I’ve been lusting after a dutch oven I spotted in a local antique store; they had a sale going on today, so I bought it. It’s an old Wagner Ware Drip Drop #8 roaster. There’s a local guy who refurbishes old cast iron and reseasons it. This replaces my old stock pot that bit the dust, and of course will have many other uses. They also had an old 1850s chuck wagon piece (with three legs on it) that was way cool, but it would have busted my budget.
A few years back I found essentially this same thing (except made by Lodge) in a Grocery Outlet and it has sat in the place of honor on my stove (and in a whole lot of my cooking) ever since. Easily the best $6 I ever spent.
Unless you are looking for actual chuck wagon (or camping) use, be glad you didn’t buy the spider. None of my seven legged dutch ovens are invited indoors much–They don’t work on the stove and are a royal pain to use in an oven.
To make my Ledeburite dreams come true I want a 16" diameter camp oven–my 14" oven doesn’t have enough room to make rolls for one of my typical feeds.
Looking at some auction sites I see price listings for your rig north of $100. Can I ask how much you spent?
Got it for $76 on the one-day sale, normally priced at $90. I looked on line and saw the higher prices, so went for it. The nice thing about old cast iron is that it seems to be smoother textured than the newer stuff, and you don’t have problems with cracking. They also had an oblong roaster there, but again it was more than I cared to part with.
One trick I have tried on some of my camp ovens is to polish the bottom with a flat grinding wheel (on a drill). It did make the surface much smoother (although I will cheerfully admit not as good a patina as decades of use and care will give) but I don’t use them enough to really tell. I would like to chock them up on a milling machine to get a really good finish but I lack the equipment.
The patina is nice. This thing just sits there and gleams. They also had a complete set of frying pans, from about a 5-6" up to probably 14".
A nice piece that my wife found at a 2nd hand store many years ago is a cast iron muffin “tin”. I’ve never seen one elsewhere.
If like me, anyone here is wondering just what a Wagner Ware Cast Iron Drip Drop Roaster 8 is,here ya go.
Sweet buy, Chef.
So while y’all are casting irony, I have a question: what oil is good for seasoning? The cooking oils I’ve tried so far get tacky after awhile, especially since I don’t use my pan that frequently.
Man, I picked up something damn similar at the Army & Navy store for $15 a dozen years ago. I get a hankering for an enameled one every so often but, hey, why do I need another 10 lb pot in the house? 
Unless you are going to heat that oil to 500 degrees or so after applying it, it will always get tacky. The high heat carbonizes the oil, which is the process for seasoning. Any vegetable oil is suitable for a light coat after cleaning, but tackiness is inevitable.