No, this isn’t a cast iron thing. Using stainless pans, you can get nonstick effects that, in my experience, far outperform Teflon anyway. The process is called “spot seasoning.” I have cooked crispy, cheesy rice noodles with eggs with zero sticking.
I love my cast iron pans, but stainless is my daily go-to. Added bonus: use 100% copper wool to clean your stainless pan. The copper-coated wool at most grocery stores is problematic; you might get a few uses out of the coated garbage and then it starts shedding metal bits.
Been looking at sharpening stones a bit today, genuinely wonder if I could instead get 2 slate roof tiles and grind them against each other until the surface is flat enough to use to sharpen a knife. Would cost almost nothing.
Or bits of slate for making walls, would have more thickness to it but otherwise more irregular sizing. Could chip it to the right kind of size first and then grind the stones smooth though.
I love the wild, devil may care, DIY approach!
It’s the type of lunacy that I would try just to see how it works hahahah
I’ve said in many other threads in regards to cooking, and my knives, that I admit and confess, in full, that I am a complete rebel and sinner
I use a dual wheel Rada quick sharp to blast the correctly angled edge, knowing full-well that it shears off material, and then I quickly use my 14-in hone. I am completely aware that I am gradually eroding my knife, but I don’t care, it’s sharp enough to shave a buffalo and it takes me 8 seconds
I know by official standards and reckoning… I am abusing my knives and doing it “wrong”
But I cook every day, and it takes me 5 years to go through a knife. I completely gave up on sharpening with a stone a decade ago. My attitude is “fuck it, I’ll just get another knife in 5 years, this is a primary tool for me and I’m not going to baby them”
I would love to know how this works out for you though!!! I can absolutely envision a scenario where you angle these pieces of slate and you make yourself your own version of a quick sharp!! This is madness though, which is why I love it LOL
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Now you’ve got me wondering what kind of materials are cheap as hell, come flat out of the production line, and are still more durable than the steel you’re sharpening.
This whole convo has got me thinking!
Well that is why I thought slate tiles. Really any kind of tile is fairly cheap per unit and they are mass produced with the expectation that most people are buying them in larger quantities than 1. I would doubt you can go much cheaper than that unless you are just taking stone and working it yourself, but then you are going to want a lot more tools.
Oh yes, I didn’t say it but I agree with your idea of slate, I personally would love to try it even though I know that will never happen!
I suppose what I meant is, in my experience, there are so many different materials made for so many different industries… a lot of times one exists already for extremely cheap in a place you just wouldn’t think to look.
Not being very experienced with slate myself, I’m not sure if it’s uniform on the surface or how much prep it would take? I know from grinding lenses that as much as we think you can just press two surfaces together and they’ll become flat, the opposite happens. So I’m thinking of slate and thinking how neat it would be if you could plane it down, but I’m also thinking of what else!