I've only bought the pan a week ago and used it three times. Hot dogs, eggs, and steak.
When I'm done I clean it with a scrubby sponge and once with a little bit of detergent, then put it on the stove to dry quickly. Then while it's hot I smear maybe a teaspoon of vegetable oil on it with a paper towel "brush".
In between uses it's wet with oil, as you can see in the picture. How much residual oil should there be? I had the impression that it would be dryer.
Also, how much should I scrub? I am not going to leave crust of beef on there, but I also don't think it's supposed to be scrubbed back to new smoothness.
Dry, no oil whatsoever, because I wash mine by hand with soap and water - I'm a monster, right?
Nope. Mine are slick, so slick that with a little water on them it feels like they're oily.
So mine are put away bone-dry. I seasoned them with Flaxseed oil - total game changer. I've even seasoned aluminum baking sheets with it, now they're nearly stick proof too.
America's Test Kitchen figured this out by testing several oils and methods.
The more passes you can do, the better. I'm probably between 5-10 layers on most of my pans now, and it's smoother, slicker than the pan my grandmother used for breakfast for decades.
404 on the first. I've heard it comes up pretty but can get very flakey
It definitely doesn't suffer complacency when seasoning. It must be done with super thin layers. As Cooks Country explains, so thin it's like it's not there. Wipe it off with a paper towel to be sure.
I've done 8-10 pieces this way, had 2 with failures, and it was very clear why - the oil was too thick.
It seems to behave much like powder coat - if you don't prep excellently, and coat thinly, it has weak spots.
But the performance is worth it.