You can clean up cast iron

[Uncle Levi]

I found 8 cast iron skillets and pots in my blacksmith shop that had been there for years and I'd forgotten about. They wer REALLY covered with rust and I almost threw them out. But just on a whim I took my angle grinder with the big wire brush to them. It was some work, but they cleaned up just like new, so I brought them in, seasoned them in the oven and no Jo (my wife) uses them with the rest of her cast iron-- the only thing she cooks in BTW.
The point is, even if you find cast iron pots, etc. that look pretty far gone, it's possible to clean them up and use them and you might be able to pick some rusty stuff pretty cheap.

 

[Rifleman1776]

Yes, you can but you probably still have rust in the pores. I would have opted for rust removal with an electrolysis set-up. Very simple to do. Some Googling will bring up a lot of info on the subject.

 

[Billnpatti]

Absolutely correct and here is how to do it:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Electrolytic-Rust-Removal-aka-Magic/#step1

Easy Peasy!!

 

[Alden]

NOW ya tell me! I just threw out a half-dozen skillets, a griddle, and a pot.

Fact is I was clenaing out a residence and just haven't got the room or practical use for 'em for the foreseeable future and they had to go...

: (

 

[crockett]

Good old cast iron, only stuff I use.

 

[satx78247]

THANKS - APPRECIATED.

yours, satx

 

[Kootenai]

Put them in your wood stove with a fire going. They will come out looking like new. Season and begin using. Mark

 

[Treestalker]

Grandaddy Martin Briggs brought home a new frying pan the day my dad Charlie was born(23 Mar,1910).It was given to Charlie before he left home, and my mom dropped it and broke out the handle in the 50's. :shake: Dad was a pipefitter by trade and had his welder put it back together. the weld looked like stainless, and was smoothed to contour on the inside. I inherited it and my second wife dropped it circa 2007, and destroyed it beyond repair. :redface: Almost 100 years of fried chicken! :shocked2: Tree.

 

[Alden]

One of my sisters made her husband steal all of my mom's best, old, seasoned ironware when she passed away...

 

[Rifleman1776]

I just threw out a half-dozen skillets, a griddle, and a pot.

I think that is a mortal sin. :shocked2:

 

[Alden]

I know. : (

Rifleman, there was nothing else I could rationally do. I discarded, in fact paid thousands to have junked, things much nicer, more useful, and more "valuable" than cast iron...

But things are only as valuable as one can connect buyers and sellers (or even givers and takers) where the timing and cost of maintenance and delivery makes sense.

You might have the biggest, heaviest, nugget of gold in the world. If tomorrow everyone decided gold wasn't quite so valueable and you had no room for it you'd be paying someone to carry it off for you...

Look around your home. See all that stuff you own? You're lucky you're so young and will enjoy it till after we're done with the 250th anniversaries of the Rev. War reenactments. But after that it will be left to others to manage. A little of it will be kept and stolen by family and friends, a third of it will be sold or given away, and half of it will be discarded outright. Including, believe me, most of your cast iron camp/cook-ware under those circumstances...

 

[Rifleman1776]

Look around your home. See all that stuff you own? You're lucky you're so young and will enjoy it till after we're done with the 250th anniversaries of the Rev. War reenactments. But after that it will be left to others to manage. A little of it will be kept and stolen by family and friends, a third of it will be sold or given away, and half of it will be discarded outright. Including, believe me, most of your cast iron camp/cook-ware under those circumstances...

Ah...yes. Sadly, you are very correct. When my mother was in her final days she cried that all her beautiful belongings would become just "stuff" after she passed. Yes, most ended up in trash as it would have cost more to sell than was worth.
My "stuff" will either be discarded or go at auction for less than a penny on the dollar. I have been giving away some things in the past couple years. One day I may just go to a final (for me) rendezvous and randomly pass out all my "stuff" and walk away naked.
BTW, thanks for the "young" comment. At age 75 I don't hear that often.

 

[Preacher Jeremy]

Two things, let me know which event, and for the love of God please DON"T LEAVE NAKED, children may be present! :rotf:

 

[Wes/Tex]

He came in naked and he's goin' out nekkid! :wink: :rotf:

Translation: (If you're not from Texas)

Naked: you don't have any clothes on.
Nekkid: You don't have any clothes on and you're up to something! :wink:

 

[satx78247]

As we are now 67YY & "soon retiring abroad", we've recently had a "quiet/calm conversation" with my daughter (our executrix) about "what to do with everything" after we both "assume room temperature".

Some of those "arrangements" direct my daughter to:
1. Pay any outstanding bills/taxes/final expenses and then divide the cash/other funds in our accounts to "Duckie's sons" and to herself in 3 equal shares.
2. My gun collection, to be divided in 3 equal shares, to my niece & nephew,
3. Our sterling flatware/hollow-ware, linens, china and crystal to my daughter,
4. "Duckie's jewelry" and her antique furniture to her 2 sons (by her first husband),
5. My library of autographed/first edition books are to be delivered to my boarding school for their collections
and
6. Direct her to dispose of/retain the "miscellaneous stuff" in our estate (such as clothing & household goods), as she wishes.

Note 1: We are planning to give our cars/pickup/boats to "the boys" & to my daughter, shortly before we "head South to stay". = We will buy a new 4WD SUV "down there".

Note 2: My advice, having gone through the "unpleasantness" of trying to "settle my father's estate" (absent a LAST WILL & TESTAMENT) years ago, is to MAKE your ARRANGEMENTS and MAKE YOUR WILL, while you are STILL HEALTHY & can CALMLY talk to your family about your WISHES to disburse the things that are OF VALUE & and those things, which are only IMPORTANT to you.

just my OPINIONS, satx

 

[daoliver924]

Or in your oven during self-cleaning cycle.

 

[Coot]

I very much doubt that my son & daughter will want to keep everything that Mrs Coot & I have accumulated over the years. I know that we had a mix of keeping, gifting, yard selling, Good Willing & dump runs when closing out the estates of our parents.

One thing we have done is to have a short list of who we (currently) trust to help deal with those things that the kids decide not to keep. For example if I had to liquidate my guns, reference books, find homes for horses & cats, who would I call if I was hospitalized & could not personally handle calls, buyers, dealers etc.. Many on the list will charge fees but at least will keep the kids from selling books worth hundreds each for $10 per box full.

 

[satx78247]

Very well understood. = That's WHY we're doing NOW what we can to make things easier on my daughter.

Reference my guns: I'm considering giving them at Christmas 2014, to my niece/nephew/daughter & get that "out of the way", as I'm NOT taking 25+ guns to Central America.
(My treasured NM Garand, a .30-06x16-bore drilling, a .58x16-bore ML capegun & a handgun or 2 for each of us will "make the trip South".)

yours, satx

 

[tenngun]

One of my sisters made her husband steal all of my mom's best, old, seasoned ironware when she passed away...

Won't get in to the rifleman naked at vous thing, but Alden I got to say a grit eat'n southren boy would have been lernt better then to throw tout good cast iron cook'n pot and such :rotf:

 

[bangfxr]

I picked up a 12 inch skillet at a flea market for $5.00 about 20 years ago that was misused and abused and left to rust.
I scrubbed the heck out of it and cleaned off the bottom and found out that it has a 1/4 inch rim on the bottom and a cross with SANTA FEE in the cross. I found that it was a skillet used in the caboose on the wood stove to cook meals for the train crews.
That thing works well and makes some darn good corn bread in the oven. I just keep it clean and occasionally reapply cooking oil while its hot.