Seasoning cast iron cookware

This is the start of what should become a series of posts about my progress in seasoning cast iron cookware.

Objective: achieve a high quality surface on a cast iron skillet.
Summary of intended procedure: clean current skillet with electrolysis then season with flax oil at high temperature.

Phase 1: Electrolysis.
SAFETY WARNING: This process generates extremely flammable hydrogen gas. Use adequate ventilation, keep away from flame, spark, children, and idiots. There is also a possibility of electrical shock. Read all safety warnings and take appropriate precautions or do not attempt.



Materials:

1. Item to be cleaned: 10" Lodge cast iron skillet (used)
2. Plastic tub
3. Old car battery charger
4. Extension cord
5. Sacrificial metal anode: the mesh from an old broken strainer
6. Insulating stand off and structural material: a cut up strawberry crate (light green plastic mesh box) and some plastic bits from a broken Ikea lamp, also a chipped teacup used to weigh the anode down.
7. Arm and hammer washing soda (not baking soda) as the electrolyte. This is not harmful on your skin, but I assume it should be kept out of the eyes.

Safety check: 
My battery charger is quite old and I wanted to make sure it wouldn't explode or catch fire. This is what I did as an equipment test:

1. A small amount of water was added to the tub with some electrolyte. 
2. The two clamps of the charger were clamped to an insulator a short distance apart and placed in the water (put them close to lower resistance, but don't let them touch).
3. The battery charger was set to its lowest setting and placed outside near the tub of water. 
4. An extension cord led into the house so I could control the plug from the other side of a glass door. A glass door isn't much protection but it will stop a splash and prevent hydrogen gas from coming inside the house.
5. After nothing exploded on the lowest setting (2A), I unplugged the charger, opened the door, switched to the 10A setting, closed the door, and plugged it back in.
6. Another concern was that I wanted to see how much hydrogen would bubble off. If it were a raging torrent of gas, I would have to limit current somehow due to fire hazard.

Result: the charger seems to function normally, the process is easy to stop from a safe distance by unplugging the extension cord, and the gas is not produced quickly enough to worry me. I saw small bubbles form on the black clamp and blue crud (oxidized copper, I think) start to collect on the red clamp. Keep the red clamp out of the water if you don't want it to get nasty.

Conclusion: Safe to proceed. Check your equipment for safety if you don't like ambulance rides.

P.S. In addition to hiding behind a glass door, I also wear eyeglasses, which provide additional splash protection. Please wear some form of eye protection.

 Setup:

1. The skillet (cathode) was placed in the bottom of the tub. 
2. The insulating material was placed on top of it and the anode was placed on top of that and weighed down. 
3. The positive (red) clamp was attached to the sacrificial anode while being kept out of the water (so it wouldn't corrode). 
4. The negative (black) clamp was attached to the skillet. It was allowed to touch the water because it could use a good cleaning, anyway. 
5. Water and electrolyte (washing soda) were added until the skillet was completely submerged. Because of the shape of my anode, I added more in order to submerge more anode in the water.
6. The charger was set to 10A, and the door was closed.
7. From a safe distance and from behind a glass door, I plugged in the extension cord to start the process. The charger started drawing 6A.
8. After checking for fires, sparks, and explosions from a safe distance, I moved closer to inspect the setup. Bubbles were forming and everything seemed to be working.

Preliminary Results:
The experiment is ongoing.

The water became brown very quickly. See the following pictures:

Figure 1. Electrolysis based cleaning set up for cast iron. A cast iron skillet is at the bottom of the apparatus. A metal mesh anode is weighed down by a chipped blue teacup. Insulating material separates anode and cathode (the skillet). The brown material in the water is assumed to be debris from the skillet. Photo taken ~15 minutes after starting procedure.

Figure 2. The electrolysis setup ~40 minutes after applying current.

After 70 minutes, there are still no fires, explosions, or emergencies. Current has dropped to at most 2A, which is the bottom of the gauge, which means that the charger may have actually failed. This charger is very old. However, I still see motion so that may be more bubbles coming to the surface or it may be previously formed bubbles popping.

Figure 3. The setup after 75 minutes.

At 80 minutes, I unplugged the charger, removed the mesh anode, and wiped off the gunk with my hand. A lot of it was foamy, but there were solid bits. It was brown and green. Brown from iron rust, green from corroded copper (charger clamps were very bad), and maybe some brown from the oils that were cooked onto the skillet, or so I assume. After reconnecting the charger, current was back to 6A. So, I guess I have to wipe off the anode every 30 to 60 minutes for best results. The experiment continues!