Timely topic. I just salvaged an old one from wife's restaurant. 12" that had been left to get too hot and burned a thick layer of carbonized cornbread. Firstr mistake I made was to get the bright idea of popping it into oven on self cleaning cycle. Smoked the whole house up something awful. But it did burn off much of the several years old seasonoing that were ruined. Then i took a wire rotary brush on drill and got all the old carbon off down to the bare metal. In hindsight I could have bought a new one or sent this one out to be sandblasted.
To season I placed lightly oiled upside down in oven at 300 for 2 hours. Placed a pizza pan on the rack below to catch any oil drippings. Let it cool in the oven and then repeated. Came out a bronze color which will get darker with use.
I do not use soap. Just rinse out with hot water after it cools. Wipe out with paper towel and lightly coat with oil/pam when storing. They get better with additional use, ultimately turning black. That carbonized surface essentially becomes non-stick. Don't get moldy in my experience.
Pic of very old 8" sitting inside of my old, but newly seasoned, 12" salvaged pan. I have an 18" to be re-seasoned next...use it for frying outside on a BIG propane burner. Oh yeah...a little 5" in the back...I sauteed onions in it last night and haven't gotten around to rinsing it out
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