I plan on making a electrolysis tank this spring coming but have a couple skillets i wanted to give as Christmas gifts. So I thought I'd try the oven cleaner method. It ain't gettin it lol. Has anyone tried this and it worked? I know there's a lot of build up but after four days I thought I'd be golden. Am I doing something wrong?

i do the small fire cleaning.
never have tried the oven cleaner

Five gallon bucket, one can lye, water to cover. Heavy crud may need a scrub every couple days.

What about a wire wheel?

Sandblasting

I was thinking about trying that with a brass one.

How long could that take if its really built up warrior? And I assume I would have to neutralize with baking soda after?

Put them in your kitchen oven, then run the oven's clean cycle. It will burn it all off.

Then wash in hot water using Scrubbie to clean up the residue.

Then to season, coat lightly with PAM non-stick spray and heat in oven or BBQ at around 300 degrees for a couple hours. Upside down to start....then right side up to finish. Repeat as needed. Get that right and it will look like baked on enamel. It will act like teflon.

I never use dish soap on cast iron. Never. Soap will screw up your seasoning job.

Thanks Howard but my stove is from the 80's, it don't have a cleaning cycle. I do clean it every few years whether it needs it or not though lol. It goes up to 550.

just cut some dry soft wood up. old 2x4s work. hardwood gets too hot. lay up a fire about two feet high. put the skillet on top and light the fire. just let it go till it burns out and the skillet cools back down. scrub it good with dish soap and steel wool. rinse it off good then dry. rub it down good, the whole thing, with lard. put in a 400 degree oven for an hour. let it cool down. repeat 3-4 times. dont want a lot of lard or it will be sticky. if it is sticky when it cools down heat the oven back up to 450-500 and stick it in for another hour. may have to do that 2-3 times till its not sticky. then use it. or give to somebody else who will use it.

I just did a real rusty dutch oven, first took a cordless drill with a 2" wire wheel and went at it hard to remove the rust, rinsed it out dry it , put baking soda in it added white vinager, let it soak for 10 mins. and then took a small wire brush to it, wash it out with soap and hot water, rinsed it good put it on stove burner , heated it up to make sure it was dry. All rust and junk was gone. Heated oven to 350, coated the whole thing inside and out with olive oil put in oven for 1 hour, let it cool then repeated, after second time in the oven it was seasoned and looked great. It is a lot of work if you do it right.

The worst I recall was a bsr wedge cornbread pan that had baked on grease like a heavy coat of poly. It took about a week. When scrubbing I use a stainless scouring pad. No need to neutralize with soda as lye is a base same as soda, just a good rinse with water. But I always do a scalding hot soap scrub and rinse prior to oven drying and seasoning.

Thanks warrior, I'm gonna give it a go tomorrow. With any luck I'll have them done before Santa comes lol.

Shouldn't take long judging by the pictures. BTW wear gloves and don't splash the stuff on painted surfaces.

Last question, I think lol. Will it work out in a unheated shed or should I bring it in with a good lid on the bucket.

Don't use the fire method .You'll warp them.I use the oven cleaner and steel wool.It works great.On super bad ones it might take 3 cleanings.I put the pan in a plastic bag and spray it with oven cleaner close it up and let set set for 24 hrs.I clean at least a dozen a year like this and some are really cruddy.

Thanks Dave, I've been at it for over 4 days with this skillet doing just as you mentioned, and it still has a bunch of crud on it. I did buy the off brand no fume oven cleaner, maybe that has something to do with it. IDK

I just did a medium wised frying pan and just put it on my gas burner I use for big stuff outside and left it glowing for a few minutes and then slowly turned the heat down bit by bit till it was on the smallest flame that beast would let me and kept it there for 20 minutes or so, then turned it off and let it cool. Looked like sand blasted after that. Now the usual seasoning and done.

daveharmon you'll have to show me which one of my black skillets or where my dutch oven is warped. i cant find it. i havent put them all in a fire but several i have. i know i did my dutch oven. cant remember which skillets i cleaned like that. you ever get out this way you can show me which ones i warped

That's how I have done dozens of them.I tried all the other ways,,and sand blasting gets er done.In two minuites your done with one pan and its like brand new.Just need to re season.