I am re-seasoning my mother's old Griswold round griddle. It is supposed to take about 3 days to clean off the old finish. I am doing this because it had a thick, black, uneven crust built up in areas. I just got a new cookbook (more like a textbook) called "The Food Lab" and it told me why my pan had that uneven crust, how to prevent it and that I have to re-season my pan to get rid of it. What I learned (I never knew this) is that when you start heating up your pan, you must have the surface coated with some kind of oil or you will get those carbon plaques on the surface. I knew you should keep the pan oiled to avoid rust but I never did that because the carbon was so thick, I never had any. Well, now I know. The pan is one of those that has the smooth surface, not the rough surface that is on cast iron today. A long time ago they used to polish the cast iron till smooth. It makes a much nicer cooking surface.
Cooking Friends