Thought the vintage hype was just people being picky, but now I get it. I had a modern Lodge for years and never understood why the surface felt like sandpaper until I got an old Wagner at a garage sale. The smooth finish makes a huge difference for eggs and pancakes, way more than I expected. Yeah the old pan needs a bit more love with seasoning, but it's not a ton of work and it cooks so much better once it gets going. I'd still keep the Lodge for camping or rough stuff, but daily cooking? The vintage one wins every time now.

The whole "hinge feel is different" thing made me stop because I actually found the opposite problem. With chipboard I had to start scoring my covers way deeper, otherwise the board would crack along the spine instead of bending clean. Matboard has that give, so you can get away with a lighter score, but chipboard is stiffer and punishes you for it. Took me a few ruined covers to figure out that the board thickness changes how the hinge creases, not just the open feel.

Wait, did you have a backup plan ready in case something like that happened, or was this purely a winging it situation?

Tried it on my last two cooks after my buddy swore by it. Started a 9 pounder at 250 and just left it alone for 11 hours, no foil, no paper, nothing. The bark came out like a dark crust with real bite to it, not that mushy mess you get when you wrap too early. Spritzed it once around hour 6 just to keep the surface from looking dry, but that was it. Pulled at 203 and it shredded like butter, people actually said the texture was better than my usual Texas crutch cooks. Only thing I noticed is it took about an hour longer than wrapped, so plan ahead. You gonna give it a shot on your next cook?

The bins were always packed, but yeah, it has shrunk for sure.