Cast Iron Pan treatment

The other day GF told me she wasn't happy with a couple of cast Iron pans she had.  They weren't smooth enough, still had that roughness to them after several years of use.  I remembered my grandfather taking his disc grinder to my grandmothers every couple of years to re-smooth them.  While I don't have a disc grinder, I do have a cheap high speed generic roto zip.  The great thing about it, is it will take my 1/4 roloc bit so I can use my scotch bright disc's.  If you have never used one they are great for cleaning up stuff, gasket surfaces , old paint and stuff like that.  So I took it out side set the pan down and went to town with it.  It wore through several of the disks, and then I used a fine grit one and made sure it was really smooth.  I  washed it, heated it up and coated it with oil.  It looked great.  Last night she sacrificed an egg just to make to get out any remaining iron specs.  She said it was like cooking on teflon only better.  I am working on the large pan now but need to get some roloc disks.

If you have a harbor freight near you they carry the disks, it's where I have gotten mine in the past.

KM.....when I sharpen a new axe.....I start with my belt-sander
Then I go to a drill-driven disc-sander...down to 400-grit with water
THEN I remove the sandpaper from the rubber-backing...and using nothing BUT the rubber backing and "automotive rubbing compound"....I bring not only the edge of the axe but the entire axe-head to gleaming high polish.   I do this because I like the appearance of high-polish on an axe-head and also because I do find that high polish greatly inhibits rust formation.

Never THOUGHT of doing that with an iron frying skillet...!!...
Maybe that high a polish would make the eggs stick...??...

Judd

So, you polished off the seasoning back to bare metal again?

I have a big 14" cast iron skillet that I inherited from my grandfather years ago.  I LOVE that thing, and I think my wife loves it even more than she loves me.   

Yeah I did strip the so called seasoning off.  Cast iron because it is cast is rough, and she wasn't happy with it.  I can:
1 Stick
2. cause hot spots
By giving it a good strip to smooth it out I eliminate that and make it easier to work with.  All I did was accelerate  what happens naturally.  I have a pan I picked up at an estate auction, no telling how old it is, but it is very smooth from years of use, but the sides and outside are still rough from the original casting so many years ago.  The outside doesn't get used so it never see's a spatula, flipper or spoon that wears away at the casting making it smooth.  If you see a nice griddle it made of steel and is perfectly smooth, easier to cook with, and as she pointed out she is happy with.  Which is fine by me, I will do the second one as I find the disks, and I might even due my big two burner griddle ( I love that thing for doing steak sandwiches, one burner on high and another on low makes life easier). 

Now once it is all done and the egg is fried in it, seasoned again in peanut oil she is good to go.