I needed to season a piece and decided to give this some love too. It has been used on a griller over hot coals, and the back of it looked like it didn’t like taking that radiative heat head on.
So I’m on my 4th layer if seasoning it with avocado oil. 450 degrees, 2h, then let it cool overnight with the oven. The back is looking much better, but the cooking surface just began flaking (see picture). I’ve brushed it with a plastic bristle brush. Pretty sure the light spots are the metal underneath.
What went wrong? And how to fix this, do I just keep on seasoning?
In my experience 500 is for burning seasoning off. This is where I disagree with ATK - they say go to your ovem’s max temp. I tried that and it just burns off the seasoning. I now target about 425 and just give it the time it needs.
Flax is too hard, so it flakes too easily for me. It’s beautiful, but seasoning needs a little give, which is why I think avocado and grape seed work well. My flax seasoned pans don’t go in the oven anymore. Someday I’ll redo them with grape seed oil.
Best approach is to start over. But if these are truly tiny spots, and the area around them is strong, you may be able to get away with more layers.
Try scrubbing those areas with stainless steel wool (it’s pretty coarse stuff). If more flakes off then you know the problem is bigger than these little spots. Unfortunately I always find the problem is bigger than it appears. 😕 As I said, I’m dealing with this same issue on 3 pans right now. They’ll be getting grapeseed instead of flax.
This is a centerpiece for a grill, so I don’t expect it to last long. When the time comes for a renewal, I’ll try scraping it bare first.