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Author Topic: What can Lye do for you?  (Read 2306 times)

Offline Dwayne Henson

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What can Lye do for you?
« on: March 30, 2014, 12:22:32 PM »
I understand liking/trying the latest and greatest thing, but sometimes the old standbys are, just as good. Here are some photos of the before. A friend asked me if this was salvageable. Her friend was just going to throw it out because of how nasty it was. I'm lazy, I took that poor unloved skillet out to the pool to relax, the lye pool that is. (Repeated applications of Oven Cleaner would be the same.)
« Last Edit: March 30, 2014, 01:52:00 PM by ddaa99 »
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Offline Dwayne Henson

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Re: What can Lye do for you?
« Reply #1 on: March 30, 2014, 12:33:00 PM »
After a two week soak, I checked on it. Clean! I rubbed it down with a SOS pad while rinsing under the faucet, it was looking pretty good. A nice older Wagner. Since the unloved skillet had been to the pool it was time for the heat sauna treatment. In the oven she went. I season at a high temp, and being cheap I use the other old standby Crisco. Between you and me I can't see spending more money on some fancy foo-foo oil that costs more than the dang skillet did. So I seasoned it one time with the Crisco. And here is that old nasty skillet after some time at Dwayne's Cast Iron Spa & Sauna.

I'm posting this to let newer ones know how easy/cheap this process can be. I started with a can of Easy-Off and a black plastic trash bag. You don't need much. And who doesn't have a can of Crisco and a cotton rag laying around? Now I have a free blue plastic chemical barrel, with a lid, from a pool company, that has lye water in it. I drop the item in and let it work, no muss, no fuss. So go try it.
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Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.
Thomas Jefferson

Offline Ken Davis

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Re: What can Lye do for you?
« Reply #2 on: March 30, 2014, 01:37:40 PM »
Good job, Dwayne! Don't ya just love it?
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Offline Dwayne Henson

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Re: What can Lye do for you?
« Reply #3 on: March 30, 2014, 01:54:38 PM »
It is a good feeling extending a perfectly good skillet's life. Hopefully for another hundred years.
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Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.
Thomas Jefferson

Offline Duke Gilleland

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Re: What can Lye do for you?
« Reply #4 on: March 30, 2014, 08:32:47 PM »
And they live to fry again! [smiley=party.gif] [smiley=thumbsup.gif]
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Offline Roger Barfield

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Re: What can Lye do for you?
« Reply #5 on: March 30, 2014, 08:47:24 PM »
That's a hundred year old beauty Dwayne [smiley=appl.gif]
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Offline C. Perry Rapier

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Re: What can Lye do for you?
« Reply #6 on: March 30, 2014, 08:55:25 PM »
Hello Dwayne. Thank you for the confirmation of using lye and crisco. I use the same thing by the way. If it ain't broke don't fix it is what I like to say. I roll my eyes when I see the questions we get about making a lye bath. The ingredients are lye and water. I'm sorry, but how hard can that be?  :-/ ;D ;D
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Offline Jonathon Davis

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Re: What can Lye do for you?
« Reply #7 on: March 30, 2014, 09:19:34 PM »
Electro is great and definitely has it's place, but the more pans I do, the more I realize that lye does most of the heavy lifting and some pans don't even have to go through the electro.
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Offline C. Perry Rapier

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Re: What can Lye do for you?
« Reply #8 on: March 30, 2014, 09:38:55 PM »
Quote
Electro is great and definitely has it's place, but the more pans I do, the more I realize that lye does most of the heavy lifting and some pans don't even have to go through the electro.

Hello Jonathon. Another confirmation of what we have been saying for years on here. I remember when I first set up my electro I was running it 24/7, just looking for the next piece to electro. If you use electro to clean off carbon buildup, if you got any brains, EVENTUALLY, you will come to the conclusion that using lye first is better. And then you also have the occasional nuts who think that electro destroys cast iron. They are out there.  ;) ;D ;D ;D ;D
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Offline Jeff Friend

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Re: What can Lye do for you?
« Reply #9 on: March 30, 2014, 10:43:10 PM »
Lye is good stuff.  One of the best things about it is there is no fooling around.  Drop a nasty, old pan in and walk away.  Come back in a few days or a few years (it doesn't matter how long) and, with just a bit of work, there is your clean, new pan.
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Hold still rabbit so I can dunk you in this bucket of lye!

Offline Mark Zizzi

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Re: What can Lye do for you?
« Reply #10 on: March 31, 2014, 12:06:09 AM »
Beautiful Dwayne. That pan was even crustier than the first one I took to the pool, and I didn't think that was possible.
Thanks to the help I got here on the proper way to clean a crudded up pan, my prized and still favorite 2nd series Erie 8 was spared from an electric drill w/wire wheel. These pics tell it all...hope others see it in time.  ;)
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Offline Claudia Killebrew

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Re: What can Lye do for you?
« Reply #11 on: April 01, 2014, 12:53:45 PM »
And then you also have the occasional nuts who think that electro destroys cast iron. They are out there. 

It will if you attach the electrodes backwards. :D ;D
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Offline C. Perry Rapier

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Re: What can Lye do for you?
« Reply #12 on: April 01, 2014, 01:40:19 PM »
Quote
And then you also have the occasional nuts who think that electro destroys cast iron. They are out there. 

It will if you attach the electrodes backwards. :D ;D

Thats very true Claudia. I guess I should have clarified that some more.  ;D
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