Trying to restore a carbon steel pan

[hotsaucewasted]

The first two pics and the last two are the befores and afters, respectively.

I’ve had this pan for a while when I swiped it from my old restaurant. Then I didn’t get to use it much so it sat under my prep table in the kitchen for a really long while. That’s how it became rusted I suppose and I didn’t touch for even longer.

Fast forward to yesterday when I decided to try and clean it as much as possible. Initial wash surprisingly got rid of a fair amount of the rust and old seasoning. Then I left it in a bath of 5% vinegar and water overnight. Pulled it out and not much fell off. Cleaned it with baking soda to where it is now.

Now comes the weird part: when I finished cleaning it with the baking soda, it looked like the normal steel grey tone. When I went to heat dry it over the stove flame, it sorta turned back to the orange rust color like before.

Not sure why this happened and would like some tips off it’s possible to fix this.

I went ahead and gave it a coat of seasoning with veggie oil (I’ve heard grapeseed is best but I didn’t have that atm so I’ll definitely get that when I can.)

That’s what came out in the last two photos. If there’s any suggestions on what I could do next, I’dgreatly appreciate it! Thanks KKF fam!

Edit: I’m also not too worried about getting the rest of the old seasoning of the pan since this is just a lil project for myself and probably won’t be using this pan to cook anytime soon. I’m really just more concerned about why the pan returned to that orange rusty hue again.

 

[aporigine]

View attachment 395149View attachment 395150View attachment 395151View attachment 395152The first two pics and the last two are the befores and afters, respectively.

I’ve had this pan for a while when I swiped it from my old restaurant. Then I didn’t get to use it much so it sat under my prep table in the kitchen for a really long while. That’s how it became rusted I suppose and I didn’t touch for even longer.

Fast forward to yesterday when I decided to try and clean it as much as possible. Initial wash surprisingly got rid of a fair amount of the rust and old seasoning. Then I left it in a bath of 5% vinegar and water overnight. Pulled it out and not much fell off. Cleaned it with baking soda to where it is now.

Now comes the weird part: when I finished cleaning it with the baking soda, it looked like the normal steel grey tone. When I went to heat dry it over the stove flame, it sorta turned back to the orange rust color like before.

Not sure why this happened and would like some tips off it’s possible to fix this.

I went ahead and gave it a coat of seasoning with veggie oil (I’ve heard grapeseed is best but I didn’t have that atm so I’ll definitely get that when I can.)

That’s what came out in the last two photos. If there’s any suggestions on what I could do next, I’dgreatly appreciate it! Thanks KKF fam!

Edit: I’m also not too worried about getting the rest of the old seasoning of the pan since this is just a lil project for myself and probably won’t be using this pan to cook anytime soon. I’m really just more concerned about why the pan returned to that orange rusty hue again.

I’d not worry. Season, use, clean, repeat often. Any pits will get filled by use varnish.

My preferred seasoning method is animal fat (grapeseed or avocado oil should also do) at smoke-hot (above 500F) temps for a coupla minutes, cool, wipe clean. (Windows open.) This should get that pan into fighting trim after a few iterations.

 

[Greasylake]

Edit: I’m also not too worried about getting the rest of the old seasoning of the pan since this is just a lil project for myself and probably won’t be using this pan to cook anytime soon. I’m really just more concerned about why the pan returned to that orange rusty hue again.

If you strip it down to completely bare iron and throw it on the stove to dry with no patina/oil/anything it'll instantly oxidize when in contact with the air.

 

[J. Engstrom]

My preferred method is to remove the rust with acid, neutralize, scrub the surface with a gentle abrasive like red scotchbrite then 0000 steel wool to keep it from flash rusting, and then immediately heat it on a burner up to 7-800F, or blue to blue-gray to build up a thin layer of stable oxide before going on to the oil seasoning stage.

The acid etched surface is micro(macro if you over-etch it or the pitting was very bad already)-scopically extremely rough, with both far more surface area than a polished piece, and also a porous craggy structure that keeps water or acids from beading up and leaving. It is also bare of oxides and therefore chemically reactive, which causes it to flash rust very easily. Lightly polishing it smooths out that roughness quite a bit and so makes it more resistant to corrosion.

 

[mengwong]

The last time I dealt with flash rust on a carbon steel pan, I oiled the pan liberally and went over with the finest sandpaper I had. Of course the sandpaper turned oily. Then I went straight to stovetop seasoning and wiped off the oil and debris with paper towel in the process. When it was mostly dry I promoted to oven.

 

[DMG]

For regular pans I would just use BKF + warm water for 90% of the cleaning, then switch to cold water for the final couple of passes to help avoid flash rust. Pop it on a hot stove (or oven if you only have electric / induction coils) with a thin layer of oil all around and you'll be good to go. For a pan this well used though, I would probably do something stronger like place the pan in a sealed bag / tub and liberally douse it in lye or even oven cleaner. A couple hours of that and it will practically flake off everything. Do it in a well ventilated but separate area: lord knows those fumes can be nasty.

Oh and for seasoning oil it's not that crucial to use grapeseed or x recommended oil. Just about any cooking oil works. There are chemistry reasons why certain oils will break down into the seasoning polymer layer easier or quicker, but it's not as big of a deal as you may have heard. I tend to recommend refined, neutral tasting oils. Refined so that you control how the seasoning develops (raw olive oil with particles floating in it can burn before the oil sets, just an example), and neutral oils so that you don't add any flavors or aromas that don't suit the dish. Peanut oil is great for woks or stir fry vessels, but may feel odd tasting it in an Italian dish.

 

[boomchakabowwow]

its super bare and fully exposed. it will rust quick.

I would BKK it and dry it with paper towel and put it on a hot stove right away to dry it.

that pan looks totally serviceable.

just remembered. a friend put veggie oil in his pan and went around and around with wet/dry sandpaper. he was very successful...he was a mess tho.

 

[JASinIL2006]

I scrub my bare steel pans with a mixture of vegetable oil and salt. The salt does a good job as a mild abrasive, and the oil keeps the pan from rusting. Then you can very, very thoroughly wipe out the pan, and proceed with seasoning.