Restoring cast iron oven doors etc

A. You didn't say in your inquiry if you were going to actually use the oven for cooking, but the originals were kept from rusting with an application of lard. Gently heat the solid lard to a liquid state (use a double boiler),and then paint it on with a cheap bristle brush. The iron seems to drink it up and glows where you have made the application.

If you are planning to store the item somewhere you are done when you've covered the whole surface with a liberal coat. If the door is to be on display.... let it set for at least forty eight hours, then wipe the excess off with old soft toweling. Place one of the old towels in a plastic baggie after it gets saturated with lard. Store this in the freezing compartment for later touch up of dry spots.

If you intend to put the oven back into service, you should start a very small fire in the stove, and when it warms the excess oil will sweat and be obvious. You must wipe this off to avoid a smoke house effect in the kitchen, but the best effort will still cause some smoking so make it a spring project with the windows open in the kitchen, or make your first firing outside after notice to the neighbors!

After the oven is restored to working condition , there will be some places that are starved of oil, they will be obvious with a dull finish. Rub them lightly with one of the old towels you saved in a plastic baggie in your freezer. Old cast iron stoves are wonderful backup cooking/heating utensils here in Oklahoma where we can be without electric power for months due to severe ice in the winter months. They can be found in abandoned farmstead dumps and after sandblasting for rust, we use them for backup heat or put them on a sheltered patio where they serve in cookouts.

Everything you've ever heard about fried chicken on a cast iron stove is true, the breads are incredible,Brunswick Stew and the pies are worth the learning curve of figuring out how to fire the stove.