I've had grandma's pans for two years but it was the "it's grandma's" of it that made me hesitate to do this before now. So while I was still riding the high of that last restoration, I decided to rip off the bandaid and go ahead and spray down grandma's favorite skillet. Something interesting I noticed (I wish I could fit more than 20 pics in a post) was that the left pour spout was noticeably more crusty than the right one was. I wonder if that was because she was right handed?
I used the Easy Off method with this one too, since I already had all the supplies for it, and it seemed like it came clean easier than the first one I did.
This skillet is my entire childhood. Basically every hot breakfast I ever ate as a child was cooked in this skillet. I was taught to make biscuits and gravy with this skillet. It's like holding a piece of my grandma's heart in my hands. I DID have a good cry after I sprayed it down the first time, and then my other grandmother gave me some perspective (imagine a very thick country accent) "Yeah they just get crusty like that sometimes. Whenever mine do I just stick em in the oven for four hours and all the crap falls right off." It made me realize there was no reason to be precious about the gunk, and that it was far better to turn it into a usable tool so that I can use it and remember her than to leave it on a shelf gathering dust. I'm beyond happy with how beautifully it turned out, and the first thing I'm going to cook in it is fried tatersnonions, which is one of my favorite meals she taught me to make. I can't wait!!!