Salvaging the worst-case scenario Dutch Oven (1 Viewer)

[Combat Chuck]

It's my belief that there is no such thing as an irreparable amount of disrepair for a good, solid, piece of cast iron, and now's my chance to either prove that, or eat my words.


In a wood shed I found a DO that was left still covered in soot from its last use, and much of a chicken had been abandoned inside the pot. when I found it, the lid had glued itself on with pure raunchy uuuugggghhhh!-ness. Inside, the rot had gotten into the layers of fat in the seasoning, and the whole thing smelled of garbage, you could detect it from thirty feet out. It was awful.


Step one was to rid it of the slimy muck that had once been poultry. I'm guessing chicken because it had what looked like chicken legs in it, whatever it was, it was disgusting, it smelled like a garbage scow on a hot, humid day. I rinsed it out multiple times with the garden hose, and even resorted to bleaching it, before leaving it to air dry, so I could strategise.

What I needed to do was just go nuclear on it, roast off the oils and debris in the highest heat I could manage, and start over, but, it smelled so bad, I didn't want to bring it into my house for cleaning and seasoning, and I knew that smoking it off in my oven would invite certain doom, so I formulated Plan B.

 

[Combat Chuck]

This morning, after the gym, I snagged a 20-lb bag of charcoal, and got to work.

At home, I wheeled out my Webber Kettle Grill, both my charcoal chimneys, my coal tongs, some Girl Scout Juice, and the sorry DO.

Step one was to fill both chimneys to overflow with briquettes, soak 'em down, and light 'em up. Once the coals were ready, I poured out a layer on the bottom rack of my grill, set the lid inside-down on them, poured more coals on, then the pot, and the rest of the coals. Finally, I lit up two more chimneys full of coals, and just buried the DO in them. Lidded up my webber, and we'll see the results before moving onto Phase 2.


Now for the pics:
1. The sad little DO, it doesn't look all that bad on the outside
2. The inside is, surprisingly, rusted very little, but it smells bloody awful.
3. The inside of the lid has some rust barnacles. And quite the stench, too.

 

[Combat Chuck]

1. the first round of coals.
2. Coals fanned out on the rack
3. lid down on the coals.

 

[Combat Chuck]

The progress continues, in no apparent order.

1. more coals down, and the pot, filled with coals.
3. Round 2 coals blazing.
2. Final batch of coals, mostly on the perimeter around the DO.

 

[Combat Chuck]

And the lid on my webber.

The plan is to just let this thing roast away until the coals are gone, and the DO's cool enough to handle, where I'll bring it inside, scrub it out in hot water, taking care to work down any rough or high spots, and season this poor thing about 5 times until she's back to her old luster.

 

[rutbeer]

couldn't just sandblast that thing and reseason?

 

[Combat Chuck]

couldn't just sandblast that thing and reseason?

But sandblasting doesn't involve fire...

 

[rusty_tlc]

I have a 10" fry pan my Mom found in a stump when we lived in Alaska. I was just a tyke at the time but she related the story to me;

Somebody had ruined something and ditched it in the hollow stump burnt remains and all.
Having neither a Webber (this was back in the 50's) or a sandblaster she hung it from a tree and used my Dads gasoline blow torch on it. Then she scrubbed it with steel wool and re-seasoned it.

It's my favorite pan when camping.

 

[Trollhole]

Put it in a kiln till it glows. Worked for me on several occasions.

 

[Combat Chuck]

Put it in a kiln till it glows. Worked for me on several occasions.

That's basically what I'm shooting for with this. As we speak (or write, really) the coals are slowing down, and last I checked, the pot gave new meaning to black. I'm about to go ahead and check on this right now before I head into town.

 

[Assassin]

i build a big oak fire and trow my rusted or bad shape cast iron in---all odf my yard sale cast iron.......and then reseason with crisco............same primciple as what your doing ---good job---

rusty tlc---cool story about your Mom finding the skillet in a hollow tree
post a pic of the skillet sometime??/ what brand???

 

[Combat Chuck]

The DO was finally cool enough to handle this morning, though, surprisingly, there were still some live coals inside the main pot area. Anyway, shook 'em out with all the soot, and set the DO aside for the next step.

1. Fished out of the ashes, and set aside in a galvanized oil catch pan to cool briefly.

2. A close-up of the top of the lid

3. A close-up of the "griddle' side of the lid.

 

[Combat Chuck]

1. The body of the Dutch Oven
2. a close up of the inside. you can see some of the old seasoning flaking off where the heat had pretty thoroughly decimated everything.


At this point I was really starting to wonder if this had been a good idea at all, or if in my "There's no kill like overkill" lifestyle, I pretty thoroughly ruined this DO.

 

[Combat Chuck]

My fears proved unfounded after I cut loose on it with a coarse bench-brush, everything swept away, revealing smooth, well-textured cast-iron.

1. swept smooth. There is some minor surface oxidation from the inferno, but nothing too bad.

2. The other side, also smooth. This process even got rid of the chunks of grit trapped in layers of seasoning that had accumulated along the lip of the DO, and in the "o" of the Lodge emblem. Not too bad.

 

[VanGo]

This has got to be some type of "right of passage" to ownig a DO? Good work CC! Keep us posted!

 

[Combat Chuck]

After this, I filled the sink with hot, soapy water, and scrubbed away with a sponge.
All the surface rust went away, and the metal looked surprisingly good, like pig iron. I really think that this will be the best seasoning this DO will have ever seen.

1. The body of the Dutch oven, air drying on the porch, clean, smooth, and soot-free.

2. The lid, it looks great.

They're going to air-dry while I'm at the gym, and school, and when I get back, I'll smear on some Crisco while cold, burn that off in the oven, and repeat as many times as it takes for me to be able to see my face in the seasoning.

 

[Buckru]

Air drying wet, non seasoned cast iron is a perfect way to reintroduce rust. Normally, as soon as its cleaned, wipe it dry then season immediately.

Your DO looks like it might still have some rust on it around the lid lip. Great work so far and glad to see something coming back to life.

Here is the best way I have seen to truly clean cast iron to prep it for seasoning.

Wagner and Griswold Society

Good Luck,

Buck

 

[Combat Chuck]

Air-drying wasn't my main intent, but I couldn't get it all done before my classes started that day. Yeah, some minor surface rust is back, and that'll scrub off with another trip to the sink, but I've been stalled out, waiting for things to cool down a bit, it's been in the 100's here this last week, and I don't want to fire up a 550 degree oven in my house to season away just yet, so the DO will have to wait until we get some fog back.

Thanks for the kind words, all, and I will update as soon as I can.

Godspeed
-ST

 

[Combat Chuck]

This has got to be some type of "right of passage" to ownig a DO? Good work CC! Keep us posted!

Sorry, Van, didn't even catch your post in there, look like you snuck it in while I was sorting out my pictures, oh well, better late than never, eh?

I honestly have to say that this should never be something any DO-er has to deal with. This poor thing was just awful. Everybody's posted up some really great points here on how they have, or would have done this, so I'm glad the participating elements of the 'Mud community have all gotten solid suggestions in for anybody faced with a similar catastrophe, somewhere down the line. I can't number all the posts I've read that have been helpful to me in my other projects, and I'm glad I can give back in some way that may prove useful later on down the line.

As far as rights of passage go, for me it was the evening my Scoutmaster let me make my first cobbler for everybody back at Camp Makuala. I'd been following his every step the entire week as he coached me on finessing the finer points of the DO, and that night (I believe it was Thursday) the "training wheels" were off. I still remember it too, pie cherries and devil's food cake mix, simple, and just plain great.

Some day, in God's time, I'll be the Scoutmaster passing my knowledge along to the next generation of Dutch-oven mad wee Scouts!

 

[VanGo]

Everything happens in His time....keep straight brother.

Van

Sorry, Van, didn't even catch your post in there, look like you snuck it in while I was sorting out my pictures, oh well, better late than never, eh?

I honestly have to say that this should never be something any DO-er has to deal with. This poor thing was just awful. Everybody's posted up some really great points here on how they have, or would have done this, so I'm glad the participating elements of the 'Mud community have all gotten solid suggestions in for anybody faced with a similar catastrophe, somewhere down the line. I can't number all the posts I've read that have been helpful to me in my other projects, and I'm glad I can give back in some way that may prove useful later on down the line.

As far as rights of passage go, for me it was the evening my Scoutmaster let me make my first cobbler for everybody back at Camp Makuala. I'd been following his every step the entire week as he coached me on finessing the finer points of the DO, and that night (I believe it was Thursday) the "training wheels" were off. I still remember it too, pie cherries and devil's food cake mix, simple, and just plain great.

Some day, in God's time, I'll be the Scoutmaster passing my knowledge along to the next generation of Dutch-oven mad wee Scouts!