Heat Damage

[Scott.L]

I bought about 15 pieces of iron last night at the auction that I posted here a few days ago. Got some nice everyday stuff but i missed some heat damage on the wall of one of the chicken fryers. This lead to a discussions with several long time collector about what could be done with such pieces. The focus of the discussion turned to using electrolysis to draw out the red damage areas and return the skillet to normal. One collector was adamant that he has used an E-tank to reverse damage (draw out the red) several times, but I just cant see this as being possible. Has anyone ever had any success in reversing heat damage on CI pieces?

 

[Doug D.]

Actual heat damage results in a change to the molecular structure of the iron. Besides the rosy red or bluish color, the metal becomes scaly. My assumption would be the person claiming electrolysis resolves it does not have actual heat damage. Over the years, I have seen many instances of a brownish-red color being mistaken for heat damage. Perhaps it is heat-related, but is not the classic iron heated-past-cherry-red-in-a-fire heat damage, and the process of electrolysis removes it as it would anything coating the metal. If electrolysis effected a change to actual heat damage, I suspect it would involve erosion of the damaged areas, if it had any effect at all.

 

[Scott.L]

Doug;
those were my thoughts as well. I believe that the molecular changes would create areas on the pieces that would not heat properly making it difficult to cook with depending on location.