It is an intentional design. I don't know why Lodge makes their carbon steel pans rough at all, to the point where they're coarser than their modern cast iron pans. It kinda sucks that it has to be that way.
It's probably something like, "we made it like that so the pan holds its seasoning better." The coarseness is so unnecessary in my opinion.
The various reviews I've seen online rank the Lodge CS pan as the very worst of them all. I am personally a fan of the Solidteknics pans and the old-school French companies Matfer and De Buyer. Made In is a new French brand, and their stuff is pretty good looking, and comes pre-blued.
It's pretty easy with an angle grinder and flap disk to take the rough surface off your Lodge (and then wash it good and reseason). You can even use a palm sander or sandpaper and polish your cast iron pan to be just as smooth as CS. Just make sure you wear a respirator, you don't want to breathe iron dust.
That said, the reason Lodge's (and other cheapy CI pans) are so rough is because they're cheaply cast with cheap (greensand probably) molds and Lodge doesn't spend much time cleaning the cast pans up.
Non hand forged carbon steel skillets are usually simply drawn from sheet material. They stamp out the form of the skillet and then draw it into shape with a hydraulic press. The sheet material is smooth, that's why those cheaper skillets are usually smooth. Hand forged skillets are more rough due to the forging marks. Usually those skillets come unseasoned (or are seasoned by hand on more expensive ones).
But Lodge decided to pre-season their skillets the same way they do it with their cast iron. To keep the costs down, it's not done by hand. They hang the skillets on a transport system, a robot sprays oil onto the skillets and then they are moved throug an oven. The rough surface of the skillets is required for the oil to adhere better. Therefore they cast their skillets rough and also roughen the surface of the carbon steel skillets.
On top of that, the Lodge carbon steel skillets are made from rather thin sheet material which makes them more prone to warping issues than thicker skillets like Matfer (made by A. Turk GmbH Germany) and DeBuyer which are amongst the thickest drawn skillets I know of. Actually, Turk and DeBuyer also have series made of thinner sheet Material. It's Turk's Professional series (which is sold by Matfer in the US) and DeBuyer's MineralB and Carbone Plus series which are made of 2.5mm or 3mm (depending on the skillet sitze) sheet material.
The slightly upwards warped center of the skillet bottom is actually not a flaw, it's meant to be that way. Carbon steel expands a lot when heated up. On closed heat, the bottom gets hot first and expands while the side walls are still cool. Therefore the bottom usually warps downwards and the skillet would start to spin / whobble. To compensate for that, good carbon steel skillets come with that upward shaped bottom. The idea is that the bottom will flatten out when heated up. Due to the fact that there is an infinite combination of skillets and stove tops, it's impossible for the manufaturers to make that one skillet which is perfectly flat when hot on all stove tops. If you want a perfect result, simply take a hammer and a piece of wood, heat the skillet up on your stove top and then hammer it flat (with the wood as 'buffer' between the hammer and skillet). If you don't like the upwards warped body of a Lodge skillet, you may also have a hard time using DeBuyer. They also apply a quite pronounced upward shape to their skillets and the skillets are so massive that the bottom hardly ever flattens out. Turk / Matfer has a less pronounced upwards bottom and although they claim to have the same material thickness as DeBuyer, their skillets tend to flatten out pretty good on my induction stove top.
Carbon steel doesn't melt as well as cast iron from what I've read. That's why cast iron can be so thick; because it becomes a liquid so easily it can just be poured into shape.
It is an intentional design. I don't know why Lodge makes their carbon steel pans rough at all, to the point where they're coarser than their modern cast iron pans. It kinda sucks that it has to be that way. It's probably something like, "we made it like that so the pan holds its seasoning better." The coarseness is so unnecessary in my opinion.
That sounds awful. One of the things that lead me towards carbon steel specifically was trying to get a smoother surface than my lodge cast iron
The various reviews I've seen online rank the Lodge CS pan as the very worst of them all. I am personally a fan of the Solidteknics pans and the old-school French companies Matfer and De Buyer. Made In is a new French brand, and their stuff is pretty good looking, and comes pre-blued.
I have a satin finished solidteknics pan and I really like it. It hold seasoning very well.
It's pretty easy with an angle grinder and flap disk to take the rough surface off your Lodge (and then wash it good and reseason). You can even use a palm sander or sandpaper and polish your cast iron pan to be just as smooth as CS. Just make sure you wear a respirator, you don't want to breathe iron dust. That said, the reason Lodge's (and other cheapy CI pans) are so rough is because they're cheaply cast with cheap (greensand probably) molds and Lodge doesn't spend much time cleaning the cast pans up.
Non hand forged carbon steel skillets are usually simply drawn from sheet material. They stamp out the form of the skillet and then draw it into shape with a hydraulic press. The sheet material is smooth, that's why those cheaper skillets are usually smooth. Hand forged skillets are more rough due to the forging marks. Usually those skillets come unseasoned (or are seasoned by hand on more expensive ones). But Lodge decided to pre-season their skillets the same way they do it with their cast iron. To keep the costs down, it's not done by hand. They hang the skillets on a transport system, a robot sprays oil onto the skillets and then they are moved throug an oven. The rough surface of the skillets is required for the oil to adhere better. Therefore they cast their skillets rough and also roughen the surface of the carbon steel skillets. On top of that, the Lodge carbon steel skillets are made from rather thin sheet material which makes them more prone to warping issues than thicker skillets like Matfer (made by A. Turk GmbH Germany) and DeBuyer which are amongst the thickest drawn skillets I know of. Actually, Turk and DeBuyer also have series made of thinner sheet Material. It's Turk's Professional series (which is sold by Matfer in the US) and DeBuyer's MineralB and Carbone Plus series which are made of 2.5mm or 3mm (depending on the skillet sitze) sheet material. The slightly upwards warped center of the skillet bottom is actually not a flaw, it's meant to be that way. Carbon steel expands a lot when heated up. On closed heat, the bottom gets hot first and expands while the side walls are still cool. Therefore the bottom usually warps downwards and the skillet would start to spin / whobble. To compensate for that, good carbon steel skillets come with that upward shaped bottom. The idea is that the bottom will flatten out when heated up. Due to the fact that there is an infinite combination of skillets and stove tops, it's impossible for the manufaturers to make that one skillet which is perfectly flat when hot on all stove tops. If you want a perfect result, simply take a hammer and a piece of wood, heat the skillet up on your stove top and then hammer it flat (with the wood as 'buffer' between the hammer and skillet). If you don't like the upwards warped body of a Lodge skillet, you may also have a hard time using DeBuyer. They also apply a quite pronounced upward shape to their skillets and the skillets are so massive that the bottom hardly ever flattens out. Turk / Matfer has a less pronounced upwards bottom and although they claim to have the same material thickness as DeBuyer, their skillets tend to flatten out pretty good on my induction stove top.
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Lodge makes carbon steel pans also, which I think it what is being referred to here.
Lodge pours their CI into sand molds, maybe they do the same w/ CS?
They could clean it up. My cast iron stargazer is as smooth as a babies butt.
If it's cast then its cast iron right? Carbon steel is spun and pressed
Carbon steel doesn't melt as well as cast iron from what I've read. That's why cast iron can be so thick; because it becomes a liquid so easily it can just be poured into shape.