On Thu, 11 Dec 2008 16:56:12 -0800, "Bob Terwilliger"
> wrote:

>Sky wrote:
>
>> Well, I scored a cast iron Lodge dutch oven at the cost of only $5! The
>> dutch oven has "8 D O" marked on its bottom.
>>
>> The problem is, the seasoning is quite grody, so I need to re-season
>> this puppy. What's the best way to remove the current seasoning?
>> Should I use the clean feature of my oven with the DO inside? What
>> other methods are there? Right now, it's really greasy & sticky as all
>> get out; even the lid is sticky. TIA.

Been there, done that. Found the easiest way is to break out the
old cordless drill. Go to Home Depot and buy an inexpensive
steel brush set for it. They typically come with a roundish one
that looks like a vegetable scrubber and one or two wire sheel
bushes in the 2 or 3 inch sizes.

Wear leather gloves. Your brushes WILL jump now and then
and those wire bristles can cut.

Take your iron stuff out to the patio and start brushing, going
right down to bright metal. If the metal is also pitted, you can
switch to a small sanding disk and grind a little more seriously.
This makes a difference if the pitting is on the bottom inside
of the pot (for more even browning later and for discouraging
further damage to the metal).

Bails can be polisihed with a little fine grit sandpaper.

If you want to play with it , you can throw in some sharp
sand and brush with that inside the pot. It might speed
things up a little.

Then go through the usual seasoning process with whatever
oil suits your fancy (I use bacon drippings), maybe on your
BBQ grill. I use a Kamodo and take it up to 450-550 degrees.
Smokes a lot, but does a good job. May take more than one
pass to get the job done... YMMV.

HTH

Alex