Cleaning and removing rust are two separate processes.
Many of your pieces look like it is only surface rust, and not gunk, so they really don't need to be cleaned with a lye bath or oven cleaner.
First wash with soapy water to remove any light dirt or loose rust. Sometimes a light cleaning is all that is needed because some items look much worse than they are. After drying examine the items. If there is still rust there are other processes to try.
Surface rust can often be removed using a simple solution of one part white vinegar and one part water. Soak the piece for 30 minutes in a container large enough to treat the entire pan at once. If not completely submerged in the vinegar solution, the result will be an unevenness of color. Then scrub using a stainless steel scouring pad or steel wool, and rinse well. Additional half hour soaks/scrub sessions may be necessary and are OK, but don't leave the piece soaking for longer periods.
I want to emphasize how important it is at this point to rinse all the vinegar off using baking soda water to neutralize, thoroughly dry the pan, and then thoroughly oil it. Do not wait even 10 minutes to do this because the pan is already rusting and you must stop the process.
Sometimes, there are some stubborn dark stains left behind, and that's not unusual. The thinking is don't use anything harsh to try to remove them or you risk damaging metal. And by damage, I mean leaving any kind of marks, either scraping, grinding, or even polishing swirl marks. The consensus among collectors, though, is it's normal to have some staining and cooking utensil marks on vintage cast iron because people didn't buy pans to display, they bought them to use.
Once free of rust, the piece should be thoroughly rinsed, dried, and seasoned to prevent the return of the rust.
Use avocado oil, which is monounsaturated and has the highest smoke point of any edible oil. Avocado oil doesn’t smoke until 520°F. If you have a good oven bake it at 500°F, but unfortunately my oven only goes up to 450°F, so that’s what I used. If you can't get high temperatures in your oven you can use flax seed oil which has a lower smoke point.
Coat every surface of the pan with the oil and then wipe it off with a paper towel so it’s very thin. You do not want pools of oil on your pan or they will stay forever sticky and you’ll have to strip it back down with the lye and start again. After oiling, put the pan face down in a cold oven (face down so as little surface is touching the rack as possible). Put a pan or some foil below the rack to catch any drips, but it should not be dripping much if your coat of oil is sufficiently thin. Then turn up the heat to 500°F (or as high as your oven can bake). When it’s done preheating, set your timer for an hour. When an hour has passed, turn off the oven and leave the pan inside without opening the door until it’s cool enough to handle. That takes at least two hours.
Then take the pan out of the oven, and rub it with oil and bake it again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. You need at several coats of seasoning because each coat must be very thin. You can’t speed this up. If you use too thick a coat of oil, it will never get hard and you’ll have to strip it all off and start over.
After several coats I started to wonder if the glaze would ever be sufficiently thick, so I added two more coats using strained drippings from some bacon. Again wipe it out with a paper towel so it is very thin. The bake it for two hours at 350°F and let it cool down in the closed oven.
then I need receipes !!!
