What is so hard about making copper pans?

Factual Questions
1

Just kind of window shopping at cooking sites today. I saw the copper frying pans that always seem to be the most expensive stuff. Why?

Copper only costs about $1.50 a pound, and a good Pan weighs maybe 6 pounds. So it’s about ten bucks for the materials.

I already have a hammer, and muscles. And while I seem to be lacking any kind of form or anvil, I bet I could Macguyver something up. Might have to call in a favor with a machine shop buddy to rivet the handle on too.
It would be unlined and may react a bit, but hey Copper pan for cheap.

Anybody ever tried it?

2

Where are you getting clean and pure copper that cheap? Around here, copper is worth well more than that as scrap - I’ve seen as much as four dollars a pound for a “clean” load of something like stripped electric wire. Wire with insulation, or mixed cutoff bits of pipe with solder are worth less, but still, it’s valuable stuff.

3

I thought there were toxicity problems with cooking using copper pans.

4

Copper is not good for cookwares for several reasons.

Most probably what you call copper is some kind of alloy.

5

For a bit of insight, here’s the first site I found in a quick Google search: http://www.stormcopperstore.com

On it, there are several categories. I have no idea of applicability to making a pot/pan (thickness, whether to start with a sheet or a bar), but a .032" x Width 12.00" x Length 12" Copper Sheet - 20 Gauge sheet is going to set you back about $32.00.

6

ETA: Never mind, Pleonast said it first.

7

The copper is typically coated with tin to address this.

8

Well $1.50 was just the first price I saw quoted on line. I actually do have copper ingots though,that I bought as a prop for a movie a long time ago.

9

Yes, but the OP specifically said they weren’t going to line it. I think this does answer their question of why commercially produced copper pans are expensive.

10

Okay fine. I’ll buy a couple ounces of tin(another buck or two), melt it in a old crappy pan then pour it over the copper and spread it around as it cools.

11

Congratulations! You’ve graduated to the Bronze Age!

12

Woohoo, to hell with the pan, Time to start building the Library at Alexandria.

13

Which brands are you looking at? My impression is that copper pans don’t cost much more than high-end stainless pans from the same company. I’d guess the difference can be attributed to the fact that copper pans are more complex (coated or layered with other materials).

14

In high end cookware, don’t the pans need to be finished to a nicety with regard to uniform thickness, surfaces, and so on, in order to ensure consistency of results? Cooking is a chemical and physical process, and good equipment is like good labware–made with precision and generally expensive. Objects of nonferrous metal seems to be a lot more expensive generally than the cost of their materials in any event. A piece of silver or gold jewelry costs far more than cost of the raw metal, and so do silver teapots, eating utensils, and so on.

15

I would assume this to be the biggest issue. A good pan should have pretty much uniform heat distribution:that’s perhaps the most important aspect for me when I purchase any cookware… I don’t know how difficult this is, but it seems that a guy with a hammer, anvil, and bunch of copper, would have difficulty doing this unless they are very experienced. Perhaps someone who knows more about metals could chime in?

16

Well, that’s the point of using copper in the first place. It has a much higher thermal conductivty than other metals(except silver) so the heat spreads evenly through copper.

17

Even good “stainless” will have a copper bottom core, or even better, be completely clad.

18

Well, that’s my question. Will a copper pan banged out on an anvil with someone with rudimentary knowledge of the craft of smithing work well enough for our purposes in even heat distribution?

19

First, Here is a great article, with science, about how cookware materials. Copper and aluminum heat up faster and more evenly than stainless and are very responsive, but need to be lined so they don’t react. They also cool off more quickly when taken off the heat.

Cast iron cookware is fairly conductive, but it’s got massive heat capacity, so it stays hot (or cold) forever. It’s best for things where you want a very steady temperature profile – braising, searing, suvee, and thawing things.

Steel ls slow to react, but cheap and durable.

Anyway, what makes copper and aluminum so expensive is not material costs, nor construction difficulties. Tooling up to design and produce lined aluminum or copper is not that much different than steel. Copper prices are a bit higher, but not $490 per pan higher. Aluminum cross-flow heads for some vehicles cost less than an aluminum saute pan, and regardless of the packaging claims, a cross-flow head is more of a design and construction challenge than “thing that gets hot”.

The real reason copper cookware is expensive is because it is a prestige item and they don’t sell much of it. Like most things (Harley-Davidson, Armani, Klipsh, Apple, BMW) that have a prestigious name, there are cheaper brands that provide the same overall performance. But for most people, cheap stainless or aluminum cookware is adequate.

ETA: Yes, copper cookware made in a sand mold would cook things just fine, and would be easy to coat so you don’t die. It’s a property of the metal, and even though design has some impact, it’s not a huge impact.

20

FWIW, the price of copper on commodity exchanges seems to be a tad under $2/pound.