I was given this pan by a buddy downsizing. It hasn't been used in 5ish years and to me looks a touch rusted. Am I completely off base to just buff it out using barkeepers friend and then re-seasoning in the oven?
this post was submitted on 28 Dec 2025
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Cast Iron
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this is a lodge pan, I have one of these. they rust pretty easily as they aren't a super smooth cook surface. realistically you'd be perfectly fine just to clean with some salt and cook with it, reseasoning would be nice but optional. however, you can improve the pan a lot by actually sanding it down until it's smoother and reseason completely. this will VERY slowly happen naturally over time as well.
some people will say sanding cast iron is heresay, but lodge pans are bottom of the barrel as far as cast iron goes. doesn't mean they aren't good out of the box and cant be great with proper care, but they can definitely be improved with a bit of elbow grease.
there's tons of guides online for it as well.
Thanks! Ill probably try just salt first and see if I want to go the full 9 yards sanding.
Meh... no need to sand. Just use it and over time it self-levels with the seasoning. I have perfectly flat bottom pans and I have lodge pans. It's never mattered - both work great.