UPDATE! Best Way To Rehab/Season an Iron Pot

Blackhawk · Apr 7, 2016

SEE UPDATES STARTING AT POST 18. I was cleaning out a garage at my Dad's and found an iron pot that looks like it would be ideal for a fish fry pot on the outdoor burner. Looks like this (without the lid):

View attachment 62544

Problem is, it's pretty rusty. I've cleaned off the scale with a wire brush on an air tool but it still seems to have rust and pits. Don't know if I should continue working until I get a smooth surface (thinking of a circular sander with a flex backer on the disk) or just continuing as-is. To season it i'm told to coat it with something like Crisco and bake it at 350 upside down in an oven for about an hour. Anybody with thoughts on this?

DAVE_M · Apr 7, 2016

That my friend is a Dutch Oven.

Baking it with Vegetable Oil is the right thing to do.

MALIBU12 · Apr 7, 2016

Vegetable Oil or Bacon grease . I have used bacon grease on a griswold skillet and NOTHING sticks .

Read this >>> http://www.castironcollector.com/seasoning.php

AK shooter · Apr 7, 2016

https://www.lodgemfg.com/use-and-care/seasoned-cast-iron-use-and-care.asp

TheMole68 · Apr 7, 2016

Make it as clean as you can by hand. Put it in your oven on the self cleaning setting, dry. When the wife is away is best given that it's probably going to stink. After its cycled and cooled lather it in your high temperature fat of choice, Crisco etc, then bake at 350 upside down. The self cleaning cycle will get it hot enough to get all the gunk and rust worked off.

Whitebread · Apr 7, 2016

TheMole68 said:
Make it as clean as you can by hand. Put it in your oven on the self cleaning setting, dry. When the wife is away is best given that it's probably going to stink. After its cycled and cooled lather it in your high temperature fat of choice, Crisco etc, then bake at 350 upside down. The self cleaning cycle will get it hot enough to get all the gunk and rust worked off.

^ This bar none easiest way to do it. Only thing is once you have run the self clean you have a clean oven, so I re-seaon on my gas grill.

Akajun · Apr 7, 2016

If you want, get it too me, I can bead blast it for you. Wont take but 5-10 minutes. Then you can take it home and re season.

TheMole68 · Apr 7, 2016

Whitebread said:
^ This bar none easiest way to do it. Only thing is once you have run the self clean you have a clean oven, so I re-seaon on my gas grill.

Gas grill to re-season makes a lot of sense.

Blackhawk · Apr 7, 2016

Thanks Akajun, but just a little too far to travel. I'm just going to work on it some more with a wire wheel and sanding disks and then season per the link that Malibu12 provided. Thanks to all.....

jmcrawf1 · Apr 7, 2016

The easiest way to remove the rust is to build a fire in the back yard and throw the pot in the fire. The rust will be gone after about an hour and the pot will look like new. It'll be a gray-ish color. From there, season like normal.

Blue Diamond · Apr 7, 2016

That is how we did it but when the pot/pan got cherry red we would throw in the Crisco and wipe it down good. Just remember once it is seasoned try very hard not to use soap when u wash it. Just water and a rag.

jmcrawf1 said:
The easiest way to remove the rust is to build a fire in the back yard and throw the pot in the fire. The rust will be gone after about an hour and the pot will look like new. It'll be a gray-ish color. From there, season like normal.

Magdump · Apr 7, 2016

Akajun said:
If you want, get it too me, I can bead blast it for you. Wont take but 5-10 minutes. Then you can take it home and re season.

This^^^^^^

And you're awesome for offering that. I've brought back to life a total of 3 skillets found in a barn doing the same thing. They're Erie

barbarossa · Apr 7, 2016

GunRelated · Apr 8, 2016

jmcrawf1 said:
The easiest way to remove the rust is to build a fire in the back yard and throw the pot in the fire. The rust will be gone after about an hour and the pot will look like new. It'll be a gray-ish color. From there, season like normal.

This works best.

MALIBU12 · Apr 8, 2016

jmcrawf1 said:
The easiest way to remove the rust is to build a fire in the back yard and throw the pot in the fire. The rust will be gone after about an hour and the pot will look like new. It'll be a gray-ish color. From there, season like normal.

You can also warp them that way . Ask me how i know . :hs:

Ellis1958 · Apr 8, 2016

I'd take up Akajun's offer of bead blasting. Then fire up the range on self cleaning and season with old school lard. Do make sure the spousal unit is away as it will smoke and stink. It's my method.

Anybody try seasoning with say a crawfish burner or something similar?

There is a cast iron skillet that is in daily use at my house. It was handed down to me from my mother when I moved out of the house in 1980. It's at least 50 years old and most probably older than that. Still whips up two eggs over easy as well as my mother did 35 years ago.

themcfarland · Apr 10, 2016

http://curtcorwin.blogspot.com/2012/03/how-to-clean-cast-iron-cookware-with.html this also works for the real bad ones.

Blackhawk · Apr 28, 2016

Update on Rehabing an Iron Pot

After looking thru all the comments I decided to attempt my own rehab of this pretty-far-gone pot. I regret that I didn't take any original photos before starting. First I took a wire wheel on an air powered die grinder and worked it over. Next I used an orbital sander with 60 grit sandpaper, but this didn't get the rust out of the pits, and the black stuff you can see is actually burned-on grease. Here's what it looked like at this point.

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Blackhawk · Apr 28, 2016

Because the pits were so deep I decided to try electrolysis (and also because I had never done anything like this before and just wanted to see if it worked). I started with a cutoff plastic drum, two lawnmower blades connected to the positive connection of a power supply, a piece of conduit to suspend the pot from (and for the negative connection), sodium carbonate from Walmart at the rate of one tablespoon per gallon of water as the conductive solution, and an old 12 volt power supply, probably 3-4 amps. I understand that a larger power supply would make the project go much faster. Here's the setup:

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Blackhawk · Apr 28, 2016

After 24 hours I'm starting to see some change. The solution is no longer clear, I can see bubbles from the electrical activity, and the pot is starting to clean up. Looks like it may take a while before it gets to the point where I can season it. I'm going to do the seasoning in the BBQ pit.

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UPDATE! Best Way To Rehab/Season an Iron Pot

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