Cast iron heresy

[Duer 157099]

I know I know, but I'll ask anyway.

I have this one cast iron grill pan, with the ridges, and it's been rusting now for too long, and the thought of manually sanding the rust away has prevented me from doing anything with it for too long, and I want to get all my pans back into shape. I've had some outstandingly seasoned pans that suddenly started to flake the black coating off, and I wonder if those pans had minute amounts of rust underneath that just took a long time to finally destroy the wonderful topside by making it flake off.

So, next time, ZERO tolerance for rust.

If I soak the pan in vinegar... I know it will remove the rust, and I'm certain it will also pit the iron, but if I then proceed to season it very well, will that compensate for the pitting damage? I'm thinking that the chemical (acid) treatment will be more thorough than sanding, because I'll be able to remove any rust from any pits that could eventually come back with a vengence.

I've checked the price to have it sand blasted, and while it's only $20, that's pretty much the price for a new one, too.

So -- vinegar, when all else fails?

[mtnester]

1. This is what I found (if it is light rust, self cleaning oven or high heat should take it off)..

From a well informed poster on a forum:


Fine-grain sandpaper...use the wet/dry sandpaper you get in craft shops. Fine steel wool works as well. For really heavy rust, a good 24 hour soak in Coca Cola Classic before sanding it really eats the stuff away without damaging the iron. Of course, the easiest way is to take the iron out to the workshop and use the wire wheel to remove the rust.

[NMDemDist2]

2. wire wheel on the electric drill is what I used too on a rusty pan

worked great and now the pan is great

[yy4me]

3. A lot of cast iron fans will disagree with me on this but here goes!

If your pan is rusty, a good brushing with a wire brush should remove most of the rust, then a good scrub with Brillo. Overnight in a coke bath will work but I'd keep an eye on it after a few hours.

The ugly, encrusted old pans need to have a good, down to the metal, start over cleaning. I am one of a 3rd generation of cast iron users and can remember well my mom and grandmother taking one of their pans every few years, throwing it in the kitchen fire to get the "crud" off and then start the re-seasoning process.

It is my opinion that the "seasoning" thing can go just so far. A pan that looks like it was buried in the back yard and encrusted with mud is not something I care to cook with or look at. When I get a new--OLD--pan, I do the old fireplace thing, or self cleaning over for a short time. The pan is now, to me, free of other folks stuff and ready for me to put my touch on it. I have been known to use Brillo on the pan if it is too bad. Usually a good soaking in hot water will clean everything off that I have caused to stick on the pans. There is no way I will just wipe a dirty pan and put it away.

My old pans are smooth as glass inside, nice and black, and food does not stick, I'm proud of the
way they look and I've done all the cast iron no-no's.

Scrub away, you really can't hurt these things with a good cleaning. If the iron is pitted, I'm not sure anything short of sandblasting, wire wheel and wet and dry sandpaper on a electric drill pad will help.

[Stinky The Clown]

4. I'd wire brush it.

Chuck up a wire brush in an electric drill and have at it. You're not going to do any damage that a fresh seasoning won't overcome. I completely agree with what yy4me said. Maintaining an old seasoning can be taken too far and the underlying pans are pretty much indestructible.

[Warpy]

5. Call around to metal shops

and find one that will sandblast the rust off that sucker. The charge shouldn't be very high. Then reseason it properly and never let it get anywhere near anything besides a salt scrubbing followed by a water rinse and drying on the stove.

After all, think of the amount of time it will take you to sand that rust off yourself and what your hourly wage is. That $20 is going to look a lot cheaper.

I'm always more in favor of rescuing an old pan than in tossing it and buying new. The vinegar treatment only removes surface rust. Been there, done that on cars in New England. The rust always popped through again.

[Duer 157099]

7. So the vinegar won't thoroughly de-rust it?

I was thinking that it would. Hmmm.

[Warpy]

8. No, nothing chemical will

As somebody who drove a series of $100 tuna wagons in New England and kept them patched enough to be legal, I can tell you that there is no chemical treatment for rust that exists that will remove or neutralize 100% of it.

The local barter system supplied a sand blaster and bag of beads. That worked.

[Duer 157099]

6. Thanks for the replys -- here's the thing though:

Since it's a grill pan, it has all those ridges, and what I'm really wanting to avoid is the manual technique (even with power tools) because of all those ridges. I'm sure I'd miss one tiny littly itty crevice and then rust would form there and in a year or two, I'd be starting over.

That's why I'm thinking the vinegar route -- it will reach every surface available. I'm just worried that if it pits the metal, it might be more difficult to season correctly, but then, maybe not, maybe the fat/carbon just fills all the pits and no problem?

[Gormy Cuss]

9. Steel wool will get into all those ridges.

I've cleaned up rusty cast iron with Brillo pads. The soap seems to help but it can't stay in contact with the cast iron for long before it will become an unwanted "flavor." That said, scrubbing the piece and rinsing it immediately works wonders.

Vinegar, I don't know about for this application.

[NMDemDist2]

10. that's why sandblasting is the answer

it will season back up fine

[Stinky The Clown]

11. The seasoning will eventually fill all the pits.

The seasoning is, after all, carbonized proteins.

[Arkansas Granny]

12. I've never done this to my cast iron, but I've heard a lot of old timers

talk about building a fire in the back yard, burying the skillet in the coals and burning off the years of built up grease. Then they would season it the way you would a brand new one. I suppose this would mimic putting it in a self cleaning oven.

[yy4me]

16. Same goes for your using your fireplace in the house. Doesn't

take long and the pans look like (old) new. Ready to clean with a quick wash and re-season. If you do the self-cleaning oven thing, make sure you have a vent because it will smoke up your house. It doesn't take a very long cycle. An hour should do it.

[The Blue Flower]

13. Kind of funny coincidence

Last week I accidentally left my skillet on the stove, on a heated burner, and it was there for maybe 30 minutes on a very hot burner. When I realized what I'd done and took it off the heat, all kinds of gunk had been burned off the surface and it cleaned up really nicely.

[supernova]

14. Did you let it smoke?

[The Blue Flower]

15. The smell of smoke is what tipped me off

that the burner had been left on. So yes.