Removing White Enamel? on Fancy Handle Skillet.

[Ben B]

Put this through a week of lye and then about 8 hours of electrolysis and still looks like this. White at rim is very hard and attached. Did they enamel this old of skillets or what is this? Any help on how to finish this up?

 

[SpurgeonH]

Ben, that looks like the enamel on a Dutch Oven I have. All that was left was a band around the top. Lye will dull the enamel. I tried electrolysis, figuring I had nothing to lose. Some of the enamel came off. (If there is rust under the enamel, the enamel falls off as the rust is pulled from the iron. At least I think that is what is happening.)

My big mistake was using too much heat when I seasoned it. I usually take my pans up to 500. When I did that with this pot, big chunks of enamel popped off. I heard a couple of loud pops, opened the oven, and little chunks of enamel were scattered around the bottom of the oven. Ugh. Lesson learned.

https://imgur.com/a/EhXyr

 

[D_Madden]

If you look into the history of Vollrath you'll see that they were putting enamel coatings on in the 1870's... so yes, there were companies that were using enamel that early.

here is a Vollrath #9 that I found that I'm trying to decide what to do with... the enamel is pretty good everywhere except for a few chips in the cooking surface... I kind of like the colors, but it is one heavy pan.
https://imgur.com/a/WJIcj

As far as removing the remaining enamel, I've heard that some people have experimented with lye tanks and some have said that lye will 'eventually' soften the enamel to the point where it can be removed... but that it takes months.