Help identifying change of color

[Steven K]

Hello, I am somewhat new to CI collecting and cooking, so I appreciate the help.

One of the pieces I recently acquired is this Wagner Ware Sidney O (1109) - acquired for $10 at a local antique store. It was in decent shape, but I stripped it down to bare metal in an electrolysis tank (as I do with all of my pieces). I usually then scrub them with steel wool, and then scrub them down again with Bar Keepers Friend, before re-seasoning. This has worked very well, and without incident, for the 20+ pieces that I've done up to this point. However, with this particular piece, within about 30 seconds of rinsing off the BKF, the color of the cooking surface changed to a copper-like coloring. The color on the bottom of the pan didn't change, nor did the handle.

So, I am curious as to whether or not anyone else has experienced this type of behavior, or might be able to shed some light on it. I has been through 3 different seasonings to this point (with Crisco) and while the copper color has dulled to a small degree, it's still fairly pronounced. The cooking surface doesn't appear to be taking a seasoning, although I have noticed this about a few other oval-shaped griddles that I have as well.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. My apologies for the poor picture quality.

 

[DaleR]

Based on your description, (changed color soon after rinsing) it appears to be flash rusting. The light rust usually wipes off when applying your initial coat of preferred seasoning oil and then removing the excess in preparation of seasoning. Did you apply oil and then wipe the piece down? If flash rusting, that should have removed it.

 

[Steven K]

Thanks for the response, Dale -

My initial thought was that it was flash rusting as well, but usually the flash rusting is removed with the initial seasoning. This was very strange - I scrubbed it several times with steel wool without any color change - it was only after the Bar Keepers Friend was rinsed off that the color change happened - and it happened within a matter of seconds. The cooking surface is completely smooth without any pitting, left over crud, etc... and the color is still there, even after several seasonings. Does this still sound like flash rust? Honestly, I'm at a loss -

I have three oval-shaped griddles (not sure if there is a different name for them, but I did identify one of them as an older Lodge with the letters "OS" written underneath which, after further research, I believe stands for "Oval Serving". I also have a newer Wagner's Original oval griddle as well (rookie mistake picking up that piece )

The cooking surfaces on all three pieces appear to have been machined to such a degree that it's difficult for any seasoning to adhere to them. I've tried Crisco and Flaxseed Oil, but no patina has developed on the cooking surface of any of them (unlike every other piece I've seasoned).

Thanks!

 

[Doug D.]

I'm not sure what the copper color is in this case, but it doesn't look like flash rust to me. Flash rust looks and feels like a flat, thin, dusty coating of rust. The brownish color many pans have after an initial seasoning I attribute to the Crisco browning at the high heat at which it is usually being applied.

On griddles, I don't really expect to develop a black, heavy patina of seasoning that I do on skillets. Griddles' highly polished surfaces I think was with an eye towards being used for things like pancakes which require a decent amount of oil when cooking.

 

[Steven K]

Thank you Doug!

I haven't cooked on this particular piece yet, but I'm going to cook some pancakes on it this weekend.

 

[CPorter]

I have several pieces with that same distinct coloration, they were the first pieces I did in my electo tank. I believe that I may have not been rinsing the arm and hammer off good enough because now after the electro tank my iron gets a good scrubbing with Dawn dish soap followed by thorough rinsing in water. I have not seen this color on any pieces since I started doing this.