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i hate those pans. It’s all personal though. Cleaning them is a bitch. If you have no quarrel they’re great I always liked how it cooked. Just a pain in the balls to clean and season. Ultimately not worth it for me I think mine went to a friend. I had the square one though.

 

Rib eye almost done



then apple pie afterwards...

 

I went thru two batteries, they are recharging. My question is - how smooth should i go? Hard to get the corners and NUK’s n Cranny’s........

 

Does not look very smooth and I wouldn't do that with cordless.

Not a fan of that cutter. Is it cutting metal and I just don't see it being very flat.

Flap disks and random orbitals with 60-80 grit is what I have used.

 

I have a palm sander I use with sanding discs. I can't find the name of them right now, I'll check when I get home - but I have one that I use first that must be closer to 50 grit they're metal stripping or something like that. Those things work great, then I hit it with 100 normal sanding disc.

Some of the tighter corners by the handles you'd have to touch up by hand but otherwise let 'er rip!

I'll check what those discs are called when I get home tonight.

 

Very nice

 

It is all I have, maybe one of my neighbors has an orbital sander, otherwise, my wife will kill me with another trip to Harbor Freight, oh boy......

 

It's smooth enough, too smooth and the seasoning won't stick. Built up seasoning will make it slick.
What ya gonna cook in the nooks and crannys? Hard to flip any egg in that.
Wash it really well, get it completely dry, then get to seasoning it right away.

 

Thanks, make sense. It is a work in progress.

 

cast iron is porous for the seasoning to adhere to. It doesn’t need to be slightly rough like you’re painting steel.

that was actually a BS thing lodge went with for marketing. They used to surface their pans after machining but then made it marketing that “we don’t need to it’s better this way”.

I have a lodge pan that I surfaced myself (several actually) and I can say that they are 50000% better after taking my palm sander to the cooking surface.

 

Looks bumpy and rough to me. Super smooth is ALWAYS better. But could be the picture - season it well, now. Try it. If it works GREAT. If not, back to sanding.

 

I meant it doesn't need to be mirror smooth. My Lodge skillets met my rosebud tip till all the Lodge 'seasoning' turned to dust. Then sanded the bottom some and re-seasoned.

 

Yep, you can always start over.

 

She is getting there.....

 

What grit you using?

Bulk up on 60/80/100/120+ from ebay/Amazon and just keep at it, going to take awhile I reckon.

 

I finally finished this off, super smooth. I could not get the pits out.

 

Shitty casting is shitty casting, but I say season her up real good and that should be a nonsticker.

 

I was using 40 grit from Harbor Freight, then 120 to buff. I found that the Dremel works very well is the areas the orbital sander could not reach.....

 

Shrug. The pits are what the seasoning anchors to anyway. Once you get a good layer of polymerized oil on there it'll be glass-smooth.

 

No, pits that big and deep are just lousy casting with crappy iron alloy. Cast iron does not need visible pits to season properly. Super smooth works best.

That said, this pan should season up a lot better than the rough orange peel texture it started at.