Can this be saved?

S

Shawn R

Member
Last week I was happy to report that I went back to get the #4 Slant Griswold. Now that it's cleaned up and seasoned twice, I am sad to report that I had went back to get it after all. It is a LOT rougher than I thought. I just don't know what I was thinking it would clean up to be. You know the old saying, "You can put lipstick on a pig but it's still a pig". This little Griswold is a pig. The cooking surface feels like sandpaper. The factory finish is nearly gone everywhere on the cooking surface and half of the handle. Is there any good way to try and bring this back to a usable state? I know the value is already shot but want to try something. Any idea what caused this?

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My Griswold #6 dutch oven's insides had that look to it. After I removed the black paint. I can only guess cooking a lot of acidic food, but the erosion on mine was not as splotchy as that.
 
Should I just leave it like it is? Is there still any collector value left in it? Anyway to sand the cooking surface to make it more usable?
 
It's not perfectly clear from the pictures, but it looks like the corrosion is above the plane of the original surface. If this is the case, it means that all of the corrosion hasn't been removed. I would suggest more time in the e-tank followed by a moderately aggressive scrubbing, like with a handheld stainless steel brush, or a "chore-boy" type scrubbing pad. Then followed up by some #0000 steel wool. I have seen something like this when I didn't run a piece long enough or scrub well enough.

I it is pitting instead of above the plane of the original finish, well I guess that there isn't much that can be bone without altering the the original surface.
 
Conventional methods aren't going to fix it. Maybe something like that youtube guy and his grinder on a new Lodge skillet might, but that may devalue it even more.
 
ShawnE, in the second picture, the shiny places around the pour spout is the original surface. Everything else is below the factory surface plane.

It spent a couple days in lye, 24 hours in etank. Scrubbed hard with SS scrubber pad then steel wool. It then went back into etank for 24 hours followed by more scrubbing. Finally gave up and turned to seasoning thinking it would start to fill in.

I didn't really buy it to keep. I thought I was going to clean it up and flip it. I don't want to hurt the value anymore than it is.
 
Ok, it is pitting then. It wasn't clear from the pictures as they aren't in 3d ;-)

Not much you can do to make it smooth without removing some of the original surface to make it even with the bottom of the pits.
 
The bottom looks pretty good and sits flat. The bottom of the handle has some of the same problems as the cooking surface.

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I think I'm going to list it on an online auction and see what happens. If I can't get my money back as it is, I may try to do some resurfacing work.
 
I kind of wondered the same thing Doug. Acid erosion wouldn't effect the handle that way. It may have been used like a stepping stone in someones flower bed. Sad to see an uncommon skillet look like this.
 
I bought a#3 Martin it was nice, when I got it I send it to e tank after a few hrs the skillet start des integrating,I wipe it off with a rag and start doing like you skillet, what I think it was poor casting,probably they had some left over melted iron,and they didn't want to waste it so they use a small mold just to dump the left over.When I was a kid,I used to do all kind experiments,I like to melt lead and that what happens the very last to pour was les quality than the first batch.
 
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