Stopping rust before seasoning?

S

Shawn R

Member
Just wondering what everyone does to their CI between final wash (after stripping) and actual seasoning. I can only e-tank 1 piece at a time, but want to have an oven full to season.

What I've been doing is putting towel dried iron in the oven at 200 for 10 to 15 minutes. Turn the oven off, then wipe it down with Crisco and put it back in the oven until it cools.
 
Wash with cold water, towel dry, set the piece in the sun (if it is out) or leave in my garage. Whole home is temp controlled, nice and dry.
 
Jeffrey R. said:
Wash with cold water, towel dry, set the piece in the sun (if it is out) or leave in my garage. Whole home is temp controlled, nice and dry.
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So will the piece not start to rust while it is air drying? Many of mine will flash rust when dried in the oven.
 
The key is to towel dry them. After rinsing a piece with cold water, let it drip dry for a few minutes then using a cotton terry cloth towel carefully wipe all the water off then proceed to gently buff any areas that remain damp looking. Your towel will become filthy, but you can use it again and again on many pieces without the need to wash it. The dried pieces should not flash rust if you keep them indoors.
 
The cold water as others have said is the key. I don't know why, and I'm not a scientist. May have something to do with how quickly hot water evaporates compared to cold, etc....
 
Yep, cold pan seems to be the key. Waffle irons near drive me insane, having to dry out every nook and cranny.
 
Waffle irons should have a coat of seasoning just like an old skillet. Mine air dry or are put in a warm oven. No rust. A little water does not have a chance to get through the seasoning.

Hilditch
 
W. Hilditch said:
Waffle irons should have a coat of seasoning just like an old skillet. Mine air dry or are put in a warm oven. No rust. A little water does not have a chance to get through the seasoning.

Hilditch
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I believe Shawn R. was talking about a freshly stripped piece of CI, not cleaning after use for cooking.

With no seasoning at all, a piece will rust if not dried properly as described in the previous posts.
 
FWIW, I actually let my parts flash rust before seasoning. See below:

http://www.castironcollector.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2168&page=4

NOTE: The flash rust that I do has moisture in it, this is important. After the piece is cleaned and flash rusted, it immediately placed in the oven at 500F. It is required that there is moisture in the rust. The other way (conventional method) is to boil it. Worth a try, if you don't like it, go back to the old method.
 
ShawnE said:
FWIW, I actually let my parts flash rust before seasoning. See below:

http://www.castironcollector.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2168&page=4

NOTE: The flash rust that I do has moisture in it, this is important. After the piece is cleaned and flash rusted, it immediately placed in the oven at 500F. It is required that there is moisture in the rust. The other way (conventional method) is to boil it. Worth a try, if you don't like it, go back to the old method.
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When I clean my traps I boil them in lye the day before I dye them so they flash rust and get clean. Next day they get dyed in rolling hot dye bath then dried and into the hot wax.

Selling cast iron with flash rust will not go over with a lot of folks. I will say this quite a few old cast pieces that I have stripped did have fine rust under the old layers of seasoning.
 
RobM said:
Hrmmm. For farts and giggles, i have to try that :)
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OK, "farts and giggles" ??? If you research gun blueing, you will see how it used to be done. In my mind, that is what we are really trying to do with our cast iron, in order to get that nice black finish.
 
The last two pieces I pulled out of e-tank, scrubbed and towel dried. They are sitting in the kitchen now for 2 days with no seasoning and no rust. Couple more skillets to be tanked then they will all get seasoned at the same time.

Thanks for the help.
 
Jeffrey R. said:
Selling cast iron with flash rust will not go over with a lot of folks. I will say this quite a few old cast pieces that I have stripped did have fine rust under the old layers of seasoning.
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If you read my previous posts, you will not see "red rust" as it is converted to "back rust" by heating. Therefore your customers won't see red rust, but a nice black finish. I don't sell cast iron, but I do understand your concerns.
 
ShawnE said:
OK, "farts and giggles" ??? If you research gun blueing, you will see how it used to be done. In my mind, that is what we are really trying to do with our cast iron, in order to get that nice black finish.
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Wasn't trying to upset anyone. I haven't blued a gun in years, and wasn't really thinking that way. Hot metal dries faster, just pulled a set of waffle paddles out of the boiling water, worked like a treat. Water evaporated in no time.
 
After cleaning I wash my pans with Palmolive or Dawn dishwashing detergent and rinse with hot or cold water. Both of these dish detergents contain monoethanolamine which is a corrosion inhibitor so my pans do not flash rust before drying them in a 200-250 deg. F oven. Easy-Off oven cleaner also contains MEA but I wash them to remove any leftover alkali.
 
A couple of days ago I had to leave just as I finished with my stripping. I put a coat of crisco on the skillet and put it in the oven with no heat and hoped for the best, because I wouldn't be able to finish the seasoning until the next day. The next evening I opened the oven and there was no rusting, so I continued with my seasoning process. So far with one seasoning done it looks great. I think I might be on to something here. Normally I have flash rusting with no matter what I do. I've tried all of the suggestions above and so far this is the only process I've tried that has stopped the flash rusting.
 
I've been doing as others have suggested. After stripping and cleaning, dry with a towel and then "buff" it dry. It has been working fine. The only flash rust that I have got is from the last pan to be stripped to make a full oven load. I didn't give it time to finish air drying, after drying I started the oven and loaded it up. Everything else had sat in the house for at least 12 hours.
 
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