Splotchy Seasoning After E—tank

A

AndreaSnell

New member
Hi,

I just started restoring cast iron, some old, some not so old. Found a few pieces at garage sales that I spent almost no money on, so I figured if they are not recoverable, no big deal.

I followed all instructions on this site to a t, using an e—tank to clean them. I started with a 12 inch, not so old Lodge that was rusted badly. It now looks like new, so I tried my luck with the older piece, a pre1960 Wagner. It came out like a dream! The oldest piece (at least I think so) ended up having markings under the crud and even though they are somewhat faded, it looks like it could be a Wapak. The inside is incredibly smooth, I have never seen anything like it. The bottom appears rough, and has an outer heat ring, so I assume it is very old.

When we attempted to season it (using Crisco) the cooking surface appears to have splotches in the coverage — a lot of them. It sort of looks like lots of little burst bubbles. What could I have done wrong? I was so confident this one would turn out as well, after the first two came out great

Any help would be much appreciated

Andrea
 
I can't say for certain without pictures, but what you're describing sounds like too much oil was left on the pan when it was put in the oven for seasoning. It's best to get as much excess off of the pan as possible. Use a cotton rag or old t-shirt cut up into rags to wipe off excess after applying the oil. Wipe it off as if you're trying to dry off a wet pan. It only takes a super-thin coat of oil to get a good coat of seasoning. If you plan to cook with the pan the splotches will blend in and eventually disappear as the pan darkens over time with use.

The bumpy bottom on your possible Wapak sounds like sulfur pitting. It's common on pans from that era. The amount of sulfur in natural gas wasn't regulated back then, and some of it turned into sulfuric acid and attacked the pan. I rarely see pans from that era that dont't have at least a little sulfur pitting.
 
Yes, sorry about the lack of pictures, am new to the forum and could not figure that out last night, just found the info this morning on how to do that...

I assume I have to put it back into the e—tank again? I have no problem with that, it just has to wait it’s turn until the bean pot is done ;—)

Thanks for the fast response!

Andrea
 
You don't have to put it back into the e-tank; like Ty said the blotches will eventually blend in with use.

But if you want to remove the blotches and start over from scratch then yes, back into the tank.

Personally if I were you I would go ahead and start over and chalk it up as a learning experience.
 
or just easy off oven cleaner... that would probably be faster and easier at removing that first coat of seasoning... there's only one coat it should eat it off in a few hours. wash off, and be ready to season again.

also, imgur seems to be the easiest way I've found to share pics. it's free, pretty straightforward to sign up and start using, easy to organize into albums and share links... and doesn't take up any space on Doug D's server.
 
The easy—off would require a trip to the store, the tank is already set up, so that is much easier ... once the lid for the bean pot is done this evening, I will redo the Wapak, thanks for the tip.

Re pictures, I need to pick one of these services still, need to take a look around. I noticed Imgur‘s quality seems a bit low, so I want to check around first...

Andrea
 
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