Sand Blasting or Glass Beading ?

[John Loveall]

I'm a newbie, I hope this is not a stupid question. I searched for these methods on the forum and came up empty.
Is sand blasting or glass beading for cleaning forbidden ?
Im not a metal expert, would these methods harm the pans ?

[Greg Stahl]

John,
sand and glass blasting damages the metal of these antique items and totally destroys the value.

Imagine, as a newbie, you found a skillet worth over $1000 and blast it.  No collector would buy it for $5, as it is ruined.  No amount of seasoning can fix it once the damage is done.

[Mark R. Smith]

They are a NO Never use for cleaning Cast Iron cookware. The only "blasting " you might use is Soda Blasting. But there are easy cheaper ways and gentler ways of cleaning Cast Iron.

There is a whole section of links under the cleaning restoration section that can help.

[John Loveall]

Thank you very much. I will try the oven cleaner method for now.

[Greg Stahl]

Thank you very much. I will try the oven cleaner method for now.

John,
That's how I started too, oven cleaner.  Then as my addiction hobby exploded expanded, I moved to a lye bath and then to electrolysis.   Best of luck, Greg

[Claudia Killebrew]

The oven cleaner works just fine. You just have to be patient. The more crud build up, the longer it takes, but it will work.

[C. Perry Rapier]

The oven cleaner works just fine. You just have to be patient. The more crud build up, the longer it takes, but it will work.

It is as Claudia says. One of the problems is that you can end up with ten dollars worth of oven cleaner in a five dollar skillet. And if thats the case then the only way you can make up for that is volume cleaning. Its like the guy buying hay for a dollar a bale and selling it for a dollar a bale. He told one of his 'smart' friend about this and said he was losing money. His friend told him that he had to bump up his sales, increase volume. So he went out and bought a bigger truck.