 Hey guys, how's it going? So today we're going to talk about restoring only Chinese walks. My friend is part of Brand New House, it's fantastic, it's got a great kitchen and a gas stove. He's been wanting a gas stove to cook with for a very long time. And naturally I asked him if he had a walk. He said he did have a walk, in fact he had two walks. But he doesn't use them. And the only reason he doesn't use them is because they're old, right? He says they're over 20 years old, they're dirty, they're rusted, and he wouldn't even know where to start when it comes to cooking with the walk. Well, if you think making stir-fry is, the walk is very simple, a lot goes into it, there's a lot of walk hair, you have to respect the walk, you have to take, I mean, you have to make sure that you're in a rush and that you keep on seasoning it with layers and layers of oil, more oil as you cook with it. With these walks being so old and rusted and dirty, I was really curious, I asked him to bring them out. He went to the kitchen, he rumored just through the lower cabinet and he brings out two walks. And clearly when I first looked at it from afar, I could tell they were pretty old. And also they got me really excited because I had a weekend project. I knew deep down inside, I knew I could restore those walks to a former glory. So he gave me the walks and I told him, give me some time and I will bring them back to you, re-seasoned and they will be as good as new. I recorded the entire process and I am going to walk you through. All right, let's take a closer look at these walks. So the first one is a longhand walk, it's seen better days, but it is in really good shape. There is a lot of crud surrounding the inner part of the walk, very sticky to the touch. I don't think this one is going to take too much work to clean off. It's this other walk that I am concerned with. It is definitely in worse shape. It's a thinner walk. There is a lot of stickiness to the bottom. And when I flip this around, you are going to see a lot of rust. So I will take a lot of time to scrub off. I will be using EZ-Off to remove as much of the residue from the walks as much as possible. EZ-Off is great stuff, it's feel free, but still keep open ventilation. And then there is Barkeeper's friend, this is an abrasive. This is amazing stuff. I will be using this to remove what the EZ-Off cannot remove. And I will be using it to remove the rust. As you can see, I have lined my stove with paper napkins, simply because I am a messy sprayer. Make sure you turn on your exhaust fan, open your windows, even though this EZ-Off is feel free. You never know what kind of invisible chemicals is giving off. Give the walks a nice even spray, keep that can upright, and make sure you get the edges and so forth. And that's why you want to use napkins as well, because it will save your stove from any excess spray. Here I am with that second walk. And once done, you can let the spray do its magic for about 3.5 hours. At this point, you just have to wait. But 3.5 hours is more than enough time for EZ-Off to penetrate the residue. Alright, 3.5 hours are up, and I transferred this walk to the sink. I put on a pair of hot pink gloves, and I have a used scrubber. Please do not use a brand new scrubber, you will just be wasting it. Please protect your hands with the gloves, and you will see how great this stuff works. And apparently this is how caramel is made. That's kind of gross actually. I'm actually very pleased with how EZ-Off came off. The EZ-Off did a great job. But it didn't do an excellent job. There's still a lot of residue that's on the outer part of the ring. I will use Barkeeper's friend to care of that. But before that, I will actually turn this thing around and work on that rust that's spot. As you saw earlier in the video, there is a lot of rust in the bottom. The water, the dampness kind of masks the rust you see here, but believe me, there was a lot of rust. So I'm going to use this Barkeeper's friend, and I am going to sprinkle this stuff liberally all over the bottom of the walk. I feel like I need it, there is a lot of rust. And with that same scrubber, and also please do wear gloves. This stuff is an abrasive. I will start to scrub this thing in a circular motion, hoping to get rid of all of the rust if possible. As you can see, out a few minutes, it did review a lot of the metal. A lot of bare metal now, which is great. This walk actually is in very good shape. I'm glad that none of the rust is in through the walk. And then a little bit of Barkeeper's friend in the front just to finish it off. Quick rinse. I'm going to get the rivets, the handlebars, you know, the metal prongs, they are holding the metal rivets and the wooden handles intact. Because they can get pretty dirty too over time. As you can see here, I am getting ready to wash that second walk. Now there is one thing to keep in mind. You are removing years and years of seasoning, years of oil. And through the years, the oil, the film that is accumulated is actually protecting the walk from rusting. And since you are removing those layers, the walk will start to rust pretty much very quickly. The oxidation process starts really fast. Once you have your walk rinsed, immediately with paper towels, dry it as best as you can. Next, what I'm going to do is take off the handle from the long handle walk. A simple twist counterclockwise. And that will remove the screw that is fixing the handle to the end of the walk. It may take a little bit of elbow grease. I struggle a little bit here because I don't think this thing has ever been removed. Eventually, I feel a little bit of wiggling and fighting with the walk. I managed to break the handle free. Next, preheat your oven to 400 degrees. We are at the point of seasoning the walk for the first time. Add about a tablespoon of vegetable oil or canilo oil. Avoid using olive oil because olive oil has a very low burning temperature. Take a paper towel and coat the inside of the walk as evenly as possible. Get it between those rivets, get it around the outer edges. Since this will form the first layer of seasoning, it's very important that you have a nice distribution of oil all over the walk. What you're going to see in a little bit is I will actually turn that walk around and also coat the bottom of the walk. Now the reason I'm coating the bottom of the walk is that even though there is a lot of seasoning, a lot of protection from previous uses, there are still gaps in the middle and I just want to fill in those gaps. With both walks seasoned, it's now time to get them ready to be placed into the oven. First off, though, as you can see, the walks do have wooden handles. The one with the long handle was able to be removed, but the other handles on this walk and the other walk, they cannot be removed. So what I did was I cut strips of cloth from old towels and I wrapped the handles with the towels and then I wrapped them one more time with aluminum foil. What this does is it prevents the handles from cracking, from burning, from sinching, when placed in the oven. So I completed this handle for this walk and I also did the same for the two handles for the other walk. Next I put the walks in the oven. As you can see, I separated the walks. I wanted to even heat the distribution so they went in one at a time and I baked them at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. Make sure to have your exhaust fan on or window open because sometimes it does get smoky. When you remove the walks out of the oven, please be very, very careful. They are going to be very hot. The handles that are wrapped with the cloth and aluminum, they are really good at retaining heat. Keep that in mind. Once the walks are cool to the touch, you can start removing everything else and also to reattach the handle. As you can see, a really nice brown tinge has formed inside of the walk. That's what you want. That is the first layer of seasoning. It's going to be nice and glossy, it's going to be relatively smooth, it's not going to be really that sticky. But the seasoning process is not complete yet. We still have a couple more steps to complete before we can call these walks officially seasoned and ready for use. Alright guys, we're at the home stretch, we're almost there. Next we're going to season this walk even more. First put the walk on the stove, set the heat to high and immediately you are going to notice the bottom of the walk is going to start to brown. That's perfectly natural. Add a bit of vegetable oil or canola oil as before. Do not, as I said before, do not put in any olive oil. Switch the oil around and then I'm going to put in the first lot of aromatics. I am going to put in green onions or scallions and a little bit of chopped ginger. What this does is it will actually neutralize any of the metallic smell. Remember we just scrub the crap out of these walks. The last thing we want to do is transfer any types of metallic smell to the food. These aromatics will actually neutralize that smell. As you observe this process, the bottom of the walk is getting dark and darker. I am just swishing the green onions and the ginger all around the walk, trying to pretty much coat it as best as I can to neutralize that metallic smell. If the ginger and the scallions are burning, don't worry about it. It's natural. We're not going to be eating these scallions and the ginger anyway. These are going right to the trash once we are done with them. Time for the second set of aromatics. I am using garlic and onions. Don't be afraid to add a little bit more oil to the walk. Again, you want to cook these in high heat until they brown. Look at that. A beautiful dark brown patina has formed in the inside of the walk. That is exactly what you want. Once you toss out aromatics, give the walk a nice wipe with a paper towel. That's really it. Now this walk is ready for everyday cooking. Before you guys go, there are some very important walk care tips that you need to keep in mind. You just spent a lot of time seasoning the walks and of course you don't want to ruin the seasoning. Usually the first rule is you do not wash those walks after you cook with them. You're not going to run them under the sink and lather them up full of detergent. What that will do is that will actually remove the seasoning. The best thing to do is after you are done cooking, immediately wipe down the walk with a paper towel to the best you can. Of course, I do understand that sometimes when you cook, there will be food bits or remnants that are stuck to the walk. The easiest way to do that is to sprinkle some kosher salt into the walk and with a paper towel rub the kosher salt over the areas where the food will not release. Once you are done, add a little bit of fresh vegetable oil or cooking oil to the walk and coat the inside of the walk once again. After that, you are done and ready to cook with the walk again the next time. I hope you found this video interesting and educational. If you do like this kind of content, please do give me a thumbs up and subscribe. Until next time, you have a great day.