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I recently got the 18cm lodge cast iron pan that comes pre-seasoned. I wanted to take the pre-seasoning off using a scourer and baking soda. I then dried it and put canola oil onto it and rubbed off the excess and put it in an oven preheated at around 410F/210C for an hour and let it cool in the oven. The pan ended up looking weird like in the photos I've attached. All photos are of the same pan under different lighting-the first is in natural room lighting, the second directly under sunlight and the last one is under my yellow cooking light. Is it rust? I'm concerned about any potential health risks if I cook with it like this.

Natural Lighting Direct sunlightYellow cooking light

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Your seasoning is uneven. Possibly because of the very pitted rough-cast nature of modern cast iron pans. It looks like your oil has been more attracted to itself than the pan surface.
DIY seasoning isn't evenly black to start with. It's brown. The black comes with time & repeated re-heats.

You could see if several repeated coats will eventually smooth out - seasoning is not done in one go, it's done over several repetitions using the absolute minimum of oil each time.

I'm at a loss as to why you considered it necessary to remove the professional quality seasoning provided by the manufacturer to save you have to go through this yourself. It does fortunately look like you weren't totally successful in removing all the existing seasoning, or your first DIY coat would have been spotted brown over silver-grey.

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  • Thank you for the reply. I tried scrubbing at the seasoning because right after I bought the new pan I was advised to add another layer of seasoning to it and then it turned out a dark brown the next day which I thought was rust and tried to scrub it off. Then today I went through the seasoning process again and it turned out like this. Also, do you know if microfibre cloths can be used to apply oil or will the cloth absorb all of the oil as they are so absorbent. And if it remains patchy after multiple tries would you suggest scrubbing and starting over?
    – Pyk3
    Dec 28, 2020 at 9:26
  • Keep it away from water, let alone soap & scourers, at least until you've rebuilt the seasoning, or it will rust. Tasty trick - fry pancetta in it (not bacon as it's often too wet, though that can depend on where you live). Reserve any fat you can pour off, wipe out the rest to as thin as you can. Put that upside down in the oven with a baking tray to catch any drips, hot as it will go (you may need to open the windows if your extractor can't keep up with the smoke). Repeat until the surface is again almost black. DIY seasoning is never quite as black as the industrial starter they gave you.
    – Tetsujin
    Dec 28, 2020 at 9:34
  • Microfibre will do, though so would a clean dish cloth (just not a paper towel as it will leave fluff) - basically you want almost 'no oil' in the pan. Wipe off as much as you can.
    – Tetsujin
    Dec 28, 2020 at 9:36

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