Can a pan be surfaced or ground?

I know ci is very hard but can it be sanded down or polished?

---------- Post added at 01:14 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:11 AM ----------

Somewhat related, actually this is why I asked the above question, I love Conecuh sausage and eggs. If I cook my eggs first, they'll slide around the pan like nothing, but if i cook sausage first, they stick to the pan. I know this doesn't make much sense, and after a hot water bath and a lite coat of oil, the pan is back to "sliding egg" status.

Figure polishing the surface would stop the sausage from grabbing anything protruding on the microscopic level? It's an old unmarked Lodge #8 that I use pretty much daily and really seems smooth to the touch.

It's probably related to how much sugar is in the sausage. Almost every day I fry a few slices of bacon and then scramble eggs in the leftover fat. If the bacon has a good bit of added sugar, the eggs tend to stick a lot, just because the sugar grabs ahold of the pan and then ahold of the eggs. If I get bacon without a lot of sugar, the eggs don't stick the slightest bit. Same method, same pan, only difference is the specific bacon.

I saw the result of grinding the cooking surface of a Griswold No.4 skillet using a stone cup. It came out perfectly smooth and great looking. I don't know how you'd deal with the transition from flat bottom to the sides where it curves. Cast iron cuts, files, and machines very nicely.

John E said:

It's probably related to how much sugar is in the sausage. Almost every day I fry a few slices of bacon and then scramble eggs in the leftover fat. If the bacon has a good bit of added sugar, the eggs tend to stick a lot, just because the sugar grabs ahold of the pan and then ahold of the eggs. If I get bacon without a lot of sugar, the eggs don't stick the slightest bit. Same method, same pan, only difference is the specific bacon.

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And this is why the bacon gets cooked in the #10, the hashbrowns get done in the #8 and the eggs get done in either the #6 (me and wife eating) or the #3 (just me eating). It's just a matter of getting the timing down, so everything is done at the same time. Only pan that ever needs scrubbing is the one with the bacon due to the carmelization of the sugars.

---------- Post added at 02:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:47 PM ----------

Steve Stephens said:

I saw the result of grinding the cooking surface of a Griswold No.4 skillet using a stone cup. It came out perfectly smooth and great looking. I don't know how you'd deal with the transition from flat bottom to the sides where it curves. Cast iron cuts, files, and machines very nicely.

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I have personally used a hand sander to smooth out the rough surface of a Lodge round griddle. The soft edges of the sander pad conformed with the slight curve at the edge of the griddle. When I was done sanding it, I then took my whetstone that I sharpen knives with and used that with some cooking oil to polish the surface even more. It took several hours, but I did it while relaxing watching TV, so it was kind of a Zen thing, very relaxing.

so did the pan work any better once "polished" ? Thanks for the responses btw, I'll keep in mind the carmelization thing.

Cast iron can be machined, most all of the Griswold pans were machined. Look at my post here that shows a very pristine #12 with very obvious milling marks.

Speaking of this, I would love to know how Griswold did this. They have achieved a wonderful transition from the bottom to the sides, and the machining of the sides and pour spouts is very clean, leaving a very even edge thickness around the circumference of the pan at the lip. Impressive.

Did they turn them on a lathe? That seems most likely to me. Seems like it could be done on a vertical milling machine as well as well, but probably not as easy.

I have read some posts that say that sanding too fine on a CI pan can seal off the pores in the metal making seasoning more difficult or problematic. I don't know if this is true or not. I do know it is hard to get it even.

Has anyone re-machined a skillet bottom or sides? (not sanded or hand ground) I am talking something similar to what was done at the factory originally. I know it wouldn't be anything that a collector would do, but for useability it would sure restore some of the bad pitting that some pans have . I know you can cook just fine on a surface that is somewhat pitted, it is just fun to see that silky smooth, crisp machining.

Dan

Page 73 of this issue of the CICN newsletter contains an excerpt from an old Favorite Piqua catalog which talks about their process. Would assume other makers did something comparable. http://www.castironcollector.com/CICN/cicn24.php#73

Griswold probably ground their cookware as did Favorite using a fixture to hold the pan and spinning at a fairly high speed then coming in from the outside with a very high revolving grindstone. Wagner did it this way also and we saw the machine in use at Wagner c.2001 but they used a coarse grit on the stone which gave not so nice of a surface. The following two pages are from an undated Favorite catalog.

Cast iron, that I have ever been able to find out, has no open pores. Any pores in the metal are already filled with graphite crystals. If anyone can show evidence that there are pores (other than what I think is a lot of incorrect and repeated information) I would love to see.

Steve, is the full catalog available somewhere? I would like to read all of it. Thanks.

The catalog belongs to a friend in NC. But you can come read my copy here near San Francisco. I don't have the time to scan and copy these days unfortunately. PM me with your email address and I will send the other few pages from the front of that catalog. PM is under "Quick Links".