Can I sand the coating off a non-stick pan (and have a usable pan at the end)?

The same oxalic acid that’s in spinach and the oxalis plant?

Huh. Learned a thing.

The powered chalk used to snap a chalk line makes a good mild abrasive. Get the white stuff; you don’t want blue or red chalk. I use it as I would Ajax to clean a fiberglass shower stall. I have done vigorous scrubbing in an inconspicuous spot, and it will not scratch. I think it is the active ingredient in Soft Scrub, which I don’t use because it makes everything smells like ersatz lemon.

This. Or give the pan to one of my boys to cook with for a day or two.

(Honestly, I don’t have a steel utensil in the house, but they manage to gash up any nonstick pan they get their greasy little hands on.)