this post was submitted on 09 Mar 2026
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Cast Iron

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I'm back again, this time with a friend's pan that he inherited from his grandmother. He entrusted this to me to remove the decades of use, to put it back into service after sitting on a shelf for years. This took four rounds of Easy Off in a plastic bag to remove the gunk, and then three rounds of seasoning with canola oil.

restored and seasoned Wagner pan, top side

restored and seasoned Wagner pan, bottom side

The before pics:

top side before restoration

bottom side before restoration

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[–] ZombieCyborgFromOuterSpace@piefed.ca 6 points 22 hours ago (2 children)

Essentially you scrub it down with steel wool to remove any rust.

Then, you rub it down with a really thin coat of oil, preferably flax seed oil.

Then you stick it in the oven at 500F for an hour, then turn off the oven with the pan still inside. Let it all cool down over time.

Then repeat the oiling and heating process a couple more times.

[–] athairmor@lemmy.world 4 points 18 hours ago

Flax seed oil is a waste of money for this. Any oil with a reasonably high smoke point works.

[–] Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 7 points 22 hours ago

I find 500 too high for flax, but every oven is different. 425 works for me.