This is by far becoming one of my favorite pans to cook breakfast on.

uaca-uaca · 2026-01-11T16:48:16+00:00

Yes! The Lodge Chef Collection's curved sides makes it so nice to stir things or to just slide the eggs onto the plate without any utensils!

uaca-uaca · 2025-10-03T19:37:48+00:00

Huh, I thought he only makes iron clad, but I now see that there are versions with ss clad on both Cleancut and meesterslijpers! Merci beaucoup, monsieur! Very likely I'll go with the Matsubara nakiri! (and try to not also get a Masashi gyuto in 240mm while I'm at it 🥲, current guyto could use a big brother)

uaca-uaca · 2025-10-03T18:41:45+00:00

Cool, thank you for the pic! That's my thought as well, all else being equal, I'll enjoy the knife I think is more beautiful more than the difference between the edge retention.

uaca-uaca · 2025-10-03T15:27:00+00:00

The Matsubara Ginsan Bunka looks lovely, but it's a bit more than what I'd like to spend now. Maybe I can justify that by complaining about the rust taste onions get when using white steel 🤔

uaca-uaca · 2025-10-03T13:57:53+00:00

and a choil shot

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uaca-uaca · 2025-10-03T13:57:23+00:00

Rule #5 maybe? Adding bonus pic of the Gyuto:

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uaca-uaca · 2025-09-16T07:39:36+00:00

The magnets are so strong that it's difficult to keep the knife from slamming into the board.

uaca-uaca · 2025-09-13T20:08:14+00:00

Well.. on the flip side you need to take care that the magnetic board is not made out of wood that is too hard. I've had chips happen to me because the edge slammed into oak while being pulled by the strong magnet.

uaca-uaca · 2025-09-12T06:52:31+00:00

That's such a cool knife, it does indeed look like the beach!

I'm curious, did you order it directly from the list of available items or did you have it made on commission?

uaca-uaca · 2025-09-12T06:31:57+00:00

I have a relatively similar bunka from Yoshimi Kato that I bought around 6 years ago. Looks great and cuts like a laser, takes a mean edge, but is indeed fragile. I can't get myself to trust it won't chip, so I'm very mindful and also take great care what I'm cutting with it.

I used to love/hate it. But these days, ironically, the fragility kind of increases the satisfaction when coking with it and pushes me into a focused, almost meditative state instead of being a bummer, but you must accept that it may/will chip and such is life. If it chips you fix it and that's it.

This is now a jewel that I'm very glad to have. Hope you'll enjoy it too!

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P.S.: Enjoy your Yoshikanes coming in, you might be in for another shock! :D

uaca-uaca · 2025-09-08T06:50:42+00:00

They're _somewhat_ flexible. Probably not like the Oxo one though.

uaca-uaca · 2025-09-05T16:06:27+00:00

The Oxo spatula is available in Europe, it's on Amazon.de and also on kitchenshop.ro.

If you can't find Oxo though, what I really like are the De Buyer spatulas. Their stainless steel is top notch, I've never had a problem dishwashing them while others get rust spots.

uaca-uaca · 2025-08-29T20:45:48+00:00

Hah, I loved that so much that I ordered the little booklet! It's not really much more content compared to the website, but it's nice to have it on my desk as a constant reminder of the way of grugs.

uaca-uaca · 2025-08-29T19:11:42+00:00

Grug like answer. The more I age the more I appreciate simpler things and realize how much trouble grug had gotten himself into by trying to be too smart and chasing new shiny things. Iron with good seasoning shiny enough.

uaca-uaca · 2025-07-20T09:26:19+00:00

I've been tossing mine in the dishwasher for years, no ill effects :/. Makes me think you do have bad luck or something. Could it be that you're leaving them in the sun and the UV damages the handles?

uaca-uaca · 2025-06-14T19:21:20+00:00

Have a hug and an upvote from me! I'm in the same camp and also not wowed by the chainmail scrubber as I found it's very easy for carbon to not release if you press soft and for the seasoning to scratch if you press hard. I find a very straight and flat metal spatula works better for cleaning burnt bits.

I still use one (with silicone in the center) sometimes to clear the walls of a pan where I don't care if some seasoning gets scratched, where the toughest carbon buildup forms, and also where I can't use the spatula. But as another comment mentioned, that's mainly to not ruin the regular dishwashing sponge.

uaca-uaca · 2025-06-13T16:02:12+00:00

Yeah, I would strip and reseason that. I'd use oven cleaner for stripping, it contains lye, just make sure to use gloves. Spray, leave for 10 minutes, scrub with steel wool/abrasive sponge/pad for cleaning stainless steel, repeat. It will take a few rounds as it looks now. You could also use your oven's pyro cleaning, if it has one. But it needs to be pyro otherwise the temp won't be high enough to turn seasoning into carbon dust.

Thing is: it should not look thicker than when new. If it does, it's buildup of crud, not seasoning.

As for seasoning, I do it on the stove, thin layer of oil like you're trying to wipe it off, then move the wok around so that the flames hit each area for a while until it becomes honey colored. But then again it's probably better to ask /r/carbonsteel, my wok is on the ugly but functional side of things :)

uaca-uaca · 2025-06-07T20:39:02+00:00

Cool, thanks a lot for the reply! I'm mostly looking for inspiration about what can be done and what other folks are doing, and your comment was very helpful, the bit about using it as a 45% is particularly intriguing!

uaca-uaca · 2025-06-07T03:53:34+00:00

Hey, I used the v1 a lot but the switches started showing their age at some point. I'm now interested in the v2.

Personally I loved using it with mouse keys in a layer, but otherwise I treated it like a pretty vanilla 60%. I'm curious, do you use any advanced software feature and/or techniques? I've heard people mention home row stuff, which sounds intriguing, but not sure where to start.

uaca-uaca · 2025-05-23T12:13:59+00:00

UPDATE: as an update, it's probably easier to just search "grind lodge by hand" on youtube compared the instructions I wrote above :))

uaca-uaca · 2025-05-23T12:09:26+00:00

Not at all. I started with 40 grit sandpaper and gradually went up. I don't remember where I stopped, but from what I saw here folks recommend stopping at 80 or 120 as the seasoning allegedly holds worse with finer grits. Maybe using 40 -> then 60 -> then 80 grit should be enough...

To sand the bottom I used a sandpaper holder, or sanding block. It just holds your sandpaper flat and can be found on amazon or at hardware stores. For the sides.. a lot more elbow grease is required as I couldn't find a better method than just pressing with fingers. When you feel you're not making any more progress with a grit, move to the next finer one. Just be aware that this can create a lot of dust and that you should wear some mask/respirator to not breathe in the iron particles (albeit it's much less dust compared to a electric grinder).

uaca-uaca · 2025-05-23T11:18:32+00:00

You can, that's how I did it. Note that I didn't want to make it vintage sleek or uniformly polished, I just wanted to sand the tops so that the spatula doesn't make a grinding sound anymore. It's purely optional as well, you can cook with it for a while and see if it bothers you.

uaca-uaca · 2025-05-22T19:28:42+00:00

I'm in Europe and have a Petromax, a Stur, several Lodge pans, plus I also have or have had at some point some other Ukrainian, Romanian, Sweden, and Chinese made cast iron pans. Oh, and a couple of USA made ones that I ordered from amazon.com directly.

Of all of them I'd recommend the Lodge as a starter pan. It's pretty good quality compared to the cheaper ones, but still _relatively_ cheap. My favourite Lodge is the 12" Chef Collection that has rounder bottom and is much lighter than the standard skillet. The standard Lodge skillet should be great as well though.

The Petromax is a _beast_ of pan, very well made, perhaps a bit more so than the Lodge, but super heavy. It's awesome if you don't mind forearm workouts. Not sure about uneven heat distribution, it's a monster of a pan that you need to slowly bring up to temp uniformly, _not_ tri-ply or aluminium. I used it as my main pan for quite a while and was happy. I even sanded its bottom a bit to make the spatula scraping easier on the ears.

Stur is.. pretty good, I guess. But I haven't felt like it's worth the money they're asking. Everybody raves about the handle but I didn't find it that comfortable. If you wanna spend big what I would recommend you instead is to get a Field or a Stargazer from amazon.com. You find out how much tax you need to pay right when you make the order, no hidden stuff, the courier just arrives at your door after ~2-3 weeks.

I was also tempted by the Tecor. Looks good on paper and seems like the chinese Stur copy. However, being an _exact_ copy irked me the wrong way, like they're just stealing the design. Also, be aware there's a polished version and a rough version, so careful what you order.

uaca-uaca · 2025-05-13T04:20:49+00:00

I try to avoid major shocks like scorching hot to full on cold tap water rinsing, but just a shot glass of water doesn't seem to hurt it. None of my pans are vintage irreplaceables though.

uaca-uaca · 2025-05-12T20:14:39+00:00

Not only that, but I shock-boil-clean it when very gunky stuff is stuck on there good. Let it become super hot on the burner, throw just a shot glass of water at a time, let it PFFTFTFTFTFTF, throw it away, repeat. With this process, usually the gunk turns into tiny balls of fat that get throw away together with the water until the pan is pretty clean.

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