I recently got a new carbon steel wok and have had some trouble seasoning it. I used peanut oil and a combination of the stove top and oven methods described in various newsgroup posts. After a few oil/heat/cool cycles, the seasoned finish developed, but then the bottom and first inch or so of the sides developed a handful of "blisters" and it started to flake off. Subsequent seasoning efforts didn't work, with new seasoned patches forming, while old seasoned places flaked off.

I finally decided to start again and tried to remove the seasoned finish and get back to bare metal. Several scrubbings with "Bar Keeper's Friend" weren't getting very far, so I finally used a heavy duty paint stripping wheel on my drill. I have successfully removed all of the seasoning and am down to bare metal, however there are now "swirl marks" visible on the wok from the stripping wheel. I can't feel them, but they are visible and I'm confident the wok is not quite as smooth as when I bought it.

My first question has to do with why the seasoning might have flaked off. Any ideas? Could it be the quality of my wok? My second question is whether or not I need to polish or otherwise smooth out the interior of the wok before trying to season it again. Will the "micro" scratches be an issue? I'm hoping they won't be an issue, because I'm guessing that polishing it would be a tedious process.

Thanks in advance for any help/advice.

Regards,
Charles Goodman