Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Found a Wagner ware skillet.

Put it in an electric oven and run the self cleaning cycle, clean the rust off with water and scotch pad, reseason.

I spoke to a couple that recondition cast iron as a side gig at a recent show .
To clean use lye is what she said.
It's much cheaper without the easyoff.. or so she said...
But it sounds like you are already to the recondition/seasoning step...

Bake cornbread in it

Clean it up and scrub the sheet out of it as posted
previously. When you think it's clean, clean it again
as previously posted.
You don't need any special potion or oils.
Use it. Use it some more. Use it some more.
Etc. etc. etc. etc.
Don't watch any of the yuppie BS videos on yoofloob.
You'll end up buying some useless crap you don't need.
Just use it. "Seasoning " and wooden utensils only is
a yuppie yoofloob myth. I guarantee my granny used
the least expensive metal spatula and metal spoons
she could get, and didn't buy any special "seasoning "
potions and wouldn't have even if she'd have had the
money. I just got through frying some taters and onions
in my #8 and I used a holey stainless spoon and it
was " seasoned " by using it

Good Luck

I have half a dozen in my kitchen and a few in my travel trailer. I'd wager that my spatula is as sharp as some knives....you are not going to hurt the pan.

I have a few Lodge cast iron pans. They are made in America. I will not buy anything Chinese for this stuff . Wife bought some ceramic bowls and two of them are rusting. No doubt they have steel in them, and maybe even lead. I only cook with cast iron. A real quick note: Old timers that cooked with aluminum have high aluminum in their bodies and is likely related to Altimers disease , or what I call old timers disease, so aluminum is no good but your body need iron.

I have done ALL that type of cleaning routines...…., and they are all too time consuming,and sometimes bad for your health.


Go to a farm store/hardware store and get a container of 100% lye.
Get a large enough plastic container w/lid.

Mix lye/water, drop pan in solution, wait 2 weeks.

Done, usually, solution will be black, but still usable, if you have other pans.

Rinse w/vinegar and water solution, then final rinse w/water.

It will look freshly cast!

However it will rust very quickly, because all foreign material is gone.
So you will have to wipe out the thin rust film, and coat w/oil immediately.
I use grapeseed oil, put light coating on everything, then wipe it all off!

Put in oven at 350 degrees/2 hrs.

Repeat 3x's

I found a cast iron grill that was rusty and had that black stuff that comes after years of use.

I went to a friends valve shop and used his bead blaster to get it brand new looking.

Got home and warmed it up,put some oil on it then did a rag wash,then did it again.

Don't really use it in the house but it works good for cooking on the pit.

And this is a great tool for cleaning:

https://www.amazon.com/Amagabeli-Stainless-Chainmail-Scrubber-Pre-Seasoned/dp/B01A51S9Y2

How much lye

2 ounces??
20 ounces??
2 lbs ??

Per what amount of water?

I want to try the electrolysis method. Mostly for schits and giggles, but I have a couple pieces that are hard caked pretty heavily and should be good candidates.

I have a beer keg I use to boil peanuts and a battery charger. Sodium carbonate can’t be much money.

What the hell. Sounds better than dunking it in sodium hydroxide or some schit.

If it's bare, shiny metal, all you need to do is wash it in HOT water (no soap, lye or any other chemicals), dry it immediately, then coat it well with oil. I have begun using coconut oil and it works great. Once its oiled up, put it in the oven on as high a temp as it will go and leave it there for an hour or two. Take it out, wipe down with paper towels and re-oil, then back in the oven. After a couple more hours shut the oven off and let it cool on it's own. Once cool wipe it off with paper towels again and it should be ready to use. If the cooking surface needs a little more seasoning, put it on the stove top and get it hot. Put more coconut oil in it and coat the inside well. Leave it on the stove until it starts smoking and leave it there for 10-15 minutes (if you can do this outside it's preferable due to the smoke). The surface should be dark grey. Wipe it out again with paper towels and use. Lot's of way to skin this cat, but plenty of heat and coconut oil works best for me.

Slumlord sir,
I did not measure, probably about 2cup in 3/4
full 5gal. Plastic bucket.

You prolly know that LYE is pretty caustic

Wear eye protection and long rubber gloves 🧤

All you need is patience to let the solution work👍

A dear friend, now deceased was an iron guru. He used farm grade molasses mixed with water to clean iron. Sorry, don’t know the ratio.

Flax oil is highly recommended for seasoning iron, all other oils will gum up.

I use the lye soak first to get the black caked on stuff first, then the electrolysis method for the rust.

The lye does nothing for rust.

This is good.

Never had any iron crack using this method? I personally wouldn’t use this method on a treasured heirloom or an expensive piece of iron.

If it’s got rust, either heat it up in a fire or use electrolysis on it. The first method, just make sure it heats up and cools off SLOWLY. The second can be done with a water bath (sodium carbonate?) and a battery charger, youtube will show you how. It’s real simple...

Crusted crud from cooking is just grease protein, saturate with easyoff oven cleaner(lye) and put it in a black garbage bag and let it set in the hot sun for a spell then rinse with a water hose... repeat as necessary.

All oil will gum up if you use too much.
Grapeseed oil has a very high smoke temp.

True about lye doing nothing about rust,
however rust indicates that the lye has removed all the contaminated layers that were present.

Avocado oil does too, works well for me.