My mom's cast iron 😬

Ready to season. Looks great!

Talk about "burn a' the steak", this is heresy! 😭😱🤌🏼

What grit did you use for this? I've always been curious about sanding down the rougher surfaces, but haven't pulled the trigger since I've read conflicting results about seasoning after the fact.

Steel wool and elbow grease is what it looks like to me.
- Isn’t steel wool too fine for removing bumps?
  For finishing, sure. But I’d be looking around 600grit for my first pass.
I dunno for sure, but that looks like something in the 400 grit range followed by steel wool.
It's a lot of work tbh. Enough so that I don't do it any more.
But, it does improve the cooking surface. You sand down and season with flax oil, and you've got a great surface that even eggs won't give you too much trouble cleaning up.
It doesn't have to be perfectly smooth, mirror finish. And some small pits are okay. No need to really grind the hell out of a pan, you just want to kinda even it out so there's less texture, with the end point being where you decide is good enough.
Back the last time I did one, I used an orbital sander with 200/400/600 progression, then hand sanded to 800, and it was more than smooth enough. Going past that is diminishing returns. I've seen people do a mirror finish and it wasn't worth the time imo. Even 800 is kinda extra tbh. You just don't want highly visible scratches.
There's no reason to sand it down. It just makes the pan worse.
- Nah the nice machine finished cast irons with the smoother finish are soooooo much better, take longer to get a good seasoning on them but when seasoned are fantastic
- I'm well aware that it doesn't necessarily improve anything, which is why I've never sanded my Lodge pan down. However, I also don't see how it would make the pan worse, which is why I'm asking how it impacts the ability for seasoning to adhere, the only thing this could possibly do to make the pan worse. I use a 1950s Wagner for my cast iron cooking now, and I much prefer its polished surface to that of a stock Lodge. I've done plenty of my own Googling to find anecdotal experience with sanding down the surfaces and did not find definitive answers on sanding, so if you have any sources on it being strictly worse or personal experience I'd be happy to learn more.

This hurts. I have that same pan and I love it. Poor thing.

Why would she commit such a crime...

Based on comments I'm not sure if this is bad or good for seasoning?

Not OP but I believe OP is showing this as a bad thing. Mom has been incorrectly cleaning the pan so the patina is all gone. The patina is part of what makes cast iron so good to cook with and takes a lot of time or some effort to build up. So it’s sort of like getting something nice and trashing it.

Nice and smooth!

Ready to wash in a dishwasher.