A little over a year ago I posted about this Dutch oven that I almost saved from my dad's estate sale but he swiped it back from me after I cleaned it up (I was cleaning it for the sale, he didn't know I was thinking about keeping it).
Well, Dad passed away in April and I've been low-key looking for this thing for like a month and a half. Last weekend I finally found it. In the barn. Getting rusty. Again. I have to keep it now for two reasons. One, it has too much of a story to give up now and two, if I find out that anyone let this damn thing get rusty again, I'm going to lose my shit!
As long as you get loose stuff off and coat it, it really doesn’t matter much. It gets better over time. Don’t worry about getting it black like new, thats mostly soot and doesn’t add anything. Mine stay shiny iron forever.
Sometimes I even let it spot rust before the first coat and it gets a cool rusty colour sheen. Similar sheen using unrefined rape seed oil. But really any food oil, even olive oil, works great. Google the smoke point temperature of your oil, or just watch for it to puddle and just barely start smoking.
Good luck!