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What happened here
- Thread starter JasonL
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So i'm not sure if it's nickle plated. The bronze color came with the seasoning. The blotches or discoloration in the bottom of the pan were there before seasoning. Its a wagner sidney -0-. Whats happens if its nickle plated?
Kinda looks like this pan from an earlier post called seasoning nightmare.
Kinda looks like this pan from an earlier post called seasoning nightmare.
If I am stepping on toes, let me know. I am not looking to high jack this thread, but wondered if this is similar. And this thread made me think of it. One of my skillets appears to have developed a stain of sorts, and I am not sure how. So again along the same "theme", what happened here? Should I strip it to bare and start over?
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If it was not there before (but after you seasoned it), but is now, it should be removable. Try boiling some water and see if that softens it enough for a spatula to scrape off.
The pans in posts #1 and #4 are not nickel plated, but I have more than one griddle that looks like the one in post #4, whose lighter colored blotches appear to be some kind of erosion. The pan in post #1 still looks like brass transfer to me, but the photo could be misleading.
Can you tell if it's a stain, or the seasoning has actually come off in that area? As Doug D. said, if it's just crusted on something or other, you can just hot water clean it.
What did you season this pan with? I've seen photos of Flaxseed oil seasoning chipping off that looked like this.
Took it out of the lye bath and cleaned it up again. No seasoning this time and it still has a light bronze tint. If it was a bronze transfer would that cause it not to darken when seasoned and will electrolysis otake that off along with the blotches?
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Although I have not had to deal with it personally, I would try electro first. I have read, from an apparently reliable source, that running the piece through a SCO cycle will take the brass transfer off, even though the melting point of brass is a good bit higher. If brass is indeed what it is-- looking at the largest photo, I'm still not absolutely certain.
No flaxseed here, Just Crisco, but this one was done before I started bumping it up to 425 to season, then 500. (Method on this one was 225 then thin coat applied and left on till i bumped it up to 400 or so.) Needless to say I have had a much better outcome with the Doug D. seasoing method described on the main site.
I may have to put it in the oven to get all to boiling temp. I used the boil method on a 7 the other night first to get more familiar with what was going to happen. I like the method, very thorough.
If it is bronze/brass, I'm not sure you'll ever get it all off. Fairly certain your pan will season just fine. The initial seasonings might look blotchy because they're thin enough to see through, once you get more and more layers on there it will darken and even out.
I picked up this pan, well used and seasoned. I had to start over, also wanted to see what's underneath. Well, here you see it, repairs. What can you do? never saw it under the nice seasoning.
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Better than a giant crack I guess. That pan still has 150 years worth of life in it. Some you sell, some you just use until you die..
I have a misguided friend who utilizes all the resources of his machine shop to "clean" pans. Heat treat oven and media blasting. All of his pans start out looking exactly like that...I am going to throw my hat in the ring and say its been mechanically worked or sand/bead blasted.
Update on the pan. So i put it through some electrolysis which seemed to take the bronze tint off. But now the pan looks like it did when i bought it. I'm not sure if its plated, but i am curious about the swirl pattern on the cooking surface. Also the marks in the cooking surface do not want to come off. What should i do?
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The swirl marks (fine scratches) are normal factory polishing artifacts. The discoloration is from something after the fact, not exactly sure what. If there is no textural difference between the light and dark areas (rubbing your finger over it), then it wouldn't appear to be some kind of erosion, but more like a stain. If it were me, my next step would be spraying full strength white vinegar on the inside, let sit 10 minutes, and then scrub with 000 or 0000 steel wool and see if the dark spots start to diminish. Then rinsing thoroughly and repeating, i.e. don't leave it with vinegar on it longer than 10 minutes and several minutes of scrubbing.