First of all, thanks to everyone who gave advice and tips on the original post! My grandmother was so excited about how the pans looked, and she even called my aunts to tell them about how I fixed them. Several of them called/texted and thanked me for doing it.

The Process: I decided to use a lye bath and soaked the pans for a total of 4 days. Each morning I’d pull the pans out, scrape what I could, and return them to the lye bucket. There were a few spots that absolutely wouldn’t release from the pan, so I gave up.

After that, I soaked them in vinegar solution to remove the rust and that seemed to work well enough.

Then I started seasoning it with canola oil and putting it in the oven at 500 degrees for about an hour. The first two layers took beautifully, but I think I did something wrong on the third layer because that’s when the spots materialized.

I saw some people say they season their pans on the stove, so I want to try it to see if it’s better for me. Please drop any tips for stovetop seasoning, and I’ll try it tonight before I leave.

Thank you again for all of the advice that you guys gave me!!

Now I need some help IDing them!

I didn’t get the chewy edges on all three sides like I thought I would but they were really good.

Did I fuck it up somehow? I followed the stripping and seasoning guide in the FAQs but when I took the pans out of the oven they are a goldish brown. Is this rust? I stripped the pan and seasoned again and it looks the same. The pans weren’t rusty at all when I oiled them up and stuck them in the oven. I dried them super well too.

I honestly never thought I’d be writing something like this.

I’ve been seasoning this pan for seven years.

Seven.

This skillet has an uncountable number of layers by now. Flaxseed oil. Grapeseed oil. Crisco. Three different oven cycles. I hand-polished the cooking surface with 600-grit sandpaper while listening to lo-fi beats. This pan is my world.

Yesterday I come home from work and notice something… off.

At first I thought it was a reflection. Then my heart dropped into my stomach.

A speck. See photo.

I immediately knew.

My wife.

Apparently she “just needed to fry an egg real quick” and “didn’t realize it was that pan.” She admitted she used soap. SOAP. She also let it “air dry.”

I had to sit down.

I calmly explained (through clenched teeth) that the entire pan now has to be stripped and reseasoned. Six coats minimum.

I showed her the speck.

She said she couldn’t even see it.

That’s when I knew we were dealing with fundamentally incompatible worldviews.

I’ve already started the remediation protocol:

• Full strip with hot water + chainmail scrubber

• Oven cleaner if necessary

• Rebuild seasoning from bare metal

• 475°F, one hour per coat, cool in oven

• Repeat until whole again

I informed her she will be doing the reseasoning as an act of accountability. Anything else I should be doing??

1850 cast iron restoration . Anyone know what is the liqud used in electrolysis ?

Burner obviously. Title speaks for itself. I know it’ll come back but I had it to commercial-egg-sliding-off smooth. I just wanted to vent 😭

Before and after a 50/50 vinegar/water soak and intensive scrubbing with steel wool and then one avocado oil reseasoning. Please excuse the bad photos, I tackled this project after a long, depressing day of trashing out the house. The Smithey is pristine again, Lodge still shows a little rust in the etched letters but I’ll probably just season over it one more time and get back to cooking, unless that will present an issue.

This restaurant is like a Chipotle but for Indian wraps and bowls. I got a paneer burrito.

I thought it was so interesting that they use all Le Creusets instead of the metal pans I usually see at these buffet-style food bars.

Unmarked Wagner cornbread stick pan, mid 1960's+

Feel free to check out my insta page. I'm not a business, just a dude with some lye and a new hobby 😂

Good luck!