Latest refinished cast iron. I may have a disease. I really like finding them and refinishing them. Apparently a few of my wives friends want me to look at their cast iron to see if I can clean it up. "If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy."
Any idea what causes this splotchy/ patchtiness...whatever you call it? I gently washed, oiled and put on gas grill for a while..... Well, i cant get pics to upload right now, I'll try again later...
First guess is too much oil left on cast iron when trying to season. Second option could be insufficient rinse after cleaning. Residual cleaner left behind and reacting with oil. Third, no preheat to dry pan and remove moisture hiding in the small imperfections of the cast iron.
After washing the pan, do you let it dry off completely before oiling? What temp does the grill get too? When I wash a pan, I wipe it dry with a paper towel and put it on the stove top for a few minutes on low to make sure all moisture is evaporated. Once warmed, I lightly oil it and wipe it out with a paper towel. Back on the stove top on medium heat until the oil smokes. I taken the pan off and let it cool. I believe the temp at which the oil smokes is around 240 - 260 degrees.
Thanks Meche_03 amd fishingpol .... After washing, I dried it (them) with a towel. Did not think to heat first, but it was a bit of time between towel drying and oil/grill....did not go straight from drying to oil. The grill was hot, gauge said 5-600 part of the time. They were on there for a while at well over 400. By "while, I'd say close to and hour if not more. I used canola cause thats what I had, i know its not the best, but only other oil I had was olive. I was wondering if it was like that because I had too much on there, even though I tried to put a thin coat. Also womdered if I didnt heat it long enough...? What should I do...use as is? Put back on the heat? Or scour it down and try again? We have quite a few pieces of cast iron...some from family and some we've purchased. The 2 pieces that were a bit neglected and rusting some, I tackled today as well with a nylon bristle brush on a drill. It did a good job, and seemed less drastic than steel wool. Got one coat on them. They look ok, but Im going to have to redo part of the large the skillet.
An hour at 400 should do the job. Any hotter and I think you'll thermally breakdown the seasoning. Canola oil will work fine. I use a mixture of grapeseed oil and canola oil. Preheating will help alot. I do 3 to 4 cycles of seasoning on each skillet to get the color I want. But sometimes they still look too metalic until I use them a few times
Refinish or seasoning them helps protect from rust and create a nonstick surface. Cooking can build up more seasoning. My skillets build up a better cooking surface with use. The bottoms need to be reoiled often. I have a gas stove so the gas is in direct contact with the bottom of the skillets and can burn the seasoning off if used for on a very hot burner.
But do I need to do anything to get rid of that "patchtiness" first to make the seasoning more even? Or just start coking with them and build it that way?
That patchiness is in the castings while in molten state, not a worry. Some areas are denser than others. Coat the $#!T out of it with Canola/PAM and cook! It'll eventually turn the dark patina blue/black. If you want, turn the oven or BBQ grill on to 400º, spray or wipe it well with canola oil, inside and out, put it in the oven upside down for an hour, turn off oven and let cool at air speed. Go cook!
Well, I found some of the pans I thought I had still packed in a moving box from over a year ago. First one is a #7, 1940-1960's unmarked Lodge. Three-notch inset heat ring. Second one is a #10, unmarked Wagner. This is my biggest pan. I really can't recall where I bought these from. I think I have to slow down collecting pans now as I am running out of wall space. When the stove gets installed, I'll hang the Griswold flue damper collection up behind it.
Looked at a #13 again at the 100 mile yard sale. Guy still wants $1800... Book still says it worth $900...
A garbage pick today! People put this out to the curb with trash. I'll fix'r up. It's not an old lodge but a nice big lodge for camping and such. No number on this, It's to new. Its 11-7/8" inside so that would be about a #10 I guess. A new one in 1st pic from Amazon, the rest are todays find. Also, it's "not" cracked or broke!
