Griddle cooking surfaces are made from A-36 steel. It's one of the "softer" low carbon steels. Same stuff used in construction projects. (Like covering ditches cut into the street)
The better griddles have a thicker slab of steel as the cooking surface and are HEAVY. ½" to 1" of 30" x 36" steel is not light.
Polishing the cooking surface with various methods (pumice, chemicals and etc) makes it look nice but the polymerization of oils is what makes the cooking surface non-stick much like a seasoned cast iron skillet or Griddle.
Now you can polish the surface to a mirror finish so much so that food won't have to ability to stick....but that mirror finish won't last long as foods have acids and salts that will etch the surface and the polymerized oils will be needed once again. But that smooth surface is what makes a thinner amount of polymerization needed for it to be non-stick.
I don't recommend acids or chemicals....because they don't leave the surface flat or smooth on a microscopic level and really cause food to stick...
Scrape and grind the surface clean and smooth and then buff it shiny using a finer grit abrasive. Then use food grade linseed oil to seal the surface until you use it again. You can polymerize the oil before you put it away...linseed oil tends to be the toughest when polymerized.
The better griddles have a thicker slab of steel as the cooking surface and are HEAVY. ½" to 1" of 30" x 36" steel is not light.
Polishing the cooking surface with various methods (pumice, chemicals and etc) makes it look nice but the polymerization of oils is what makes the cooking surface non-stick much like a seasoned cast iron skillet or Griddle.
Now you can polish the surface to a mirror finish so much so that food won't have to ability to stick....but that mirror finish won't last long as foods have acids and salts that will etch the surface and the polymerized oils will be needed once again. But that smooth surface is what makes a thinner amount of polymerization needed for it to be non-stick.
I don't recommend acids or chemicals....because they don't leave the surface flat or smooth on a microscopic level and really cause food to stick...
Scrape and grind the surface clean and smooth and then buff it shiny using a finer grit abrasive. Then use food grade linseed oil to seal the surface until you use it again. You can polymerize the oil before you put it away...linseed oil tends to be the toughest when polymerized.
