post-electro holding bath

[Lewis Downey]

Hello, please share your opinion regarding best practice for storing clean CI prior to seasoning.

I want to hold clean pieces until a small stock has built up so that they can be seasoned simultaneously.
I am planning to use a second lye bath to hold the clean pieces after they come out of the electro.
That bath will have a lower strength than the primary/workhorse LB. Hopefully the bath itself will stay clean.

Any reason not to use a holding bath?

One goal is to go as directly from storage to oven quickly as possible. Another is to maintain
the pieces in clean condition. On average it is taking less than a week to build up a few pieces
to season.  Right now I am going directly from electro to quick scrub down to oven, seasoning one at a time at a rate of almost 1 piece per day. It is more time-consuming than is desirable.

Thank you!

[C. Perry Rapier]

Hello Lewis. Those are excellent observations. And as I was reading your post I was goin 'yep, been there done that, yep, been there done that, etc'.

I do the same thing as a rule, that is get enough pieces to do at one time. Though I do not season anything that I am not going to cook with. It takes too long to season everything like that.

I warm them up in the oven after I scrub them clean and then put mineral oil on them. It looks good and protects the piece.

Now if you want to put three coats of seasoing on a piece it will look somewhat darker, than vs the mineral oil. But the difference is not enough to worry about.

And then if I want to start using a piece that I have put the mineral oil on, all I have to do is scrub it with some Dawn, that strips it naked, and then I can season as I wish.

But if you are cooking with cast iron I would say a dozen pieces are all you need to cook anything. So why season more than you need.

Now about that post lye bath. Thats an excellent idea. I do the same thing myself. And when I get that container full enough to suit me I start scrubbing them up and puttin them in the oven, put one in, take one, and so forth. It works pretty good.

And as far as strength, it really does not matter, and even if your lye bath gets all dirty and nasty, that means its doing its job.

Even after you electro a piece and you don't want to start working on it, throw it in the lye bath. In fact I put everything in the lye bath first. If its carboned up it will take off the carbon. If its rusty the lye will arrest the rust, and keep it from going further. Thats the way I do it anyway. FWIW

I know a lot of folks talk about seasoning everything and thats fine. I don't have the time, nor the desire, nor the need to do all that seasoning.

[Lewis Downey]

Perry, thank you for the feedback. I appreciate hearing from those of you with more experience (pretty much everyone on this forum). Even when the insights and needs of others are different from my own, I almost always learn something.

And then if I want to start using a piece that I have put the mineral oil on, all I have to do is scrub it with some Dawn, that strips it naked, and then I can season as I wish.

I did not realize this! I thought mineral oil had to be removed using the lye bath or electro.

And as far as strength, it really does not matter, and even if your lye bath gets all dirty and nasty, that means its doing its job.

If the separate apres-electro lye bath gets dirty, I'd say it is doing its job but I did not do mine. The plan is that pieces only go into that clean lye bath when they are ready to season and are therefore completely clear of schmutz and rust ==> basically raw metal. And I know this is a little silly..., I want to be able to look through a clear bath at the pieces that are ready to season.

I know a lot of folks talk about seasoning everything and that's fine. I don't have the time, nor the desire, nor the need to do all that seasoning.

If I were only seasoning them for myself I wouldn't either. I am angling toward actively selling pieces on ebay, craigslist, and maybe the flea market. Since I want to stay off of our list of sketchy ebay sellers, I am putting in a lot of time learning the essential skills and establishing an efficient workflow. Most of the pieces I come across are run of the mill no-name skillets that *might* sell for enough to justify the time and effort of restoring them. In addition to a small amount of revenue I get to hone my restoration skills, return good cookware to active duty, learn about cast iron, and build a small set of keepers. My intent is to be more of a catch-and-release enthusiast than an archivist.

I admit is it harder to let pieces go than I anticipated.

[Mark Zizzi]

Hi Lewis, If you put clean pieces in your "storage" lye bath, it should stay clean..I think Perry was just referring to using the same (and only)lye bath most of us have.
When I got into all this cleaning and restoring cast iron, I soon had the same thinking..buy bad, sell good for a profit. Well I have sold one piece and I didn't even have to clean it..it was clean when I got it. There are some members here that do turn over quite a bit of iron..the key is good sources and putting in the time and effort required TO FIND THEM.  I have the time, and willing to put in the effort to clean them..I just can't find the iron. I'm not going to pay 40 bucks for a Wagner at the flea markets or antique stores around me that I might make 10 bucks on. But if you can find it, thars gold in them hills.  ;)
+

[Lewis Downey]

Hi Mark. I agree, the thing is finding a dependable supply. I started cultivating sources before building the beer keg electro. Between friends looking out for CI at yard sales and a couple of local business sources, I'm 15 or 20 skillets to the good since mid-January and about to redouble my efforts to find sources.

Most are unmarked Wagner Ware, unmarked Lodge and a couple of BSRs. I lucked into one #8 Griswold and one skillet with absolutely no markings other than an 8 on the handle.  I have acquired a couple of funky items: a wood-handled Taiwanese skillet that's missing a lid and the Heuck Classics in the pictures below. The Heuck seems like a decent skillet. It doesn't say Made in the U.S.A.; presumably it's pre-1960s. It's still soaking in the LB and almost in queue for the electro. The cooking surface is going to be rougher than the surface on old iron.

There is no guarantee that the influx of iron will continue, but I'm doing my part.  When I talk to a source I basically propose to buy everything that's offered, as long as the price is appropriate to my budget. I am cleaning and seasoning all of it. If the flow of skillets stopped cold, in theory I might be able to pay for the money invested in the electro, LB, etc, plus the iron itself, plus a little bit. If I used the excess to pay myself for the hours invested, the hourly rate wouldn't be good. On the other hand I'm having a blast and learning stuff at a steady rate. If the flow of skillets continues and efficiency increases, the hobby could generate something. The financial piece is a focused goal and a motivation but not a requirement for my interest.


I am really curious about the Heuck. It's a big skillet.

[C. Perry Rapier]

Hello Lewis. The way you lay all that out and all, are you a bean counter? Just curious.  :) :-/

And your big skillet there, I THINK its Asian. I might be wrong but thats what it looks like to me.  :-/

[Lewis Downey]

Hi Perry, I can't admit to being a bean counter! I'm an artiste  :-)

Ok... I founded and evolved (from programmer) to manage the business side of a small web application firm for over 15 years. I have an instinct for crunching basic numbers in a business context, but that's about as far as it goes.  I am not well-suited for business really. That's because I don't care about money and profits in the way that a driven business person should.

Thanks for the feedback on the skillet. I shot off an email to Heuck; maybe they will reply with some background info.

Does it take one to know one (artiste I mean  8-))?  Or are you a bean counter?

[C. Perry Rapier]

Hello Lewis. In some folks eyes I might be considered a bean counter. But I wouldn't say so. But I work with monies and times and I do crunch numbers when I have to. And I do a lot of reading and writing.

I work in the railroad industry. I'm third generation. My son is fourth generation.

[Lewis Downey]

And your big skillet there, I THINK its Asian. I might be wrong but that's what it looks like to me.

Perry I think you are right. So does this guy...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=2hmDBvgTWFE#t=1373


It's odd that it is not stamped with the country of origin. A smaller version of the skillet is still available at Walmart: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Heuck-11.5-Pre-Seasoned-Cast-Iron-Skillet-Black/27279736. Do you think it was produced for U.S. consumption pre-1960 or is it more likely that the skillet was produced after 1960 but not marked with a country of origin? YouTube notwithstanding could it possibly be U.S. made pre-1960?

[Russell Ware]

Lewis, I would say that pan was made in the last 20 yrs. The packaging probably had the country of origin on it. For me, the handle screams Asia, but I'm no Steve Stephens.

[Mark Zizzi]

This is from a review on Amazon on the Heuck skillets:

"Also, I was not aware that these were Made in China until I saw the paper sticker on the bottom of one of the skillets."

There are others mentioning China also. Not too many happy customers either...
http://www.amazon.com/Heuck-33002-Pre-Seasoned-Cast-Iron-3-Piece/dp/B000VP9GQI/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

[Gary Salsman]

After lye bath, electro, and scrubbing clean. I just dry it an put on the shelf until I have enough stockpiled to start the oven for seasoning. I see no need to store clean iron in a lye bath. I've had clean stripped pieces for months on the shelf with no issues.