I watched a show with some stuff about Lodge Cast Iron on the History Channel the other night. After they cast the pan, they just have a robotic arm use a spray gun to coat it with "seasoning", then run it through some type of fancy heating system.
I'd wondered before how the Lodge Preseasoned cookware worked, but with that thin of a coating, I can see why they really wouldn't be seasoned. The pans were also suspended by the handle through the process, so it didn't look like the bottom of the pan would get nowhere near as seasoned as it would while laying flat.
I called my old mess sergeant about his method yesterday afternoon. He said that in order for something to be nonstick, it had to be flat, that little spikes and ridges in the casting was what the food was sticking to, they didn't have to be iron, that built up carbon would also do it, which is why he used the grill stone. Said it worked like a whet-rock to 'hone' those ridges and spikes down flat. He said he always thought that the salt worked because the oil stuck to the grains of salt and the stone forced both down into the casting.
I can't repeat every word he used because if I did, I'd be banned from this forum for life, but the gist of it was that anything cast would have food stick to it unless it was seasoned and his way had worked for him for 23 years and he sure as heck wasn't going to try or recommend any other way.
He also said that he loved his wife of 22 years more than anything, but she knew if she ever got caught using soap on one of his cast skillets that he'd slap her naked and steal her clothes!
