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UNseasoning cast iron

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Anyone have a way to unseason cast iron?
You know, when a pan loses its' seasoned surface, for whatever reason. The pot is still cured at the top but the bottom has lost it's cure.
Is there a way to cure the lost portion without adding buildup to the still seasoned part?
Is there a way to uncure the whole thing and start new /infopop/emoticons/icon_confused.gif
 
Thanks for the link Chris. I thought the question was so strange I did'nt bother doing a search. This place IS amazing.
I too have some hand me downs that must be 75 years old. 1 pc had so much buildup on the outside I actually flaked it off in big chunks with a knife. Underneath the finish was as good as the day it was cast.
Grandma lived in Texas so we only saw her once a year, and did'nt have time to get acquainted with it. The only memory I have is her whipping up a batch of scrambled eggs with these pink bits of meat in it. When asked what they were, she laughed and said "why honey - them's pig brains!".
Not the most pleasant of memories, but I still smile /infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif It's too much fun to use to hang on the wall.
 
I saw this thread and decided to get some pans I picked up at an estate sale in shape (10 inch Griswold and 6 inch Wagner Ware). They were about as nasty as you could get, but I paid a buck a piece. The lady who sold them to me said I would need to heat up a lye solution to get them clean and then start over. You can see why I was procrastinating.

Instead, I put them in the gas grill, covered them in foil. Porbably heated at 700 or so for 30 minutes and everything turned to ash. Cleanup up some rust with steel wool and reseasoned with lard and they are like they probably were 50? years ago.
 
I love cooking with cast iron. The best way Ive found to remove old seasoning is to build a fire either in your fire place, wood stove or out in the yard. put the pan into the fire BEFORE it is lit, light it and let it go. Once the pan has cooled all the old seasoning will be gone. The intense heat will have carbonized all the coating and you will be left with fresh steel.

I personally place the pan against the back wall of my woodstove and then build a fire in front of it.
 
a self cleaning oven cycle would clean it real nice remove the bale first on a Dutch oven though...
 
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