please try to ignore the red color that looks like fire damage

[Lewis Downey]

This #9 skillet came to me with a nice Griswold #9 lid. The lid is in perfect shape. The bottom of the skillet was not red when I started cleaning it. It has moved several times from LB to electro to MB and back. Ok only once in the electro so far.  I think the red is some artifact of the iron and the molasses bath. I think I can scrub it off <famous last words>.

For the sake of discussion, please try to ignore the red color. Is this a fake Griswold 2509 or did something horrendous happen to the skillet? Except for some pitting the inside looks perfectly fine. I'll motivate to remove the red (if I can) and take more pictures.

The skillet is not a spot on perfect fit for the lid. There is a millimeter or two of overhang on each side.

[Lewis Downey]

I pulled it out of the MB and hit the back of it with a ss scrubbie for 15 seconds and again with a ss toothbrush for another 15 seconds. The scrubbie didn't touch the red color but the toothbrush did. I also took a pic of the cooking surface.

[Cheryl Watson]

Can't and should not ignore the red color, as it is indicative of the true problem....

Looks like sulphur pitting, which occurs from high sulphur content burned in coal and gas stoves... which has permanently scarred the iron and altered content/composition in that area... paired with high heat....

Eventually should be able to be minimized, and will make a good user anyway!

[Lewis Downey]

Cool! Thanks Cheryl.

To make sure I understand... a fuel source with  high sulphur content was used. Sulphur of some form (gas? smoke?) contacted the skillet at high heat and damaged it. Did I miss anything?

Any advice on what to do from here to optimize the situation?

[Russell Ware]

Lewis, 2509 corresponds to a Griswold #9 hinged skillet. Does the lid have a tab that fits the hinge on the skillet? I can make out what is left of the small logo in the center. It's legit, just too bad it is severely pitted. Try to pass on these pieces in the future. The only thing you can do in this situation is alternate cleaning (electro or molasses) and scrub until (if ever) the discoloration is removed. The problem with pitting like that is that this piece will more than likely keep rusting in the future as it is used. It may not season well either.
The sulfur that caused the pitting was in the cooking heat fuel source, i.e., coal, propane, methane, etc.
By the way, "it wasn't like that when I got it" really is not true. It was like that, you just couldn't see through the crud. Good reason to pass on cruddy, pitted pieces.

[Lewis Downey]

Russell, thanks for adding information.

The skillet does have a tab for a hinged lid.

When it first came out of the LB, I scrubbed the back of the skillet down to bare metal - about like the toothbrushed area in the previous pictures. The red color was not there at that time. It showed up after a visit to the molasses bath. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

There is no doubt that the iron was damaged when I got it. The pitting showed up immediately in the LB, but the red color wasn't there after the initial scrub down to raw metal. That color is returning to the toothbrushed area from yesterday afternoon. After taking the pics on Tuesday, I threw the skillet back in the MB. A quick check this morning shows that the red is returning.

I wonder if feed molasses have a component that reacts to sulfur pitted iron. I don't know if that color would/will show up in the electro. I can scrub it down and toss in the electro to see. If the red color doesn't does show up after a period of time in the electro, then I would not have ever seen it except for the fact that I am experimenting with molasses. I would have seen the pitting only.

Moving forward, I'll try to avoid posting cleaning and restoration questions about iron that is obviously of no interest as a collectible.

[Lewis Downey]

Here is another example of red color appearing on an otherwise clean looking piece of CI fresh out of the lye bath after it was treated in a 10% molasses bath.

The first picture was taken yesterday to post to another thread. The Lodge skillet had been in the LB for several days. It had not visited the electro or the molasses bath beforehand. You can see that the skillet looks almost ready to season. The cooking surface (not pictured) was rougher looking, so I opted to toss it in the molasses bath.

Less than 24 hours later, it was pulled out for a look-see. The skillet has lost its clean raw iron look and has gained some red coloration on the bottom to boot. Sez me, had I put this straight into the electro, it never would have shown the red color or the general grunge tone that appeared after several hours in the molasses bath.

Other skillets go into the molasses bath and  after scrubbing, come out looking cleaner.

I wonder what is going on chemically and what it means for these two cases:
1) molasses removes rust and makes the piece look cleaner.
2) molasses discolors the iron somewhat and might reveal red tones similar to sulfur damage. [In the 2nd scenario, thus far I have always been able to get back to a clean metal look overall but with damage from highly sulfured fuel still evident.]

Informed insights and wild speculation both appreciated!

[Tom Neitzel]

Moving forward, I'll try to avoid posting cleaning and restoration questions about iron that is obviously of no interest as a collectible.

Lewis, don't stop posting cleaning questions.  In my mind it doesn't matter what the piece is, if there is something magic you have found or an observation like this, it is of value.  It could just as easily happen to a collectible piece.  I have a Lodge waffle iron in the MB right now that has turned a bright red.  It seems to rub off with my finger, but I've still got it soaking.

Tom

[Russell Ware]

As far as the red color, isn't molasses slightly acidic? I just figured this red color comes from the further oxidation of the iron to red ferric oxide (Fe becomes +3 from +2) with the reduced acid forming a salt and water molecule. Perhaps leading to damage if a piece is left in the bath too long, or if the bath is too strong.
The other possibility is that your cleaning is uncovering heat stressed iron from prior use/misuse. Is any of this color on the cooking surface, or is it just on the skillet bottom?

[Lewis Downey]

Molasses are slightly acidic. The bath is a 10% solution at about 65-68 degrees F.  The bath is over a month old. The piece was in less than 24 hrs before it began turning red. The red color is only on the bottom, but the whole piece turned unexpectedly dark. The dark color on other  pieces just out of the MB comes off easily after a dunk in the electro. Your theory that the bath is revealing stressed iron seems like the practical take-away to me. Some pieces display the color but some don't.  If the stressed iron theory is correct, molasses reveal issues that could otherwise go unrecognized by rookies like me. If the electro had been available I absolutely would have tossed the almost-spotless skillet shown in reply #6 into it, then I would have proceeded to season it without any guess that the iron had issues.

One difference from Tom's piece in response #7
Unlike the current state of Tom's piece, the red on the back of the skillet from the first post in this thread only came off with serious scrubbing using a SS toothbrush. The SS scrubbie wouldn't remove it.  But it did come off. The electro helped.

Some of the chemical make-up of molasses
When I bought the molasses from Mule City Feeds they looked up their records from the distributor and read off the ingredients as follows:

Cane molasses with
      vegetable oil licithin
      magnesium chrolide
      phosphoric acid
      sulfuric acid
      preservatives
            proprionic acid
            sodium benzoate

[Mark R. Smith]

My wild idea before reading the last post was this Sulphured Molasses and reading the ingredients yes it is. Now I'm not a chemist, my son is, but the chemistry I know the sulphur in the molasses could possibly be cause the reaction.

[Mark Zizzi]

I'm with Cheryl.. at this point, it's a good user. Cooking surface looks ok. Bottom is messed up. Maybe another round of electro, then clean it up, season it and use it..or gift it to someone who will if you don't need it.  ;)