Probably a bad wok: Is it total trash?
A couple days ago, I went to Chicago Chinatown to try to find a carbon steel wok at a restaurant supply store. I had some difficulty until I learned that black woks were a form of carbon steel. I brought one home, & just began scrubbing it today as a first step toward seasoning it.
I was a little surprised to discover one thing that I hadn't noticed in the store: Along the lip, there is a wrinkle on the surface that looks like the wok is wrapped in shrink wrap. When I ran my finger over it, I could feel it raised as if there were air bubbles. I then scrubbed it with a Scotch-Brite Non-Scratch scrubbing pad, and the surface scratched up quite a lot. I then ran my fingernail over the wrinkles with light pressure, and the surface began to chip off. I was by this point pretty sure that I'd bought a bad wok, but I didn't think I'd be able to get a refund, so I decided to try heating it up to see what happened—the sticker on the wok said to heat it until it stopped smoking. The coating on the surface began to melt & smoke (edit: pale, grey smoke; not heavy, but visible), & the air smelled a little like burning plastic.
What have I got here? Is this a normal coating that I should just keep melting until it's gone? Is this poison? Is this absolute garbage?
Posted Jul 7, 2022, 11:43 PM UTC · edited
Honestly does look like the factories seasoning was just globbed on that part, try high heat to burn it off and if all else fails scrub that shit with steel wool
Thanks. I'll burn it all off, scrub it again, then season it.
Any luck?
Some luck. I heated the whole thing, rotating the bowl to make sure that it was all directly over the flames, until the smoke decreased substantially. I then let it cool & scrubbed it. A fair bit of the black came off, revealing a silver metal underneath. This is what it looks like now: https://picbun.com/p/paZ26kVr I'm using a non-scratching scrubbing pad. I hadn't imagined it was going to take so much scrubbing before I could even begin the actual seasoning!
Sounds like you got unlucky with some bad factory seasoning, but it looks like you're making progress!
Honestly I would just use steel wool, scratches dont matter so much if you're trying to remove old seasoning. I would also try heating up some white vinegar in the pan to strip whats left and scrub after that.
Then you can season yourself and have a stellar pan!