Cast iron skillets

[jonp]

We use Pam on big resaw bandsaw blades.

Works great on handsaws and also crosscut saws. Oldtimers used kerosine but that's kinda expensive now. Pam or another spray oil seems to work just as good

[KCSO]

I just smoke em up with bear oil and when they get black enough they are pretty non stick, just make sure you are not taking out the oil with clean up. Dawn and such are too harsh.

[ghh3rd]

I love my two cast iron skillets! Wish I hadn’t waited until I was 60 to try one.

[fiberoptik]

I love my two cast iron skillets! Wish I hadn’t waited until I was 60 to try one.

My mechanics wife had a few & said her daughter in laws liked teflon & gave us a few. Downward slope from there. Remembered my buddys mom used one & never washed it. Cooked everything in it. Didn’t stick. Hooked from then on. I got smart in my late 20’s. Only pan I use that’s not cast is either a big carbon steel wok, (have a small ci one) stainless saucepan ir aluminum stirring paddle popcorn pan. Though I gotta say the wok actually works better for popcorn !

Best way to get them hot—induction cooktop! Quicker/more precise/more efficient!! Also portable! Think hunting camp/motel/beach!
NewWave is your friend.!

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[Tom W.]

Well, I took mine to the shed and put the 4" angle grinder with a worn sanding disc and got it down to bare metal. I washed it thoroughly and put a bit of Wesson oil on it. Lori has been working with it and just about has it seasoned. She told me to leave it alone until she says it's ready. It looks a heck of a lot better than it did.

[lightman]

I'm finding all of this talk about seasoning and cleaning cast iron to be very interesting. My Wife uses a skillet that we have had for 40+ years and absolutely forbids me to wash it. She will pour the grease out, reheat it and pour water in it. Anything still stuck gets scraped with a plastic spatula. At deer camp I wash the cast iron by pouring the grease out and then wash it in hot soapy water. I'll gently scrub anything that sticks with a 3M scouring pad. I've never hurt the seasoning by doing this.

I bought a couple of large skillets and a couple of large griddles when I was the Scoutmaster of the local Scout troop. They were so rough that I sanded them with a sanding disc before ever using them. After seasoning them they worked great.

[anothernewb]

I have a few older warner and griswold pans I inherited from my parents and grandparents, and a new lodge logic pan.

The lodge pan was very very rough and took forever to get even close to those old pans. I'ts okay, but the old 8 in griswold is the go to egg pan. It's also considerably thicker cast than the others as well. the warner is probably about 2# lighter given the same general diameter.

I've also heard lots of horror stories about washing them in detergents. I guess I've been lucky. I've always washed them out with hot water and (usually) dawn detergent. Never taken a metal scraper or brillow pad to them to them though. regular dish rag has always worked. If there's really stuck food, usually heating the pan back up with a bit of water boiling in it gets the stuck stuff off easy, but I've never had the detergent damage anything as far as I can tell. a quick wipe down with whatever grease/oil I have handy when done and they've gone 20 years since I've had them with zero issues.

[bob208]

got a lodge 10 1/4 skillet for a wedding gift in 1974. still have the skillet not the wife.

[MaryB]

Pour in a cup of hot water as soon as the food is out(pour off excess grease if frying), after cooled enough to handle pour the water out, add some salt and scrub with a paper towel. The salt picks up excess oils and gets stuck bits off. Rinse in hot water, dry, I put it on the burner and blast it on high to make it is dry.

[Loudenboomer]

Been collecting "smoke ring" wagner skillets. Most of mine are about 100 years old. Here are a few I have at the cabin. Old fashioned lye bath took off many Years of build up. If any had rust I used electroless. Hot water cleanup is all that is needed after seasoning. I'd Never throw a pan into a camp fire or use a bunch of salt to clean but that's just me.

[Moonie]

I just received a 6"x8" SS chain-mail scrubber for cast iron, anyone use one of these before?

[Nueces]

I just received a 6"x8" SS chain-mail scrubber for cast iron, anyone use one of these before?

I have one and tried it a few times. I think the Lodge brush does a better job.

[snowwolfe]

Great thread, keep the comments coming.

[Rattlesnake Charlie]

I inherited one that had heavy machining marks in it. Clicked it up with electric drill and circular sanding disks. Works great now. I did not "polish" it. Finest grit used was like 180.

[fiberoptik]

We bought a set from Fingerhut back in the 80s. China made, rough as could be. Only one I didn’t like was the saucepan. Was one heavy sucker!


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[iomskp]

I have a couple of cast iron pans, provided you do your part nothing sticks, I also have a large stainless Tagine that I use the heavy base as a fry pan, if you clean it I think even teflon Bill Clinton would stick to it, however heat some oil in it and let it sit for a while and it's as good as the cast iron pans.

[bob208]

I was at an auction a dirty crusty pan came up got it for $3. got home hit the bottom with wire wheel it is a Wagner.

[jimlj]

I went to wallyworld and bought one of the china 12" fry pans a couple days ago. It was "pre-seasoned" and rough as a rasp as another poster pointed out. I took my 4" angle grinder with a flap disk to it. Just barely started and realized what a big mistake it was to do it without a dust mask. Naturally I had used my last dust mask doing some body work on the truck so back to town for dust masks. WARNING if you don't want to pick black boogers for a week and taste iron, get a dust mask. Also, wear good eye protection. I had safety glasses on but was still getting chunks in my eyes. I have a full face shield so I used that as well as the safety glasses. I spent about a 15 minutes sanding and got it fairly smooth. I would have had to take another 1/16" off the whole inside of the pan to get it completely smooth. My flap disk is fairly fine (I think about 120) and I didn't bother trying to polish it up any more than that. I washed the pan with soap and hot water, put it on the old Coleman stove in the garage and got it good and hot. Removed from the heat and used a small amount Camp Chef cast iron conditioner spread with a paper towel. Back to the heat and left it there till it quit smoking. Repeat the conditioner a couple times and I had a shiny black with a few places of dark brown fry pan. This morning I cooked up some bacon. The bacon didn't stick, but there was some hard crust in the bottom that I assume was the sugar from the bacon cure. A light scraping with a metal spatula and the crust was gone. Threw in a couple eggs and they cooked up great without any sticking. This evening I'm going to spread a bit of the bacon grease in the pan and cook some corn bread.

I had read that you can ruin a pan when trying to smooth them out. I don't believe that to be the case. My cheap pan turned far smoother than any new pans I'm aware of, and what I have tried so far it is non stick.

[DougGuy]

I was at an auction a dirty crusty pan came up got it for $3. got home hit the bottom with wire wheel it is a Wagner.

Bob please don't subject potentially collectible and vintage iron to a wire wheel, there are much better ways to clean one without devaluing it. Collectors will frown on a wire polished pan, most will run like crazy cause they can't resell it, often the wire wheel polishes the surface enough that it might not take seasoning very well, google cleaning cast iron with a lye bath, scroll up this thread and see what a lye bath does they work great.

[Walks]

I just saw one of those chain mail scrubbers in a
LODGE Package at our local RALPH'S ( Kroeger) Supermarket. Kinda freaked me out. Goes against EVERYTHING ABOUT CAST IRON I WAS RAISED ON.

Been eating food cooked in cast iron since before I had teeth. What a GOD AWFUL THING. From Lodge no less.

My Wife fry's Bacon in her 100yr old 10" or 6" WAGNER's at least once a week. Never sticks. Rinse in scalding water, dry on stove, wipe with little bit Crisco oil. She's been doing it that way since she got that old used 6" skillet on her 8th Birthday.
Never had a problem.