I just season my wok on the stovetop too. I have a wooden handle on mine, but I just can’t be bothered to tend over the oven for any of the seasoning. I just do it slowly over time. Since I dry my wok after use with heat anyway, I wipe down set the wok on the smallest burner on the back of the stove on the lowest flame setting and go watch tv for 10-15 mins. When it’s dried, do the think layer of oil thing (I just used a paper towel) and then repeat - back on the smallest burner on the lowest setting and forget about it for about 15-20 minutes. If you want a good seasoning stat, you can do this repeatedly that day/night, but I just let it build up each time I use it when I feel it needs more seasoning.
1 Like
Thanks! A lot of you here have been wonderfully helpful!
I do a similar thing but a bit simpler. After I cleaned out my wok last time (the blowtorch thing I mentioned above) I never bothered trying to “officially” re-season it. I just threw a layer of oil on it and put it away. And that’s what I do every time now: Pull it out of the cabinet, heat it up, add a tiny bit of new oil and wipe that out (to get rid of the old oil layer and any dust, especially if it’s been a while since I’ve last used it). Then add fresh oil, cook, clean (with dish soap and even scrubbing if necessary), and then back on the stove: high heat until it’s totally dry, usually 2-3 minutes. Then immediately add some oil and spread it around with a paper towel, and that’s it until next time. Three years of that (used on average once every 2-3 weeks):
1 Like
Whelp…did you do it? Enquiring minds want to know…
Sorry, I’ve not had a chance ywr. Yinz will be the first to hear about it, tho, pinkie promise 
1 Like
Cool beans. Using our well seasoned wok tonight to stir fry some bok choy from our garden. Since it’s a cooking forum, making black cod nitsuke style, along with rice and the bok chop. My wife is Japanese…we cook a lot of Japanese.
1 Like
A good demo of how to blue and season a wok
1 Like
Thanks for that! I’m embarrassed to admit that I still haven’t seasoned the wok, despite my PIC using it tonight for baby bok choy — but we’ve never had a problem with that dish sticking.
Soon… 
1 Like
For all of my carbon steel cooking surfaces (wok, griddle, outdoor flat-top), my process is the same:
- cook, using a reasonable amount of oil
- clean (mostly with water and a scrubber, sometimes soap)
- wipe dry, then heat dry on the cooktop
- wipe with oil, continue to heat, and wipe with a dry rag (or paper towel)
Once the surface is as dry as possible from oil, let cool. The process takes about 5 minutes.
Sometimes when I’m really pressed for time (or feel especially lazy), I’ll just wipe it with oil. These pans are super forgiving, and just the act of using it next time will polymerize some oil over time.
The only thing to avoid is letting it sit wet, as they will rust. Once rusted, you need to scrub, use some sort of acid (vinegar, BKF, etc.), and then re-season. I’ve done this too, as I can be occasionally really lazy.
