For some background, my great aunt gave me a skillet that belonged to my great grandmother and likely my great great grandmother before that. It was made from 1906-1916, somewhere in that range (can identify it based on the logo and text). Well over 100 years old.
Absolutely disgusting. Super dirty, tons of caked on carbon (can barely see the Griswold logo), and even some paint splatter. Been hanging in the kitchen for the better part of two decades (my great grandma died in the early 2000s). The outside was covered in spiderwebs and dust so thick that it didn’t wipe off, and was super rocky from the carbon.
This is after about an hour in the e-tank, and a little bit of scraping. Seeing tons of bare iron now, including most of the logo.
Starting to see the cooking surface now haha. Looks like barely any pitting if any at all.
Will probably take another hour or two, maybe three, before it’s completely down to bare iron. That black carbon is so hard and thick on the outside that it’s taking a while to soften.
My other pans aren’t quite as bad, and should be much quicker.
I also had to wipe off the anode, which sped things back up quite a bit.
Fun fact: Due to the sheer amount of bacon fat and lard that was used in this pan, I could smell a rancid meat smell after I first put it in the e-tank. Gross.