RESTORING CAST IRON COOKWARE - part 1
How often do you find that piece you have
been lookinq for for so long and it is in
beautiful, clean, and ready to use condition?
Not very often. So how do you
go about restoring iron cookware to its
original condition?
Assuming that you have a piece that is
worthy of restoring, i.e. it is not badly
cracked, or severely pitted from rust, here
is one way to go about it. Every collector
and dealer has his own way of restoring
cast iron so you might want to try other
ways you have heard about than what is
outlined here.
The first thing you wvll want to do is to
remove all the grease and carbon that has
built up over many years of use and abuse.
Note: You may not want to remove the old
grease and carbon if you consider it as a
patina which enhances the old appearance of
the piece. It may even have a clean
coating on it from having been well used and
cared for. You can leave this alone and go
no further with the restoration of the
piece or proceed with the following.
Lye, in the form of crystals available from
many supermarkets or chemical supply houses,
will remove grease from cast iron cookware
without being harmful to your health should
you want to cook in the pan after it is restored,
Easy-Off or other brands of lye-
based oven cleaners will also work well.
Lye will not eat away at the cast iron even
if the piece is left soaking in it for many
months, but it will eat away at your skin.
CAUTION: Lye is very caustic and can cause
severe burns to the skin. Avoid contact;
wear rubber gloves, eye protection and use
whatever other precautions you deem neces¬
sary. When handled properly and carefully
lye is not going to harm you or your pan.
Mix the lye solution in a metal or plastic
container. A good quality plastic garbage
can with lid works well but do not fill it
over half full with water so as to be sure
it does not split apart. The stronger the
solution the faster the cleaning action.
Also, the hotter the lye bath, the faster
the cleaning action. If you have a "hot
tank" you can clean lots of cast iron in
a short time. DO NOT use a hot solution
in a plastic container which would soften
and weaken it possibly causing it to
split. 125-175 degrees works well in a hot
tank. Most people will use the safer cold
bath.
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Mix up your lye solution using about two
pounds of lye crystals in 5-10 gallons of
water. Pour the lye into the water, not
the opposite. A large container is nice
because you can fit almost any size piece
you are likely to encounter. Carefully
place the pieces you want to clean into
the lye bath being careful not to splash
the lye on you or surrounding surfaces.
The length of time the piece must stay in
the lye will vary from several hours to
several weeks depending on the amount of
crud on the pan, the temperature of the
lye, and how hard the grease is baked on.
When baked on hard over years of use the
grease will turn to almost pure carbon and
the lye bath, unless fairly hot, will have
little effect on removing the carbon. Some
hand scraping with a screwdriver, chisel or
other scraping tool will help in carbon
removal. There are a few other ways to
remove the carbon that I will cover below.
When removing the piece from the lye you
can use rubber gloves or fish for the piece
using a hook fashioned from a coathanger.
Rinse the piece off under running water
using a stiff brush to help in removing the
softened grease, A mechanics parts washing
brush from auto supply stores works
well, is inexpensive and lasts a long time.
If you rinse under hot water the piece will
air-dry. If not, you might want to dry the
piece to preclude further rusting.
Another grease removal method is to burn
the piece in a fire. Get it evenly cherry
red but no hotter. If allowed to get bright
orange an oxide scale will form on the piece
which is very hard to remove. The piece can
also warp or crack from excessive heat. It is best
to leave this method for pieces with little
value.
A self-cleaning oven works wonders on removing
the baked on grease- Put the piece in
the oven next time you clean the oven. You
may have to increase the cleaning time by
a half hour or so, but the piece should
come out with only a light coating of ash
which can easily be rinsed away in water.
Caution: A lot of acrid smoke can be given
off by this process. Keep an eye on the
process and vent the room if necessary.
Cast aluminum cookware can be degreased by
this method also. Remove any wood or plastic
handles or parts before cleaning in oven.
Do not put aluminum,or wood handles,in the
lye bath as both will be ruined.
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