"High End" Copper Cookware or Copper and Brass scrap metal

So scrap steel and cardboard pays about the same, hard for me to understand how that can be true, but in these crazy times, it's a fact.

Iv'e decided to keep processing scrap so I don't get buried in trash and pay by ton to haul the trash away. I'm going to just "handle" the steel as little as I possibly can, pile it as "neatly and as "high" as I can. Maybe I'm a dreamer, but someday in the future scrap steel will be worth more than cardboard again.

I'm going to focus on my non-ferrous, e-waste and better than scrap sales. I have lots of inventory to work, this week I have started on my boxes of pots and pans. I started out with just a magnet, making two piles (high and low magnetic piles). All the high percentage magnetic pot and pans will be added to the ferrous pile and will be inventory for future sales (I'm a dreamer).

I then took my angle grinder to the low magnetic percentage pots and pans. I expected to have two types of metal in two piles in minutes. For the most part I did, aluminum and stainless steel. To my surprise, I was making a smaller "third" pile of copper and brass cookware. Then I started thinking, "Maybe I should be making a fourth pile for better than scrap pots and pans".

I wanted to keep this simple, it was until the angle grinder started exposing brass and copper. Then I started researching "high end" cookware for my better than scrap sales. I learned that I had a few really nice pots and pans. I had even more want-a-bee "high end" pots and pans.



One brand that is a "want-a-bee" is made by a company call "Philippe LaFrance". When I found the first one, seeing the copper pans with solid brass handles, my first thought was "high end". Research tells another story about mass marketing and possibly straight out consumer deception.

Found a newspaper article written by David Horwitz in July 1983. In this article Mr. Horwitz describes the many complaints he has received about this company and their copper pots and pans. Their deceptive adds offering "whole sets of high quality copper cookware" for $19.95 or $29.95? The deal was not that great, what the customer received, was a "sampling" of low quality copper cookware, with an offer to buy the whole set valued at $450 for a greatly reduced price. Horwitz found that the company was being investigated by US Postal Service, FTC and just about every states Attorney Generals Office for fraud. He did say that the pans were made of copper and brass, but inexpensively made and advised that they were better for decorations than for cooking.

In January 1985, the US Attorney, on behalf of the FTC, charged in a court complaint that the defendants misrepresented their nationally advertised mail-order products, ranging from copper cookware to ceiling fans, and also violated the FTC's mail-order rule. In 1987 the company paid $600,000 in fines and the companies and individuals agreed not to make misrepresentations in the future in connection with mail-order sales of any products, including copper cookware.

So if you find some "Philippe LaFrance" cookware, I would remove the brass handle from the copper pan and sell it for scrap metal.

Some pots and pans are worth good money. Double check anything solid Cast Iron and anything with a 'brandname'.
I'm suprised which what I find.
Though any Teflon nonstick stuff is rubbish and just has the handle bent off and scrapped, though they do stack well..

In my experiance folks will pay pretty good for nice cast iron skillets and dutch ovens, or something like an odd shaped flat griddle. They love cast iron at flea markets. Pots and pans on the other hand, unless theres a set, or several alike with lids and in almost new condition, dont seem to do as well. I have come across lots of old aluminum stuff, wich goes automatically in the scrap pile no matter what condition. I do apartment maintenance, and spent years in the restaurant biz... so you can imagine the collection of kitchen utensils Ive amassed. Im curiose about pans that have copper coating just on the bottom for heat conduction though. what would they be considered scrap wise?

When everyone was nuts about copper cookware they started coming out with a lot of low end stuff that was basically good for decoration only. Some of it was actually marked for decoration only.

Keep an eye on the vintage stuff though, aluminum, cast, enamel, etc.... I've flipped quite a bit of old cookware on ebay.

acain...check the copper bottoms before you scrap them...Revere is one to watch for. I own a whole set of that stuff passed down from my mother, it's probably 40 years old and I'm sure I'll wear out long before it does. I've seen people kill the stuff, but it takes some effort.

Rule of thumb for me is, if it looks old, isn't totally trashed, and the bottom is flat, search ebay.

I always check ebay first if I come across a decent piece of cook ware.

Yep, curbside shopper, I suspect that Revere Ware in good to excellent shape will still command some coi. My parents were married for 55 years and owned 2 sets of cookware, the first was a Revere Ware. I sort of wish I still had that set around. The large kettle made pretty good stove top popcorn. I think my kids have seen popcorn actually made on the stove (??). I'll to have sure sometime...

just fyi, most quality cookware is made of 5 or 7 ply multi stainless, and aluminum and others often have a steel or copper billet either impact bonded to the bottom, or within the ply's in order for induction stoves to work.

just some trivia I have from when I toured a cookware plant in Thailand...

some examples:
1.0 mm 3 Ply Carbon Core - 2B
1.3 mm 3 Ply Carbon Core - 2B
1.8mm 7 Ply AL Core - 2B
2.3 mm 7 Ply AL Core - 2B
2.8 mm 7 Ply AL Core - 2B
2.3 mm 5 Ply AL Core - 2B
2.3mm 5 Ply AL Core - Magnetic - 2B
1.0 mm solid T304 - 2B
0.8 mm solid T304 - 2B
0.8mm solid T304 - BA w/ film
0.6 mm solid T 304 - 2B

Originally Posted by acain

Im curiose about pans that have copper coating just on the bottom for heat conduction though. what would they be considered scrap wise?

Found a small revere-ware copper bottom pot today, ebay listings for $12-20, so will list but I am curious as well for anyone who has scrapped this before, what the yard categorized it as, and what they paid?