A friend handed over a 12" cast iron pan to me that she no longer wanted (citing that it was too heavy for her). Pic Related. As you can see, it's suffering from a pretty spotty seasoning, with visible discoloration and rust, and a rough surface of gunk and build-up all over it. It didn't seem so bad at first, so I attempted to touch up the seasoning on top of itself, but even as I rubbed in some shortening onto its surface, tiny shaving of the black seasoning and gunk would come off and get stuck to the paper towel. I figured this would be a perfect opportunity for me to try my hand at stripping, cleaning and reseasoning cast iron cookware for the first time, and I wanted to try the often linked Sheryl Canter method which employs flaxseed oil as its supposedly superior polymerizing medium.
I'll be stripping it and cleaning it as she describes here:
http://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/01/perfect-popovers-and-how-to-clean-reseason-cast-iron/
Then ignoring her initial avocado oil run in that post to attempt her "black rust" + flaxseed oil reseasoning methods here:
http://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/01/a-science-based-technique-for-seasoning-cast-iron/
http://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/02/black-rust-and-cast-iron-seasoning/
I figured I'd take a couple pictures throughout the process and detail any snags I run into. It's probably going to take a couple days, but if the thread lasts that long I'll detail anything I come up with in here.