When electro and lye doesn't cut it...

R

RobM

Member
Have an old Findlay griddle that's being a pain to clean. Had it in the lye bath for a week, then into electro. The bottom of it looks great, nice clean metal but the top is being a royal pain. At least 15% of the cooking area still has black seasoning over it. It's back in the electro tank for another go - I really don't want to take mechanical means as the next step.

---------- Post added at 07:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:47 PM ----------

Edit: Took a chance. It's flaking right off with some gentle scraping with a small straight edge.
 
Ah... The trials and tribulations of cast iron.. :)

Glad you got it sorted out.

Funny that I hesitate to use anything metal when cleaning a piece, but then I scrape at them with metal utensils when cooking like that 1/128" layer of seasoning is like a bullet proof vest.
 
It's a later piece, probably 60's or 70's, don't know why i'm worried about it.

I ruined a nice Wagner National skillet with a wire wheel last summer, won't do that again.
 
Of all the iron that I have cleaned, there are a few pieces that give me a hard time but I win. Sometimes a little elbow grease works, along with an ss wire brush the size of a tooth brush. Is your lye strong enough? Mine is so strong that when I come home from a hunt, I put all the pieces in the lye tank that night. In the morning 90% of the pieces are ready for the E-tank. Only rusty iron goes in my E-tank, so all the old black needs to be off. :icon_thumbsup:
 
Jeffrey R. said:
Of all the iron that I have cleaned, there are a few pieces that give me a hard time but I win. Sometimes a little elbow grease works, along with an ss wire brush the size of a tooth brush. Is your lye strong enough? Mine is so strong that when I come home from a hunt, I put all the pieces in the lye tank that night. In the morning 90% of the pieces are ready for the E-tank. Only rusty iron goes in my E-tank, so all the old black needs to be off. :icon_thumbsup:
Click to expand...

Lye should be strong enough, have 2 pounds of lye and about 8 gallons of water. Some pieces clean up easily, but some are just painful. I have to clean the tank anyway, getting pretty grungy, lots of sediment.

The bottom of the griddle cleaned perfectly in the electro tank, the top not so much. There's probably 1/16" or better build up.
 
I also use a thin putty knife that I have rounded the edges off of so that I don't accidentally gouge the piece. This along with a small SS brush seems to work pretty well for me. Add a large barrel of elbow grease for the really stubborn ones. :)
 
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