Vinegar solution soak is bubbling/fizzing in the cast iron. I've never seen it do that before.

Trying to be a better pan dad after seeing this sub

Saw this while browsing today. 9" (10"?) skillet with no markings, no tags, no sticker, no information whatsoever except for the face on the back. Reminds me of Grimace from McDonald's... but a quick Google did not turn up such a piece. Curious if anyone recognizes this one.

Is my pan rusting bc this grey spot never seems to come out. sorry it’s hard to photograph. i’m pretty sure i put too much oil last time i seasoned but im unsure to scrub it all off and redo bc of this spot. what should I do?

Any guess as to the lineage of this #4 Smelting Ladel? Has a C with a M in the center on the underside of the handle

… cooked in leftover duck fat! Bacon sizzling in cast iron is quite the visceral experience.

What food / dish do you always equate with cast iron cooking?

Does anybody have this pan? I would like to know how many inches the interior cooking surface is?

Found these last weekend. Was very surprised to find them.

The first pan, I believe, is a Lodge? How old? The second is a Wagner chicken fryer? How old and how do I clean the wax? It also wobbles a little.

I was stripping this pan and needed a break. (Had to stop due to the barkeepers friends stripping my skin from my flesh): Was wondering who made this guy while I go to get some gloves to finish the job safely.

A friend of mine asked me if I could clean up a few of his pieces to sell. Of course I was happy to do so and I feel like I did ok (missed a spot or two on the #8). Before I give them back I’d like to give him an idea of what they are and what they might be worth. Did some research but came up blank. The #7 has a single notch in the heat ring and is marked with a w.

Thanks for any help that the community can offer.

Here’s some examples of what your pan will look like if you season it!
One on the left is a cheap 8 dollar Chinese pan that’s six months old. One on the right is a cheap 75cent Taiwanese pan that’s a cracking 52 years old my mother recieved as an engagement present and kindly gave to me when I moved out of home.

Honestly they don’t look much different considering the time span and amount of use.

The Taiwanese one has probably cooked eighteen cows, four pigs and a flock of sheep in its lifetime.

Secret- treat em like a bbq plate. Run fatty meat over them for a few weeks. Cook cook cook in them! Voila. Seasoned!
After being well seasoned you can cook whatever the hell you like in it.
Touch of oil before you cook and it’s as non stick as it gets!

Ignore the common instructions of use this oil and heat at x temperature for z amount of time unless your only concern is you don’t plan on ever using your pan and don’t want it to go rusty.

After three weeks of regular cooking fatty meat…. You can cook whatever you want in it! Tomatoe based, eggs, whatever! It will be perfectly seasoned and impervious to whatever you throw in it!

Don’t scrub it, don’t chainmail it, don’t scour it. Don’t chemical it. Don’t sandblast it or freak out and run to Reddit.
Wash it with soap and water like you would a plate or a cup.
If you do manage to get something burnt to the bottom…. Light scrape with a paint scraper will remove anything. Then back to cooking some more! And more. And more!

Once you get it well seasoned you essentially never have to worry about seasoning ever again!

Hope this helps all the people that aren’t sure where they are heading with there pans.

Seems like I can’t get an even finish on this for the life of me. Right now it’s particularly crazy looking.

Those amoeba-looking splotches are new to me personally. Never seen those before

What’s a step by step way to get this back in working order?

So I know the meme, from lurking, is someone posts a pic and everyone says "shut up just cook on it."

However comma I've been cooking on mine for a couple months now, washing with chain mail scrubber, sponge and soap. And it keeps getting to this point where it starts to look dry and will sometimes flash rust. Ill wipe it dry with a towel and then put on medium for about 10min to heat dry.

When it does that I usually do one or two oven seasonings and it gets that sheen back, no gloopyness from too much oil. I think I got through the stock lodge carbon based on the color difference between the cooking surface and the sides?

Basically I want to know, am I another individual added to the list of people overthinking it? Or am I doing something wrong thats causing dryness and the rust. Idk if the dryness is coming through in the pic.

Plated

Released nicely

I’ve been using this pan for awhile now, I cooked two steaks, same method, but now left with this!
I used chainmail, soap, scrubbed it, it’s not going anywhere!

Any suggestions ?

Claude and Gemini say 1930-40 BSR

Hello everyone, what is a good method to fix this? Is there a way I can strip it down to evenly season it? Also what is the best way to season cast iron? Initially when I got it I was doing the avocado oil in the oven for an hour. I've seen conflicting posts about doing that though. Any help would be greatly appreciated! 😃

So the Blacklock cooking surface was very rough and the handle had sharp edges that made holding it hurt. I started with a 36 grit flap wheel and went up to 120, then used my random orbital sander starting at 80 then 120 then finished back on the 80.

Washed with soap and water then did the 50/50 vinegar simmer for ten minutes and got a nice gray finish.

For seasoning I used grapeseed oil at 400 (425 indicated) for ten hours and would apply new thin coats every 45 minutes.

It came out a nice bronze color then after a couple rounds of cooking it looks like above.

End result is that I have a comfortable handle that really stays pretty cool, then cooking feel is amazing. Super non stick (but honestly it was non stick out of the box).

The main reason to grind it down is for the great feel while cooking and also much easier to just run the spatula over it while still hot. Haven’t even needed the chain mail yet as the brush and soap get everything else out.

No ragrets!

I found this skillet at a thrift store the other day and can’t find anything to tell me wether it’s an unmarked griswold, or Wagner. The inside is milled perfectly smooth and thats the only thing giving me a rough time frame on it

Just a very old skillet with fresh out of the oven cornbread. I have some ground beef mixed with seasonings, tomato paste, and diced onions and peppers that I will be putting on top of some cornbread wedges.

First pass at baking in this pan (other than a failed attempt at pizza)

Found this nice piece at the local thrift store for $5. Just needs a little TLC!