About a cast iron skilet

I've always heard good things about cast iron skillets. They last forever, amazing to cook in, no stick, etc. I've just never gotten around to buying one. My grandpa knew about my quest to acquire a cast iron skillet and always kept an eye out for me. In his apartment building, everyone has a storage locker in the top floor and there's a "free for a good home" area for people to place items that they don't necessarily want to throw out but offer to other people who may want/need it. This is where he found my new Favorite Piqua Ware 10" skillet. When I first got it, it wasn't in the best of shape. There was a little bit of rust in the bottom of the skillet, the seasoning was uneven or nonexistent, and there was quite a bit of burnt on goodness around the sides. All it needed was a bit of TLC and it would be good as new. I kept putting it off and putting it off... until now.

I read about a couple different ways to "reset" cast iron and decided on using an oven with a self cleaning feature to just burn everything off and start fresh. So over to my dad's I went. Unfortunately I'm a dummy so I did not get any pre-oven pictures, but here are some after it was in the oven for an hour.

Notice that deliciousness on the sides there. Yum. So after the oven, I just used some SOS pads to scrape away all the ash and junk from the pan. Took quite a while to get it to where I was convinced that everything that could come off, did. Here's what it looked like after scrubbing.

Absolutely amazing right? Couldn't believe how much that worked. Even all that baked on crust on the side came off with no problem. The bottom is incredibly smooth. The underneath looks beautiful as well. Now time to season it. I decided on canola oil after a little research (plus I already had it on hand). Here's the pan before the oven for seasoning.

And here it is after two more coatings and trips to the oven.

I did a little research about Favorite Piqua Ware and found out that they produced cast iron pans from 1916-1935. Here are a couple of different logos that they're had. I don't know if that site has listed their logos in chronological order or not but I would assume that the first one, with it being so simple, is from an earlier time. I would guess that my pan is from around 1920. Overall, I'm very happy with my finished product and hope you had fun reading.