restoring a cast iron dutch oven

Unless it's deeply pitted, it will work just fine.

Wet-sand it and wash it off in plain water, take it outside, put it on a firebrick, and heat it to a red heat with a weed-burner.

Then it will season quite easily. I use Canola Oil.

Joe Gwinn

Got a Dutch oven pot, which has gotten rusty. Not a little spot of rust, nor a bit of rust, but the "got left out in the rain far too long" 100% coat of rust.

Naval Jelly to clean it up first, or just start with the wire brush in a drill?

Or put it in the recycle bin?

Old stove cleaning consisted mainly of swabbing the hot metal with vinegar-soaked rags. It turns brown rust black, and the rags get black, too...

After the pot cools, rinse off the vinegar and wipe down with any old oil, then get it up to smoking temperature to season it.

I suspect that by "any old oil" you mean "any cooking oil that has not yet gone rancid." B-)

Oh, of course edible oils only need apply; not corn oil (gummy at heat), and not extra virgin olive oil, or bacon grease, but the browned canola from my deep fryer would be suitable.

I've had success with my cast-iron pans (practically the only things I use to cook anymore, along with my two stamped-carbon-steel saute pans and my C.I. Dutch oven), but I don't claim any expertise. Mine were not really rusty except on the outside of the bottoms. I sprayed them with Easy-Off and bagged them in black trash bags, and then left them in the hot sun for two days. Most of the crud scraped off. Then I scrubbed them and soaked them with 1:3 Clorox solution:

I don't know why, but the Clorox does reduce some rust. But those are not C.I. Dutch ovens. I used this on my Le Creuset Dutch oven years ago, and it worked. The ceramic on that pot cracked after 50 years. Things just don't last anymore...

Finally, with a C.I. pan that I bought 55 years ago and never cleaned much, I went at it with a sanding disk on my 4" angle-head grinder. Hmmm...not as fast as you'd think, but it did work. I was covered with black dust afterward, and it really stuck to me. I needed a shower after that.

BTW, I did not pay the obscene price for the Creuset pot, and I would not. My parents sold them in their store.

Good luck!