This was my weekend project! Once I did this to my lodge cast iron griddle and eggs slide on it like glass, I had to do all of my cast iron! Thanks for posting this!

Finally 🥳 someone to actually demonstrate the ridges and the importance of sanding. I honestly thought cast iron can only cook Sunny side up eggs 🍳- who knew scrambled too 😮 . Game changer 👏, TY

Well, geeze...thanks for the "Duh" moment! I am over 60 years old and have never had a non-stick one. I finally get rid of them at a garage sale and then buy new ones. To no avail. What a waste of money! Never again. I have listened to many videos on this subject but none of them explain the why's and how's like you did. Now thanks to you I do! Happy cooking Little Bear!

The most down to earth, informative, and helpful video on cast irons! Thank you

Omg Nic. This totally works. I followed your instructions, seasoned and baked 5 times and my pan is slick as any Teflon. Scrambled egg did not stick at all. Gotta do the rest of my cast iron pans now. AMAZING!

I watched 4 other videos before this on how to get a non stick surface on a cast iron pan and this one is the best IMO. I can’t wait to do this to my set. Thanks for the great video!

This is incredibly informative. Thank you for covering every aspect and not assuming that your audience knows things already! Tutorials a five year old can follow are perfect for beginners. I got a lodge dutch oven for Christmas and it's my first time owning cast iron so this has been a wonderful resource.

I have found that seasoning 3 times with grape seed oil, then once with 1/2 cup each of salt, grape seed oil and peels from two potatoes provided great results on original Lodge bumpy surface. Absolutely no sticking or problems at all. Now I have sanded down my Lodge and have seasoned 3 times again with grape seed oil. I will be seasoning once more with grape seed/salt/potato peels and see how that does. Not sure it will be a perceiveable difference as the original Lodge bumpy surface performed superbly. I'll let you know how it goes. Great video and well presented, thanks. Ciao

So far you and Kent Rollins are two of the videos that didn't sand it smooth to a polished finish. I'm totally convinced that sanding them too smooth takes a longer time to get your seasoning correct. The first 4 I sanding I went too smooth, I had trouble with the seasoning and resanded them with 40 grit to put some texture in the skillet. Now when I sand a rough Lodge or other rough skillet I use 80 grit or 60 or 40 grits. I only sand them a couple of minutes on the lowest or slowest setting and I leave a lot of the original black on. They turn out incredible. They are way smoother than new Lodge but they take on the seasoning great. If I would have found your video earlier I would have saved myself some work and time. Very good instructional video.

Great break down. Cast iron is so fun to get into, if anything just for the history. I recently restored some of my grandma's hand me down campware. Turns out one of the skillets was a 3rd series Erie (which later became Griswold), dating back to the 1890's. Also found a 1940's 3 notch lodge and holy cow, they used to better. Both are proudly in regular use now.

My grandma always used lard and bacon grease on her pans. I did sand my pan down once. I am a bowl maker by trade, and the angle drill I use for sanding bowls is perfect for sanding the bottom and sides of the pan. One pad I use is firm, and has a 1/4 round profile on the edge which is perfect for getting all the way to the edge of the pan. The random orbit sanders to run at a bit too high of a speed for my preference, and with coarse grits, they don't cut as well as a drill/grinder that goes in a circular pattern till you get to the higher grits, like 180 to 220.

My mother just bought a new cast iron pan and I did exactly as he showed and it came out beautifully. So much better..

Been a while bud, thanks so much for this video. My family applied this technique last year and all our pans have stayed smooth and resist sticking so long as we're smart. Thanks also from my wife who texts me frequently how happy she is that our cast irons cook better than non stick pans. Keep up the great work bud.

I’ve watched so many videos on cast iron seasoning and never heard this mentioned. I’m excited to try it out on one of my pans and see how it works. Awesome info!

I sanded mine by hand. Might've taken a little bit of time but wasn't difficult if you don't have a sander. I used 80 grit on the whole pan, inside and out. Didn't remove the dimples, but factory seasoning was stripped. Reseasoned with beef tallow, so far so good. There's a reddit of a guy with 80 layers of seasoning that smoothed out after I think he said 30 coats. Something to try next, maybe, lol. Another thing I do is scrape and chainmail scrub the pan clean all the time to help knock any seasoning high spots down before the next time I season.

Great video. Volume is good, your kindness shines through, and very thorough info. Great teamwork from your wife, too :) I found you on Instagram, and saw the post about subscribing to your KZfaq channel, so here I am! I'll be deleting my IG this year, so I'm very happy to be able to follow such helpful and wonderful content here on YT. Keep up the great work, and God Bless!!

Eggcellent my friend. Thanks for the walk through. Nice bag of coffee ya got there too. 🐻👍

Thank you for showing how to do this. Let's just hope I actually do this!!! Thank you again!!!

You are correct. This is why I look for old Wagner cast iron pans. Lighter, smooth and thinner.

Thanks for the vid. I just hand sanded my cast iron but I realized that I didn’t season it well. I’m going to redo it with your method. 🐻

Thanks so much for sharing! We’ve had a couple of lodge pans for a few years and love them but have certainly been frustrated with the ‘stickiness’. I’ll be doing this on each of them in the next week or so! Such great info

Thank you for this info. Every other method I’ve tried left less than perfect results. Time to sand all my pans down and get me some bacon grease!

Great vid! I’ll be sanding iron this winter

Great video man! Just picked up my lodge 10 inch.

Good info, I've come across a tonne of cast iron content and none of them bring up this point. Sounds so obvious now that you point it out! God bless the bears

My cast iron pans work well when cooking eggs; of course I "seasoned" my pans!

Thank you brother! 🐻👊🏼

I wish you would have done an egg cook before and after...... and a difference in washing the egg out before and after... Mind blowing game changer to the women folk....

That was incredibly informative! Thank you!

A little pitting spread out over the frying surface are a good thing. It helps the oil pool evenly over the surface, easier creating an even oil film when frying. That combined with good seasoning making for less sticking. The seasoning sticks easier to an uneven surface too. That's part pf why cast iron is the best frying pans. So just sand off the peaks and nothing more.

Thanks so much! Had no idea to do this. I've tried cast iron in the past, but always had the sticking issues -- and since the pans are so ungodly heavy I didn't see the point. Will give it a try again using this method. ^_^ PS: Don't see you on The Beartaria Times app yet. Someone asked about cast iron the other day, so I just shared this video there. ^_^

Really frustrating to know that a process so relatively easy and simple for them to do in the factory, that improves the final product so much, is no longer being done.

Field Company cast iron is great, if a wee bit expensive.

Awesome video I’m going to do this to all my cast iron pots and pans 👍🏻

Nice work thank you

Aweosme! I did the same with mine few years ago. 👍

Thanks for the info. I need to strip my skillets down, however do you sand down the outside as well when doing rhe inside?

I can do that on a new cast iron pan without any sticking. The problem is most people do not know how to cook in cast iron. Sanding it and spending all that time is unnecessary.

Great video

17:35 I laughed out loud while watching this. Well done! I'm heading off to Craigslist to save more forgotten tools if life and plan to do the same as you did here. I'll try using the Traeger so that I can fit more in to do at the same time, and maybe it will add to the flavor. Appreciate the video!

That pan turned out nice bro

Have to say I agree with a few of your suggestion and some I totally disagree with. I have witch was my first cast iron skillet was a lodge. I now have over 150 skillets. Good video. For anyone that is helping people get away from the poison that is teflon is a good person to me!!

Good stuff man. Great information

Well that would explain why I had to season the hell out of my pans an order to use them the first time. I tried cooking in them right outta the box from lodge and what a mess I had to scrape and burn off the old food remanence and re season cause once you go to town scraping a lot of your seasoning comes off with it

great video but what where your seasoning temperatures

Great info! I seen you using the lathe as well. I plan to get one here shortly. Have you done any work making chess pieces?

How do you clean it?

Thank you

Just seasoned 4 pans & dutch oven following Lodges directions ... they didn't say anything about warming before applying the seasoning ... didn't sand so I'm pretty sure the time spent on 3 cycles ( let cool normally) wash & reapply was time well wasted ... 😡

When you take cast iron down to metal is it normal for it to turn a copper color when reseasoning. Thank you

Sand w/ salt in the pan?

If you sand these things down super smooth, they're so super non-stick that the seasoning won't stick either.

So when sanding down the factory seasoning, I've seen cases where the new seasoning just disappears once it's cooked in and cleaned the first time. What are your thoughts on that? I'm wondering if those examples were seasoned at too low of a temperature where the fat didn't polymerize as it shoudl have

You should have added a portion how to clean after cooking !!

Great Video.. thank you!

Same ending as most other videos, egg swims in an ocean of grease and doesn't stick.

Ok so leave it in the oven 4 hours after greasing it?

one time you say 4 hrs then you say 45 mins which one is it?

Don't need to sand it to make it non stick..... Waste of time. But if you like it super smooth like glass, then go ahead.....

Great except use metal in an iron skillet and your plastic spatula in your conventional non-stick pans

they used animals fat a 100 years ago to season them

Before we start sanding, where's your mask!?!?!?

This is all still being done, just not by Lodge. Stargazer, Smithey, Finex, Butter Pat, Field, etc.