Can this be re-finished?

[Charles_Cox]

I picked up this skillet at a garage sale this morning. At $35 I may have paid too much, but after seeing what the owner did I have to try and save it. Does this look like it will be able to be saved? The guy told me he ground it down yesterday because it looked bad.

 

[Doug D.]

Not much to be done about it now. At least it's only the inside. Seasoning will cover the marks in time, but you'll know they're there. Any chance of a return? Probably not.

 

[CraigA.]

As hard as I've tried, I never have been able to un-damage iron.

 

[Bruce Lockhart]

That is just a cryin' shame. If you can't get your money back, you might try 0000 steel wool and about two tons of elbow grease. (don't forget protective gloves). It'll take a while, but you don't have anything to lose except your time. Good Luck!

 

[Scott J.]

It might be on this site somewhere but I haven't found it.... What methods were used at the factories to smooth the inside surfaces?

 

[Doug D.]

Specialized machinery. A pan would be affixed to a motorized spinning mounting, while a grindstone, shaped to fit the contours of the pan (think where sidewall meets cooking surface), and spinning in the opposite direction would be moved across the surface of the pan by an operator.

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[Scott J.]

Thanks. I figured the info was here somewhere.

It would be difficult to duplicate that at home.

 

[Doug D.]

Not to mention dangerous.

 

[KevinB]

I've never tried it on a cast iron pan, but you might be able to get some of worst of it out with a felt polishing/buffing wheel or bob, chucked to a drill, and a mild abrasive like automotive rubbing compound. Wear googles. You really don't want it in your eyes!

 

[SeanD]

I have a #12 Wapak that was pitted real bad, but I bought it anyways. After a few years of cooking, its almost filled in with seasoning. Took about 5 years, but its one of my favorite skillets now.

 

[RJ Ruchti]

Buffing compounds used to polish gun barrels would take most if not all of it out. When converting old military rifles to sporters the barrels are draw filed down a lot of times to reduce the weight, then buffed to remove the file marks and polished before bluing. Brownell's Inc. has it in stock.

 

[D George]

I would think a orbital sander with 1000 grit to start, then go down to 60 micron for the inside bottom. The sides done by hand though.

 

[RLMuse]

It might be on this site somewhere but I haven't found it.... What methods were used at the factories to smooth the inside surfaces?

I saw an old film from about the 20-30s.
They used a machine that was kind of a combination of a lathe and a grinder. The skillet would be put in a clamp and spun. Then a series of rotating grinding stones (finer and finer) would grind the bottom and sides smooth.

 

[Doug D.]

As described in post #6 above.

 

[Scott J.]

Any chance that movie is on youtube?

 

[Stella Waldvogel]

He destroyed the collector value, but if you can get seasoning to stick to it, it's still a good pan.
It is never, EVER necessary to do what he did. Even a rough Lodge with smooth out adequately with use.

Like SeanD, one of my pans is pitted. Not the whole cooking surface, but one little spot on the edge has rust pitting - but the seasoning hasn't filled it in. Still, I don't even notice it when I'm cooking, nothing hangs there. That rust pitting, and the sulfur pitting on the outside bottom, just give it character. It's a Favorite Piqua Ware smiley no. 7, and if it wasn't for the rust pitting, I probably wouldn't have been able to afford it. I love that pan, warts and all. I even found a picture of the foundry workers. Conditions must have been awful - they even had kids working there. But these guys fought for some of the things we take for granted now.

As long as seasoning sticks to it, I wouldn't monkey with it any further. Once it's seasoned well, I don't think it will be noticeable. This trend of people grinding skillets unnecessarily is just one more layer of history, like rust pitting and sulphur pitting.