Cast Iron

I have a Griswold #8 that had some areas where the seasoning was failing. I don't remember what I seasoned it with, but it was about 5 years ago so it didn't last long. I blame my wife.

Anyway, I decided to strip and re-season. I used the Easy-Off method -- spray it down and let it sit in a garbage bag. This worked well except for some stubborn spots. I re-sprayed multiple times but the oven cleaner didn't seem to work.

I was going to keep chipping away at it with oven cleaner, but my can ran out so I went to the hardware store. Looking at the ingredients in oven cleaner, I realized that maybe drain cleaner would also work.

I got a big bottle of drain cleaner and headed home. I made sure to get basic (Sodium hydroxide) drain cleaner instead of acid, and got "gel" style so it would stick to the sides of the pan better.

It didn't work. I don't recommend trying it because it's a waste of time. Oven cleaner must have a bunch of other stuff in it, not just lye.

So, I'm going to head back to the store and get more oven cleaner. It's so close to being fully stripped, I'm sure I can finish it off with oven cleaner.

In the past I've used electrolysis, self-cleaning oven method, and oven cleaner. Oven cleaner is my preferred method, even after struggling with a few spots this time.

I was going to try and finish this pan off with the self-cleaning oven method, but the latch on my oven door is broken, so it won't perform the cycle.

Anyway, thanks for reading! I don't have any pictures, but I will take some once I start the seasoning process.