Lots of details went into the design. There are lots of cast iron woks for sale out there. Most of them are made overseas and you have no idea what type of metals got melted into their cast iron. Lodge has been making cast iron pots, pans, griddles, and Dutch ovens forever and they make them in Tenessee.A few details distinguish these from others.1) lies flat upside down. The handles of a lot of woks stick up. This makes them tilt while upside down. They also will not hang nicely on a wall hook [if that's how you want to store it. Also, when you want to cover it with a lid that is perhaps too large, it won't work because of the handles sticking up. The Lodge handles are on the same plane as the top of the wok. They are also big enough to get your fingers around them. [Use heatproof gloves when hot]. They are integrated, i.e. cast in place, not riveted, so they won't break off.2) Large disc on base to keep wok stable and retain heat at the sweet spot. Most wok cooking is done at the concave bottom portion [about 1 cup of oil's worth]. This area needs to be as hot as possible. The Lodge has a thick plate there to retain heat so that when you put the food inside, it doesn't lower the heat [like what happens with thin carbon-steel woks]. This disc also makes it possble to use this wok on electric stoves. Try to concentrate the gas on this center area. This means you might put the wok over a smaller burner than the large one that has a huge spreader disc [which makes the flames bypass the bottom of the wok and heat only the sides - this is counterproductive].3) Preseasoned with vegetable oil and ready to use. Many foreign-made woks are shipped slathered in machine oil to prevent rusting. They've been on a boat for months and this is necessary. Vegetable oil would have gone bad (rancid). This is why they use machine oil. The first thing you need to do with machine-oil preserved woks is to give it a soapy bath to remove all the machine oil. Now it's prone to rust! You will then have to do several "seasoning" rounds of drying, rubbing with thin layer of oil, and baking in an oven 350 for an hour. Repeat until you have a nice patina that won't stick. Much frustration happens when this seasoning is washed off and the wok rusts. Since the Lodge is preseasoned with vegetable oil, a gentle rinsing is all that's needed before using. Still, I washed it mildly, then applied a thin layer [with my fingers] of flaxseed oil or you can use olive oil [don't use a paper towel with flaxseed oil]. It should feel like rubbing in sunscreen in that you are not trying to have any runs or drips. Preheat oven to 350 and bake upside down [good thing it lies flat] on the rack for an hour.4) Now you're ready to cook! Because the Lodge retains heat, make sure all your ingredients are lined up. You'll have to go fast and remove the food fast. Turning off the flame will not cool it immediately. After scooping out the food, put water inside and let it cool.5) To preserve the seasoning, don't use soap. Just scrub off any particles and rinse well. Dry it, and apply a very thin layer of olive oil [no dripping]. Set it on the stovetop and heat it up only enough to evaporate any water vapor. Then let it cool naturally before putting it away.6) If your wok gets rusty, do not throw it away. You can rehabilitate it [watch Lodge video] or if you don't care to do so, donate it so someone else can use it for the next 100 years.Final note: the food I cooked tasted better than with my carbon steel wok. This is because I drizzled the sauce down the hot sides and kept flipping the food until the sauce kind of got dried into the meat and veggies. After scooping it out, I was left with an almost clean wok! It also cooked faster so you get that Wok Hei, or Wok Chi. Because it heats more evenly than a carbon steel wok, I did not get as much oil smoking and burning because I didn't need to wait super long for the oil to heat up in the center [where it would burn on the sides].This product is full of American ingenuity as it takes a centuries old product and improved it with these design details.It’s huge! I didn’t fully appreciate how big it would be when I read the description, but the size works—I can just move the already cooked stuff up the sides and add the next ingredients to the bottom. Super easy. It does take several minutes of f preheating, but once it heats up, it’s great.I waited until I had it a bit to leave a review. This is nice and large exact what I needed. Easy to clean, cooks great too. I am extremely pleased with the productBought this wok after only having cheap made ones, it’s the best heats evenly, works great on a coil stove top. Definitely can cook for a family of 4 or 6 great product!I love this!!! Tossed all my “Non stick” in favor of cast iron! This is a great pan! Shape is great! Just have to make sure I preheat it enough before I put anything in it!I have had a few cheap woks over the years. Decided to look for a more permanent solution. The Lodge wok is a great size and heats up really well. I can see using this a lot more than my cheap woks. If you know how to care for a cast iron pan this is easy to clean. But you need to make sure to season properly after each use to keep the nonstick surface. Basically heat it back up, add a little avocado oil, wipe with a paper towel and let air cool. Love this panThis was a gift for our son who enjoys cooking veggies in woks. He was very pleased to receive this gift. It was reasonably priced for such good quality that will last a very long ime if cared for properly. It is heavy so not the type wok to lift and toss ingredients. Will need to use cooking tools for tossing in the pan.. A really good size for making family batches or meals to freeze.This is very heavy but I absolutely love to cook with this wok. It cleans up beautifully using a chain cleaning tool for cast iron pans.This item costs a lot of money - but when it arrives you can see the quality in the finish, straight out of the box. In short - pay for quality and you will get it, at least in this case.Great product, yes its heavy but great cookingCast iron carn't beet itFantastic wok worth the moneyI use this for almost everything. Spaghetti sauce, chili, roasting, you name it. Superb quality. It's heavy if you have problems with strength though. Too bad it has no lid. I use a lid from another pot I had. I find it odd that a "feature" to rate in this review is "light weight". How absurd when you're rating cast iron cookware. Of course it's NOT lightweight, so that just brings down the rating of an otherwise great wok. What a dumb question!