Not quite the same color....now what?

J

JosephDurham

Member
Here is 1 of 2 lodge unseasoned muffin pans that I bought. (I don't have a lye bath). So I've been cleaning it with hot water, and then sticking it in the oven at 350 for a hour and then putting oil on it. But, the coloring isn't changing one bit. Here it is with a kettle that I restored and it looks beautiful. But the muffin pan isn't looking any different.



Joseph
 
Maybe there's already a coating of something on it... No lye bath? You can use oven cleaner, just be sure it contains sodium hydroxide - usually the yellow cap stuff. Put it in a garbage bag, spray it down liberally and let it sit.
 
The tag even said unseasoned so I don't quite know what else would be on it.

---------- Post added at 08:34 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:32 PM ----------

And I don't have an e tank to do anything with it. I've heard a lot of people speak ill of using the oven cleaner, that's the only thing about that.

Joseph
 
JosephDurham said:
The tag even said unseasoned so I don't quite know what else would be on it.

---------- Post added at 08:34 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:32 PM ----------

And I don't have an e tank to do anything with it. I've heard a lot of people speak ill of using the oven cleaner, that's the only thing about that.

Joseph
Click to expand...

The oven cleaner that we are talking about is lye. The same sodium hydroxide that is in our lye tanks, except in a spray can.

I suppose there is a slight possibility that somebody lacquered or varnished it, god forbid.
 
Only one way to find out I guess, hit it with oven cleaner for a day and see what happens. It's safe, I started out using it...

Before you seasoned, did it feel like bare metal?
 
Yes it did feel bare. Very smooth.
Here is a picture of the bottom:



---------- Post added at 08:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:52 PM ----------

And I've tried seasoning it probably 8-10 times this far. Still no change. The price tag that was placed in one of the muffin sections did finally come off.
 
Clean bare iron is gray, not black. The kettle in the photo is certainly not clean bare iron, so I'm not sure what the expectation is of the color of the gem pan. Just baking on oil at 350° isn't really going to carbonize anything to cause it to turn appreciably darker.
 
I cleaned some pieces last week, THIS is one layer of Crisco at 450F. on bare iron for an hour or so. (Not including the foreign piece)

Turn up the heat.
 
Well the pan on the left is unseasoned, the one on the right is the one I've been working on. It was in the oven at 450 for one hour. Thoughts??

Joseph

---------- Post added at 05:40 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:40 PM ----------

Image
 
It is hard to believe they were originally coated with just canola. I'm leaning toward what Dan feared. "I suppose there is a slight possibility that somebody lacquered or varnished it, god forbid." I'd strip both and start again after trying lacquer thinner and paint remover on the untouched one. It appears the crisco you added turned dark but he undercoat stayed brown.

Hilditch
 
Do you think that the oven cleaner would do the trick?

---------- Post added at 06:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:55 PM ----------
Doug D. said:
What is it you find amiss with the color? I think that's what needs to be clarified.
Click to expand...


Well, these were my first two pieces of older cast iron and so I'm trying to clean them up right. I using to my cast iron already have the dark black sheen, not brown and certainly not grey.

---------- Post added at 06:59 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:56 PM ----------

And just a thought, if someone had put varnish or a lacquer on them, would you not smell the fumes during baking??? I'm pretty hesitant to do the other gem pan yet.
 
As I noted earlier, clean bare iron is gray. Baking on layers of oil manually typically results in a bronze caste that darkens over time with repeated usage. Artificial darkening can be achieved by temps high enough to carbonize components in the oil or organic residues from cooking. 350 or 450°F usually isn't hot enough to do that with just manually applied oil, even if you do multiple coats. 500-550 is more like what you need. But remember the color needn't really be your goal if you're going to be using it; it will come with time. I personally never waste time, electricity, or oil just in the name of cosmetic appearance.
 
The left one has tags like it's new and unused. If that's the case, that color is also not unusual, even if it has some kind of factory pre-seasoning on it.
 
JosephDurham said:
And that's exactly how the one on the right was until I started seasoning it.

Thank you for all your help guys. I do appreciate it.
Click to expand...
As others have pointed out, there really is nothing *wrong* with it. I have a couple of pans that have that same dark bronze color, and they cook just fine. May be the exact composition of the iron, may be a bit of flash rust that I failed to clean off on the first seasoning, may be that I didn't get it hot enough when seasoning.

I seriously doubt that anybody lacquered them... that was just a thought, and a remote possibility. Yeah, I would think that it would smell, maybe even blister under the heat... but that's just my guess.
 
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