I discovered something today that may be of use to anyone sanding/grinding down pebbly cast iron cookware.
That is, I THOUGHT I’d cleaned the smoothed surface really well–washed, dried, wiped with alcohol. I kept wiping until the paper towel came away clean.
Then, because the piece was a discada, I started the process of seasoning outside on my wok burner. I heated the disk pretty high, intending to burn out any impurities. As I was doing this, a drizzle started to fall. The disc was hot enough at this point that the rainwater beaded up, coalesced, and rolled around.
Then I noticed the water beads were dirty–very dirty. I brushed them out when they formed, and kept doing that until the beads that formed were clean and clear. It took many rounds of this before the water stayed clear.
I ended the process thinking I’d previously left a lot of dirt and swarf in the pans I’d smoothed. Yikes.
