SSC founder Steve Thaman spent years researching a family memoir tracing his German Catholic ancestors from the village of Nellinghof in rural Westphalia to the farmlands of western Ohio. The cast iron tools that fed those families for generations — made in Sidney, Piqua, and Wapakoneta — became a collection. That collection became this museum.
That research also became The Road from Nellinghof: Six Centuries of German Rural Life, Migration, and Catholic Identity (1428–1963) — a 39-chapter work tracing the Thaman and Brandewie lines from medieval Westphalia to the Ohio heartland.
The collection is not for sale. It is being preserved for future public donation — a unified record of Ohio's cast iron heritage, kept intact for the next generation of collectors, cooks, and historians.
Preserving Ohio's Cast Iron Heritage — One Piece at a Time.