Cast Iron Skillet Restoration

I'm reposting this from the ESEE Forum since another member asked about it in another thread.

There are many techniques for removing scale and rust. Many of you are wizards with electrolysis. But this is the method I use to restore old cast iron pans.





Before:

$10 at a local antique store.













What I use. Lowe's. $15. You only need half the bottle and you can re-use the solution over and over again. You want it to be 100% Lye. There are some drain cleaners that have lye in it but it also has other harsh chemicals. Alternatively, or if you're planning on doing dozens of pieces, you can order lye online. Preppers who make a lot of their own soap do this. So do meth heads. But, we're all friends here, right?






This pan is small enough to fit in a 5 gallon bucket so that's the best case since I can put a tight-fitting lid on it and it won't splash. Fill it up a few inches over the top of the pan. I used warm water. Carolina Rose is supervising (She ought to be out catching me some rabbits but it's back to zero degrees here so she doesn't spend too much time outside.)






What it looks like when you add the lye. By the way, for safety's sake, always add the lye to the water, not the water to the lye. It can bubble up and splash around.





2 days in the lye....






4 days in lye:






I took the pan out to take a look at how it's coming along. There was a few spots with some caked on scale that I COULD scrub off with steel wool but why expend any effort? I threw it back in the bucket for another day or two.

You'll notice quite a bit of rust under that scale. Lye does nothing to rust. That's what the vinegar step is for. After I scrub it clean, I'll soak it in vinegar for a few hours and the rust will all be gone.


It is a Wagner! :


















You'll notice the bottom is pitted a good deal. I'm planning on using this pan as an outdoor pan (grill and campfires) so it means little to me how it looks, just how it performs. It will probably clean up a bit better than it looks in this photo and once it's seasoned, it'll be fine. Again, if you like your stuff to be really nice looking or you just want to experiment, you can take a grinder to the bottom and smooth it out to your liking.





Stay tuned.... In another day or so, it should be baking some biscuits or a fajita steak or an apple pie or ......



EDIT: 2/27/14 UPDATE:

Ok, done with the lye soak. Pulled it out and rinsed it off. Lye did its job but now we have to address the rust, since lye won't work on rust. So I soaked it in the sink in a mixture of vinegar and water. I would have used straight vinegar but I didn't have enough left to cover the pan so I added water to fill over the top.

You might can see how yellow it started turning almost immediately. That's the rust coming off of it. You can actually see it floating away.





An hour later in the vinegar. What you see is floating rust.






Ok, here we are completely stripped and rust-free. You can see some discoloration in the metal that will not come off. There's really nothing to come off, it's just discoloration. That shouldn't bother you. Once it's seasoned properly over time, it will be an even, consistent dark color anyway.







Difference between the old stuff and newer Lodge: Machining. The old ones were machined smooth inside once they were cast. Helps with seasoning and with the subsequent non-sticking.






Handle looking nice. #5 of course.





Again, some discoloration on the bottom but nothing to worry about. Nice, solid pan.





Here's a good example of how well the vinegar works. Look at the pic above of the handle that shows all the rust. Not a speck now






Stay tuned...Seasoning in the oven right now. Tomorrow will be pics of the final process


EDIT: 3/1/14

Here's the pan after a few layers of seasoning. I went with REALLY thin layers of seasoning this time as an experiment. It seemed to do better avoiding the sticky sections that you sometimes get if you put it on too thick. I will continue seasoning it until it is all one consistent dark black color.















I'm officially finished with this post


(A couple of you have sent messages asking for permission to repost this in BF and other places. You guys can always repost this or anything else I put up here.)

Well done! That's very cool. I love iron cookware!

Nice job!

I just toss the old one into a fire and burn it all off, simple, and works. charcoal grill also works

nice job, like seeing these brought back to use.

Nice job. Can you explain the seasoning process you used a bit more. Does it really not stick enough for me to fry an egg?

My Mom used one...wish I still had it!

Just how does one season cast iron in the oven?

Nice work. I have had similar results putting the pan in a gas oven and letting it run a cleaning cycle.

Nice job. I do wonder though that even though it will be an outdoor pan, why not sand it down a bit to make it smoother. Like a well made antique pan were done. Less oil in the seasoning which would help with the trace iron transfer to the food

Heat it, Oil it *Vegetable Oil or Crisco, get it good and coated, heat it again for a few minutes, then let it cool, wipe it out with a paper towel.
it will get more seasoned as you use it.

My Mom has used the same cast iron skillet for YEARS, she does wash it then sets it on the stove to drive off the water, re-oils it and stores it for next use.

Great job, but lots of work, time and expense for this item. I toss old ones I find at the flea market for $1-2 that look like **** into the bead blaster. Two minutes and it's down to bare metal. Then off to seasoning steps. Cost for the process is the electricity to run the blaster, maybe a few cents. Then again, I already own the blaster so that cost is already paid for.

Never wash cast with soap and water, that takes the seasoning out of the pan. If the seasoning was done well, a plastic scrubby and a rinse under running hot water will clean it.

Richard

Cast iron is the "only way to go" for certain foods. Although Mom made bacon and eggs in hers, I prefer stainless steel or a good non-stick for mine.

Enameled cast iron dutch ovens are awesome for baked beans !

Favorite cat iron skillet recipe : Salmon

• Cut salmon fillets into 3-6" lengths so they fit better in the pan
• Pre-heat oven to 350
• Put about 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil in your cast iron skillet.
• Place on burner at max until oil just starts to smoke
• Add salmon, skin side down. Salt and pepper.
• After 3-4 minutes, flip salmon
• Remove from burner and place in oven for another 3-4 minutes

Sidney, Ohio......not too far from me.

When the wife had her house fire, she had a full set of cast iron skillets, and I mean a full set. Pots, lids, skillets, and so on. After the fire they were rusted terribly, so I had them all soda blasted for $50. They were looking just like new. She proceeded to start seasoning them using pure lard. A good cast iron skillet take more than just seasoning it though to break it in good, and that is after cooking a few times in it.

ANd for ones that do not know......never ever throw a cast iron skillet in the dishwasher. My wife caught me putting it in and I then learned a long lesson from her.

A few good batches of fried potatoes cooked in lard in the cast iron skillet seasons it pretty well. When done, pour out any grease, and wipe it out real well. DO NOT wash it.

We finally did sell all of the other pats and pans to a person that camps all of the time. They were really wanting only the bean pot but hubby wanted them all.

are you able to start cooking food in the pan that you can eat after wiping the vinegar off of it or are you "seasoning" it by putting it in the oven with oil in the pan? I followed all the steps easily with your instructions and just need to see or hear how the cast iron comes out of the vinegar and then what happens so you can start using it to cook your food.

nice pictures and awesome thread. thanks

Very cool thread!

I bought a Lodge pot for BBQ pit beans and like it a lot. This spring I bought a pot with lid at a flea market. It has a very crude bail and I figure this winter I can make a nicer bail for it.

I use a frying pan that was my Grandmas and have always wondered why I am not supposed to wash it?

i personally like enameled cast iron best for ease of use/clean ...but that old lodge stuff is much cheaper.

Nice job on the pan tho

Who makes the best cast iron skillets, I'm always looking at thrift/flea markets.

Great post. Thanks.

930dreamer said:

Who makes the best cast iron skillets, I'm always looking at thrift/flea markets.

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I'd like to know this, too.

As well, I'm going to look up how to season and maintain cast iron. I've always been curious about it and would like to eventually get into using it. The restoration, to me, is part of the fun.

BigMike782 said:

Very cool thread!

I bought a Lodge pot for BBQ pit beans and like it a lot. This spring I bought a pot with lid at a flea market. It has a very crude bail and I figure this winter I can make a nicer bail for it.

I use a frying pan that was my Grandmas and have always wondered why I am not supposed to wash it?

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Grandma would have you out back of the wood shed if she caught you washing her cast iron frying pan. Ask any old timer why food taste so much better in a cast iron skillet. You'll never get that flavor in a Teflon pan.

930dreamer said:

Who makes the best cast iron skillets, I'm always looking at thrift/flea markets.

Click to expand...

My dad collects cast iron. He likes Griswold the best, followed by Wagner.

-Brent- said:

As well, I'm going to look up how to season and maintain cast iron. I've always been curious about it and would like to eventually get into using it. The restoration, to me, is part of the fun.

Click to expand...

Seasoning really is not that hard, just time consuming. Maintenance is easy as long as you follow a few rules:

1. Don't wash with soap
2. Scrub all the food matter off. Boiling water in the pan can really get rid of stuff quickly
3. Oil when you are done (quick wipe with oil on a paper towel), preferably when warm

As long as you clean and oil it you should not have to re-season very often, or get to the levels of cleaning in the thread. What often happens is either inexperienced persons don't clean it properly (or at all) or it gets passed down to someone who doesnt care. stuff build up, rust forms from not oiling, and you have a nasty looking pan. The ignorant decide their ultra-non-stick super pan is better and throw this in a yard sale.

The good thing is, outside of physical damage (bent, heavy gouges or cut) almost any "damage" is cleanable and repairable

Kevin54 said:

Grandma would have you out back of the wood shed if she caught you washing her cast iron frying pan. Ask any old timer why food taste so much better in a cast iron skillet. You'll never get that flavor in a Teflon pan.

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Are you saying iron taste better than Teflon??

I must've not seasoned my correctly the last time I did it, had a lot of stuff stick to it. I used crisco, I think i'll do it outside on the fire pit next time cause it sure did smoke a lot.

930dreamer said:

Who makes the best cast iron skillets, I'm always looking at thrift/flea markets.

Click to expand...

The only company still making cast iron cookware in USA is the Lodge Corporation. Wagner lasted till about 2000 or so but is gone now.

Lodge is good stuff, Wagner Ware was good too. My opinion, Griswold made the best quality cast iron cookware, they have been out of business for several decades, if you find one they are usually at a premium due to the collectable nature of them.

How many companies made cast iron stuff in USA? Unknown, most manufacturers didn't mark their products, and most are blank bottoms, or just the size number only. At least several dozen makers, I'd say.

Ones to avoid are those that have come from the Orient, like Taiwan, China, and others. While most cast iron cookware in the United States was made from virgin iron, I have heard most that was imported from the Far East was made with low quality re-melt that included cast iron engine blocks, rebar, pot metal, and whatever else made it into the pot. They are safe to cook with, but the finish ***** and the metal isn't the same homogeneous throughout the casting, so cracking can occur more easily.

Kevin54 said:

Grandma would have you out back of the wood shed if she caught you washing her cast iron frying pan.

Click to expand...

My mother (who would have been 96 years old this year) always washed her cast iron pans after using them. However, she also would re-season them each time - that's the important thing.

My wife learned from her mom and grandma. She always scrubs out anything that may be stuck, wipes it out with paper towels, then wipes it out with Wesson Oil each time afterwards.

But when she seasoned it, she used pure good ole' Lard to do it. I'm thinking hers may be Griswold Cast Iron. She still has the large skillet, the lid, then an intermediate and small skillet and lids. I don't know how many pieces she sold in the garage sale, but it had to be close to a dozen.

Outlander said:

Nice job. Can you explain the seasoning process you used a bit more. Does it really not stick enough for me to fry an egg?

My Mom used one...wish I still had it!

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I fry an egg on different cast iron pans several times a week and they just slide right onto the plate. I rarely break a yolk either.

volleyball said:

Nice job. I do wonder though that even though it will be an outdoor pan, why not sand it down a bit to make it smoother. Like a well made antique pan were done. Less oil in the seasoning which would help with the trace iron transfer to the food

Click to expand...

It is actually very smooth on the inside. The old ones are. I'm talking about the outside. Sometimes people want to sand the outside to get them smooth.

Duct Tape Man said:

Great job, but lots of work, time and expense for this item. I toss old ones I find at the flea market for $1-2 that look like **** into the bead blaster. Two minutes and it's down to bare metal. Then off to seasoning steps. Cost for the process is the electricity to run the blaster, maybe a few cents. Then again, I already own the blaster so that cost is already paid for.

Click to expand...

I don't have one of them. I throw them in a bucket of lye and forget about them for a week or two. I don't actually have to do anything but hose them off.

drivesitfar said:

are you able to start cooking food in the pan that you can eat after wiping the vinegar off of it or are you "seasoning" it by putting it in the oven with oil in the pan? I followed all the steps easily with your instructions and just need to see or hear how the cast iron comes out of the vinegar and then what happens so you can start using it to cook your food.

nice pictures and awesome thread. thanks

Click to expand...

After the vinegar, I wash it with soap and water to get all of the vinegar off then dry it in the oven. Then I season it (read below)

930dreamer said:

Who makes the best cast iron skillets, I'm always looking at thrift/flea markets.

Click to expand...

Real Griswolds command the highest prices. I have them and Wagner and I cannot tell the difference at all. I also have Favorite and other old ones. They almost all cook the same if they were made pre 1930's.

rockfordmarv said:

I must've not seasoned my correctly the last time I did it, had a lot of stuff stick to it. I used crisco, I think i'll do it outside on the fire pit next time cause it sure did smoke a lot.

Click to expand...

My seasoning process:

1. Coat the pan inside and out with a THIN layer of Crisco.

2. Bake in an oven at 500 degrees (or grill if you want) for 1 hour. Let cool in the oven.

3. Wipe down with a rag coated in your favorite oil. I use peanut oil.

Repeat. The more you repeat, the thicker and harder the coating is. Eventually, you're not actually cooking on the metal surface, but on the seasoning (the hard black coating.) If you don't understand what seasoning is, take a look at one of your wife's baking pans. See the black stuff that spill over or was burned on the metal and never came off? That's seasoning. Technically, polymerized fats that bond to the metal and make it non stick.

I could write a book on how to cook properly in cast iron. Most people make a mistake by making it WAY to hot. Cast iron collects heat quickly and never releases it. Or releases it very slowly. So, if you cook on a 5 or 7 (out of 10) on your burner with an aluminum pan, you may only need a 2 or 3 out of a cast iron to accomplish the same thing. Get it hot enough and unless you're using fat (butter, oil, etc) to put between the food and the surface of the pan, anything will stick.

Also, acidic foods such as tomato sauce or those things will sometimes eat away at the seasoning.

Maybe I'll post a more indepth response if you guys want it to. There's a lot of little things to learn about cast iron. But if you get the hang of it, it's easier and more simple than anything else. And infinitely durable.

Thank you! Great informative thread!

My mom has washed her cast iron with soap and water and it has not been any the worse for wear, it is just fine she has done it longer than I have been alive and probably longer than most of the folks touting not to wash it... So I chalk that nonsense up to old wives tales... She is 87 years old...

You CAN wash cast iron with soap and water ONCE YOUR SEASONING IS SUFFICIENTLY MATURED!

That's why you always hear about grandmothers that do it-the seasoning is. A few decades old. You couldn't get it off with soap if you wanted to. However, if you just seasoned your pans for the first time and you wash it in soap and hot water, that soap will work on the hardened grease and because the layer is so thin, it can erase it or degrade it.

When it's real thick after a few decades of use, no way you can get through those layers with soap. Remember, it takes days to get through it with lye!

Thanks for all the info expatriated I just checked my skillet and with a little internet sleuthing it's a Lodge 12" skillet.

Some more CI info:

--Lodge Mfg in TN is the largest American made cast iron mfg currently in production. There are a few other, smaller, hipster like boutique ones. Borough Furnace in Syracuse, NY is one. Finex up in Portland, OR is another. They both make cast iron skillets. But they are about $300 for a regular skillet. I have a Borough Furnace one. It has some nice features but it's not worth the price. They use recycled iron.

--Le Creuset is made in France and is enameled cast iron. I have a set of them as well. They do not need seasoning and can be put in the dishwasher because the cast iron is covered with baked on enamel. Very elite cooks have been using this brand since the 20's. Also very expensive but you can find them used in different places. Occasionally, Williams-Sonoma and Sur La Table have sales on them that can be real finds as well. If you don't want to ever buy another set of pots and you don't want to worry about seasoning or anything like that, Le Creuset is the way to go. I'm in my 40's. If i were smart, I would've bought a set of these 20 years ago and I'd still be using them and would've saved myself a lot of hassle over the last couple of decades.

Le Creuset is mostly identified by their standard, orange colored outsides.

Staub is another brand of cast iron from France. They are as high quality as the Le Creuset.

--There are other companies that make cast iron, including enamel coated cast iron. Tramontina and Lodge are two that make enameled coated cast iron but they make them overseas. I have read reviews where people have gone head to head with Le Creuset vs Tramontina vs Lodge and claim they are all the same. I'm not sure, I've never used the Lodge or Tramontina but they seem to be pretty much the same thing as Le Creuset. But about 80% cheaper.

--The bare cast iron (Griswold, Wagner, Lodge, etc) is pretty much indestructible. Not much can kill these things but there is a certain thing to avoid--excessive heat. Some people clean their pans by throwing them in a bonfire and letting everything burn off. This can work but cast iron CAN crack if it gets too hot. It PROBABLY won't but it's something to think about before heating the family heirloom up to 900 degrees.

Related to this--don't try to cool the cast iron down too quickly. Don't take it out of the oven and throw it in the sink with cold water. You could crack it. You probably will warp it. It will still function if warped but it will annoy you if you use it on the stove top and it keeps spinning around when you're trying to stir something. This is the most common fault in older cast iron. If you're at an antique store and want to evaluated a skillet to purchase, try to find a glass top to put it on and see how level it is. If you look on ebay, the expensive pans will say "No Wobble". Hard to find old ones that don't wobble. However, if you're planning just to use the pan to bake in the oven, it won't be an issue. Or if you use it over a campfire. If you use it on a gas stove top, it won't be as bad as a glass top stove.

--The best way to get into cast iron is to buy a lodge skillet at Walmart for $20. Take an orbital sander to the inside starting with 60 grit and working up to 200. You will smooth it out and make it similar to the quality of the older ones from the 30's. Then practice seasoning it. You probably won't wreck it--there's not much to wreck. But if you do, you're only out 20 bucks. Hang it out in the yard from a branch and use it as a target for your kid's bb gun. Or use it next time you go camping.

--If you do a lot of cooking outdoors over a fire, they make a cast iron dutch oven with a lip around the lid that holds coals and will help cook from top down, in addition to the fire under the bottom of it.

Good luck with all of it. It has sort of become an addiction with me, I'm sorry to say

cast iron cooking forum;
http://www.camp-cook.com/forum/

i have a few newer lodge pans and a bare dutch oven as well. I also have a large assortment of le cruset pieces. there are certain meals better prepared in the bare iron. nothing beats corn bread made in bare cast iron.

For some reason, my mom let me out of the house with her #5 Wagner when I left for college. I've been cooking on vintage cast iron for the past 28 years. I've always bought old Wagner or Griswold skillets and a #8 Dutch oven at garage sales and a few from eBay and avoided the rough cast finish of newer skillets (eg. Lodge). For the first cleaning to remove carbon and rust, I use a cup style wire wheel on an electric drill, washed several times with soap and water, then seasoned using the instructions found at www.panman.com http://www.panman.com/cleaning.html Note the temperature he suggests is much lower than those above.

Whatever you do, before you purchase, check that the pan sits flat on a flat surface - many are warped. I realize this was posted above, but it's worth repeating! Cast iron is not indestructible if you like your pans with a flat bottom! Don't pour cold liquid in a hot pan and don't place a hot pan in or under water that's not hot.

For the record, I did give my mom her pan back (undamaged), then promptly started the quest to round up an entire set for myself!

We got a fair amount of Le Creuset as wedding presents although ours are blue not orange as they matched our then kitchen. They're great, the big casserole dish you can get it all black on the inside with burnt on food and an overnight soak in the sink and it just wipes clean the next morning. We also have a big wagners skillet but its the one with the ribs on the bottom for fat free cooking. I want a big flat one to do pancakes on though.

Nicely done, cant wait to give your method a go

Thanks

Beautiful job and great thread! I have a friend who collects good cast iron, he probably has a couple hundred pieces. If he gets something that's crud covered, right in the lye bath.

Have a few myself and haven't experimented yet, but I'm becoming interested in learning to cook in these, so thanks.

RE: Seasoning

If you really have OCD you will never be satisfied with your seasoning process, constantly trying new formulas. I know people that use flaxseed (very expensive) because it hardens like varnish. But, it can also become brittle and chip off. Old days they just used lard. Now, people argue over the best oil (peanut, vegetable, crisco, olive, whatever). I've used just about everything including just old bacon grease.

My process used to be 250 degrees for a couple of hours. Low and slow. Now, it's changed. FWIW, Lodge I think recommends 400 degrees for 1 hour. You probably won't find two people with the exact same method but they're pretty much all correct. You need hardened fat, bonded with the metal.

If you want to try cooking for the first time, try cornbread and butter your pan beforehand. It's pretty easy to make, comes out crusty and nice. Another thing to make in one is a cobbler:

-butter a cast iron
-In a bowl, mix 1 cup of self-rising flour, 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of milk
-Mix in 1 stick of melted butter
-Pour it in your cast iron
-Drop 2 cups of your favorite fruit onto the mix--peaches, blackberry, blueberry, whatever
-sprinkly 1/4 cup sugar over the top of that
-Bake 350 for 1 hour
-Optional: Right before it's done, sprinkle 1 tbl spn of sugar over the top of everything again

It will amaze people when you serve that at the table in an old cast iron pan. And the crust around the edge tastes great while the inside is moist and sweet.

We have Griswold, Lodge, and Le Cruset, but the wife Loves the way the old Griswolds cook...All we use anymore.....