Which reminds me of a story about someone who bought a house in an Irish village and wanted to light a peat (“turf”) fire in his fireplace. The stuff used to be widely used as a household fuel, but it’s reportedly hard to light. So he asked for advice from one of the villagers, only to be told that no-one there knew how to light a peat fire; although they all had a peat fire in the house, none of them had been allowed to go out for generations. 
Does it matter what kind of oil is used? Should I save my good olive oil for food and use the canola oil on the pan?
I wouldn’t use olive oil for seasoning. Use vegetable oil.
Every time I’m done with mine, I just give them a light layer of crisco. Grease 'em down just so that you can’t see the “white” of the crisco.
Cast iron story: my grandmother died last year, and I didn’t make it home for the funeral. At Xmas I’m at home and my mom says, “oh, we saved you one of mammie’s cast iron pans.”
It was a 9" Griswold that was probably about 50 years old. 
Black as night. You couldn’t stick tape to the surface of that thing. Thanks, Grandma.
How often should one be re-seasoned?
Definitely don’t use olive oil for seasoning. Olive oil has a very low smoke point (it burns easily) and a pretty pronounced flavour. Canola oil, or other relatively neutral oils are your best bet.
With most things, the process of cooking is seasoning it.
At least that’s my take on it. When I make corn bread, I have crisco in it. I pre-heat the pan in the oven at 450 for about 20 minutes before putting in the batter. That’s basically seasoning it.
I found a cast iron skillet and an Aebleskiver pan all covered with rust. I’ve been attacking them with steel wool and soapy water, since it’s obvious I’m going to have to reseason them. But I have to say, the bumpy backside of the Aebleskiver pan is driving me to drink. I just can’t seem to get all the rust off. It hides in little corners I didn’t know where there. The cooking surface is fine. Can I get away with seasoning it with a little rust on the back, or is that verboten?
Just season right over the rust spots. The seasoning will keep the rust from touching the food, and hopefully prevent any further oxidation in that area.
I think I love you, silenus. My sore elbow thanks you. It’s about all out of grease.
Naval jelly? It would get in all those little corners.
But is it safe for food surfaces? Even if I wash it really well, that makes me nervous. 'Though I guess it is only on the back…
WhyNot, do you know anyone with a sand blaster or a bead blaster? That’d to the trick right quick, as long as you were prompt about seasoning it when it was cleaned.
That’s how my Grandma taught me to do it. Pour a little salt in there, with just a bit of water. Then scrub around with a paper towel. Once everything breaks free, rinse it out, and immediately dry with more paper towels. The salt is abrasive enough to polish it to a black sheen, that’s perfectly non-stick. (also abrasive enough to take off your fingerprints if you don’t watch what you are doing.)
She also told me, and I’ve found for myself too, that seasoning works better with heavy fats, rather than vegtable oil. Usually I buy myself a stick of pepperoni,slice it, and throw it in the pan until all the fat melts out. Then eat the pepperoni with good mustard :), and season as normally with the oil in the pan. After a couple of treatments like that it looks like grandma’s 40 year old pan.
Basically I think all you are doing, is breaking the oils down into graphite(a great high-temp lubricant), and forcing it into the pan’s crevices until it stays.
Carbon, yes. Graphite…eh, I’m not absolutely sure, but I doubt it. Graphite is a form of elemental carbon which is chemically arranged in 6-carbon flat rings that slide past each other, thus the lubricant effect, but I don’t think it forms in significant quantities in a hot pan. It normally has to be mined or manufactured under very high temperatures and pressure.
Why shouldn’t I wash my cast iron with soap if I’m just going to re-season it anyway?
Because you don’t want to have to re-season your cast iron every time. A good seasoning takes time to develop. If you are destroying it every time you use the pan, what’s the point?
Alternatively, the “self-cleaning” feature of electric ovens will do in a pinch. If you can find grandmas cast-iron pan, try that, though she may object vociferously - they seem to have a much smoother initial surface, the vintage ones that is. I recently bought a Lodge 15" skillet for group camps - tired of feeding the masses from a pan… My culinary skills started out encumbered - expensive freeze-dried twaddle burnt in a paper thin aluminum hiking lid. Even hiking, I still carry a tiny cast-iron skillet much to the horror of those who drill out toothbrush handles and all that.
The cast-iron stuff will rust in a heartbeat if it isn’t cleaned and preserved thoroughly and dried right away, it’s not a file-and-forget item like modern aluminum-teflon.
I cooked chili in my cast iron last night. Without using soap, how am I supposed to get that thick chili taste and smell off of the cast iron? Also, without soap, what kills the bacteria from using raw beef?
A cook at a restaurant here suggested that I put my dirty cast iron over an open flame and burn the food particles off. Will that work better?
It will work. If you are paranoid about such things, just stick the pan in a 500° oven for 30 minutes. Any germs will be DOA.