Newly acquired Krumkake iron

cballen said:
I finally seasoned my first piece of cast iron and it came out beautiful! I did two coats and am wondering if I should do another. How many coats did you do on yours to make them so nice?
If I could figure out how to put a picture in a post easily, I could post a picture of my setup and the finished product.
Charlie
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Charlie, I usually give everything 3 coats right off the bat. Everybody seems to have their own way of seasoning - there's more than one way to skin a cat - but I've been putting a piece in the oven, heating to 500, remove the piece and Crisco it, then wipe it as dry as you can get it, put it back in the 500 degree oven and cook it for an hour. Then, let it cool in the oven before the next coat. That's been working pretty good so far.
I did just season a pan for a friend, and that pan came out kind of mottled looking, which I hear happens when there's too much oil on the piece. It was a really smooth pan, and someone said to take it out of the oven about 10 minutes into it's hour and re-wipe any remaining oil off the pan.
The process takes time, and the odor is making Peggy a bit crazy, but once you get your pans done, you're done! Unless you happen to find another nice piece somewhere...

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Hi Ken,
Thanks for all of your help/info. The difference is quite amazing when the piece is done. Where are you finding all of your pieces of cast iron? Have fun with that iron!
Charlie
 
cballen said:
Hi Ken,
Thanks for all of your help/info. The difference is quite amazing when the piece is done. Where are you finding all of your pieces of cast iron? Have fun with that iron!
Charlie
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Charlie, put some pictures of your cast iron up here, I'd like to see the result of all that hard work.
I usually find them in junk/thrift stores, and antique stores, but they are usually pretty pricey. We just hit a huge place in Beloit Wisconsin last weekend that had buildings of old stuff to look through.
 
Hi Ken,
I would love to post some pictures, but I can't get any further with the ftp site than having a folder there. I can't seem to put any pictures in my folder. I am giving up on it for tonight.
Charlie
 
Nice looking skillet Charlie. Can you post it larger, say, 800 pixels on the long side? That'd show all the detail better.

How did you season it?
 
Hi Ken,
I seasoned the pan using the method described on the WAGS forum.
After cleaning it, I put it in the oven and turned the oven to 450 degrees. When it reached temperature, I took it out and let it cool until I could handle it with bare hands and put a light coat of Crisco on it. Then I baked it in the oven at 400 degrees for 30 minutes, then shut the oven off and let the pan cool in the oven. I repeated two more times.
I will resize the pictures and repost.
Charlie
 
That group on the WAGS forum do seem to be the best source of all things cast iron, and some take it very seriously. A very helpful bunch of people over there.
 
Hi Ken,
I agree with you about WAGS! I do want to try George's beeswax method on one of my other pieces though.
I've changed the size of the pictures several times, but they always have posted the same size as what is in my previous post.

Charlie
 
Hi Ken,
I just wanted to try to show you some cast iron again. All three of these pans were found in a cottage that was donated to a church campground where I am a trustee. I had to get the cottage cleaned out and found these pans. The before pics of one of the pans so you can have an idea of how bad they were:
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These are pictures after cleaning and seasoning:
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The Wagner had no visible markings before cleaning, so it was a nice surprise to see that it was a Wagner. The small pan to the right is the pan in the before pictures.
I finally figured how to do bigger pictures!
Charlie
 
WOW! They look great. I think I appreciate how good they look even more because of how it looked BEFORE. That pan was cruddy. Nicely done.
 
Thanks Ken! The Wagner pan was worse if you can believe it! I guess we might have to get a gas stove for the house so we can use them at home. Right now we can only use them in our camper. (we have a glass top stove)
Charlie
 
cballen said:
I do want to try George's beeswax method on one of my other pieces though.
Click to expand...

Warning! Once you try it, you may just never season any other way! Can't say enough good about it! :)

:cool:
 
cballen said:
Right now we can only use them in our camper. (we have a glass top stove)
Charlie
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Charlie, I've used my cast iron skillet on our glass top stove. Am I not supposed to?

Kathy
 
Hi Kathy,
We are just going by our owners manual for our stove. Our manual just says that cast iron is not recommended because it retains excessive heat and may damage the cooktop. So we didn't want to risk damaging the glass top because they are quite expensive to replace. Check your owners manual and see what it says. Maybe someone else has more information concerning using cast iron on a glass top stove.
Charlie
 
Hi, Charlie. Well, I just checked the owner's manual for Maytag electric range T2. It does not advise against using cast iron but does advise against using glass because it could scratch. (I do try to lift the ci frying pan rather than slide it for that reason.) Have been using my enamel-lined/coated LeCreuset dutch oven even longer without problems. In fact, if it came to my LeCreuset vs the glass-top, no question the glass-top would go.

As an aside, this will be the one and only glass-top stove we ever buy. We thought it was pretty cool when we bought it, but it has never looked as clean as it did when it arrived. I don't find the temperature to be as easy to get where I want it, either. Also, had to buy new pots, because our old ones had bowed a bit over time, so wouldn't sit straight on the stove top. live and learn!
 
Charlie,

That process works great and I'd like to try it, but I'd probably either electrocute myself or blow the house up or at the very least singe the feathers off some low flying birds.

Just call me chicken.

Sue
 
Hi Sue,
I was nervous about trying the electrolysis method too, but seeing Ken's pieces all done inspired me to try it. It does work quite nicely. By the way, I do enjoy your writings immensely!
Charlie
 
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