Cast Iron Restoration

[Black Dog]

The pan is finished and I'll get some pics tonight. It took me a while to finish it because I started a new job and junk. I ended up doing three rounds of oven cleaner\scrubbing\wire brushing to get all the gunk off and got it down to bare metal. Then I went five rounds with olive oil at 475 to give it its initial seasoning just so that the 3 pounds of bacon I cooked in it wouldn't stick. Its a nice jet black color now and is completely non stick, I can cook pretty much anything in it now and then take it to the sink and use the hose to get off almost all the left over bits of food. I'll get a few pics of the finished product later today.

 

[rocrunr]

Olive oil is not a real good choice. 1 it has a low burn point and 2 olive can go rancid. Flax seed oil or grape seed oil would be better choices as stated earlier. Good old bacon grease has been used for years. Well now you will have a good pan for life . Waiting to see the finish product. lol

 

[Scoutman]

The best way I've found to reset cast iron was to turn it upside down on a super hot bed of coals of your campfire just before you go to bed. It will cook just about anything off and all that's left to do in the morning is brush the dust and ash off. Then you're ready to re-season in your method of preference. The temperatures that a good hot campfire get to FAR exceed those of your oven cleaning cycle and I wouldn't want to do that in my house anyway.

Bringing out some iron from the ashes and coals is sort of a rebirth if you will of the way these things were made in the first place. :ylsmoke:

Lard is my season of preference.

Curious to see how yours turned out. I have some of the ceramic coated stuff too. It's ok but I would never put it in the dishwasher as someone mentioned. You have to be careful with it too cause the ceramic can chip off. I use it occasionally for certain dishes.

 

[chromisdesigns]

The best way I've found to reset cast iron was to turn it upside down on a super hot bed of coals of your campfire just before you go to bed. It will cook just about anything off and all that's left to do in the morning is brush the dust and ash off. Then you're ready to re-season in your method of preference. The temperatures that a good hot campfire get to FAR exceed those of your oven cleaning cycle and I wouldn't want to do that in my house anyway.

Bringing out some iron from the ashes and coals is sort of a rebirth if you will of the way these things were made in the first place. :ylsmoke:

Lard is my season of preference.

Curious to see how yours turned out. I have some of the ceramic coated stuff too. It's ok but I would never put it in the dishwasher as someone mentioned. You have to be careful with it too cause the ceramic can chip off. I use it occasionally for certain dishes.

Yep, campfire is best. But self-clean cycle in home oven works nearly as well, and as long as you have a good exhaust hood you won't smoke up the house too much.

The nice thing about doing it in the oven is once it cools down, you are all ready to brush off any remaining ash and start seasoning it, also in the oven. Bacon fat is the best!

 

[Joanne]

For reseasoning, I head for the big gas grill in the backyard. Plenty of heat without smoking/stinking up the house. Just make certain that you have a good thermometer so you can monitor the temp. I like the high-heat seasoning method so the difference between a good, black oven and one that the seasoning is starting to burn off isn't that far apart.

I know that a lot of people have had good luck throwing their ovens into a fire, but I also know of more than one who have had their oven crack because of the high heat in the fire.

Joanne

 

[Arclight]

Electrolysis is the way to go with one this bad. You don't loose any good metal like you do with other methods, and it cleans it up perfectly. You need sodium carbonate (washing soda) to make up the electrolyte.

FYI, you can find small bottles of Sodium Carbonate at the hardware store in the pool care section as "Spa Up." It's used to bring the Ph of your water up. I can also vouch for electrolytic de-rusting. It will clean up delicate things like gun parts without hurting them, and even gets apart rusted fasteners on farm tools/etc.


Arclight