re: How did you season your cast iron

Looks great.

This #10 looks like it may be fire damaged. I got all the rust off of it without much issue. I put it on the grill after trying just about every other method to get it to bare metal. Then I put it in the oven on the self clean cycle. It still looks awful, carbon “looks like” it’s still stuck on some spots while others are bare. It’s not pitting, it looks like cracks in the metal. Never seen anything like it.

I have 6 other iron pieces that I took down to bare metal and restored. They all look good and function well.

Buy it already done.

camp fire

I have tried several oils, but think grape seed is the best I have used. You need something with a high smoke point. I don't use such a high temp to season. The guidelines I followed when I first started redoing cast iron pieces said to do a thin coat of oil, rub it into a hot (on stove) skillet, then bake it at 250+ for an hour or so, then let it cool naturally.

I would do this a couple of times, then start cooking in it. First I would cook bacon, then make hash browns, and so on. The more you cook in it, the better. I keep many of the pieces in the oven and often when using the oven for something else, I just use the heat for another round of seasoning.