For those of you who have the pebbly-textured pans from Lodge, this worked really well for me:
1. clean the inside of the pan of any oil, run it through the dishwasher, and then clean it with acetone. (you are doing this so the oil doesn't build up in the sandpaper, and keep it from cutting)
2. get several grits of sanding discs for a random orbital sander. 50, 80, 120, 220. Also get a fine particulate mask. Iron ground with 220 grit paper makes some very fine dust.
3. start sanding the inside of the pan. for a 10 inch pan, this took a while, but it will successfully grind away quite a bit of metal.
4. once you are done with the 220, it should be much smoother, then you can clean it with soap/water again, and then begin the seasoning process. I seasoned my pans outside on a grill.
yes, if you were to use sandpaper that was designed for wet sanding. The problem with most random orbital sandpaper, and most random orbital sanders, is that they are designed for woodworking. Woodworking paper tends to be AlO2 and is typically bonded with a non-waterproof adhesive.
Non-waterproof sandpaper works better on soft materials like wood because it tends to "load" less, so it lasts longer.
If you hand sand, you could use Silicon Carbide paper (the black stuff labelled "waterproof"). This would minimize dust, but cast iron is very very hard, and would probably be difficult to sand evenly by hand.
1. clean the inside of the pan of any oil, run it through the dishwasher, and then clean it with acetone. (you are doing this so the oil doesn't build up in the sandpaper, and keep it from cutting)
2. get several grits of sanding discs for a random orbital sander. 50, 80, 120, 220. Also get a fine particulate mask. Iron ground with 220 grit paper makes some very fine dust.
3. start sanding the inside of the pan. for a 10 inch pan, this took a while, but it will successfully grind away quite a bit of metal.
4. once you are done with the 220, it should be much smoother, then you can clean it with soap/water again, and then begin the seasoning process. I seasoned my pans outside on a grill.