Restoring Problem

I have a 10 in Lodge (pre 1960 - no country of origin, 3 notch ring) and an 8 in BSR (post 1960, solid ring). I am having trouble cleaning and seasoning. I have placed both in a SCO and they come out ‘clean’. When I attempt to season with canola oil, the oil turns black on the Lodge and rusty on the BSR. What am I doing wrong? I would like to use the skillets but these colors are not appetizing.

Clean. Use lard over a open fire. Not too hot, repeat, Cook some bacon. Eat, let sit.

If you are saying that when you are applying the oil or wiping it off the pieces in order to leave just a thin layer, you are getting black or brown residue/coloration on the towel, that is not unusual. Some of it is a form of iron oxide, and some I think is just the oil and paper towel or cotton towel being turned brown by the heat of the pan. Beyond just rinsing and drying cleaned pieces before applying seasoning, it is sometimes helpful to wash them with Dawn dishwashing liquid, scrubbing with your S/S scrubber. It will minimize the residue, but eliminating it completely is not necessary; most of it will be wiped off when you wipe down the excess oil, and the build up of seasoning will form a seal of sorts.

The discoloration occurs when I am spreading the oil and when wiping off the excess.

Sounds like a normal thing in both cases then. The Dawn DW liquid scrubbing will minimize it, but not necessarily eliminate it, but that's OK. Your SCO treatment will have nuked anything into nothing but carbon. I cleaned and seasoned two pans this evening, and had what I'm sure is the same thing, a black residue (likely ferrous oxide) when wiping dry after cleaning (before oven drying and heating), and the paper towel turning brown as I spread and wiped the oil off the blazing hot pans. Unappetizing? Maybe a little. Unusual? Not at all.

Eventually, your actual cooking surface is going to be a layer of carbonized and polymerized fat which will mostly seal the pan surface. Some people repeat the initial manual seasoning 5 or 6 times before usage. That's an option you might consider.

Thank you for your quick responses.:icon_thumbsup:

This is my method..

• Strip pan down to metal.
• Dry on stove. (heat 10-15 mins, turn off burner and wait 20 mins.)
• Heat back up.
• Wipe down with whatever oil you're going to use.
• Wipe pan down with clean towel/paper towel
• Heat, Wipe down with oil again, heat, wipe with clean towel.
• repeat...

I'll do this process a few times until the clean towel is pretty clean when wiping oil back off, then it goes into the oven for the actual seasoning process.