Craft Wok Traditional Hand Hammered Carbon Steel Pow Wok with Wooden and Steel Helper Handle (14 Inch, Round Bottom) / 731W88

Excellent traditional carbon steel wok. BUT -- and I emphasize this -- it MUST be properly tempered before use. None of the YouTube videos or comments I have seen understand this process, and you probably will not either. So read on.This process of preparing the wok is NOT really a "seasoning" -- that implies some sort of cooking process. What is need is very high temperature tempering of the bare steel surface. This is metallurgy, not cooking! It is an ancient process used on steel to "blue" it. It is the same process used on old steel swords and gun barrels, to give them a protective non-rusting black-blue coating. Let me explain the "bluing process" you need to perform on your new wok.Carbon steel is chemically very reactive. It rusts -- it reacts with oxygen and forms red iron oxide, Fe2O3, when exposed to oxygen, such as the oxygen in H20 water. Rusting, or red iron oxide, will form quickly on naked steel that is not properly prepared. The naked iron is also reactive with food moisture, and food will stick to it. BUT black iron oxide, formed on a steel surface that has been heated to HIGH temperatures, is less reactive, more stable, and adheres extremely well with oils. When well-oiled, the oil incorporates in the black iron oxide surface on the steel; this provides a non-reactive coating that protects the steel.So what you need to do is BLUE the steel -- heat it to a very high temperature, and let the surface steel oxidize to black iron, Fe3O4, also called magnetite. Again this is not cooking. This is metallurgy!!Let me repeat: If clean carbon steel is heated to above 550 degrees F. it reacts with the oxygen in the air, and the surface steel will oxidize to black iron oxide, Fe3O4. This black surface gives the steel a beautiful black-blue to aqua-blue patina. This blued steel, or black iron oxide surface, adheres quickly to oils. When coated with oil, the oiled blued steel is very rust resistant, it is also a non-stick surface for cooking. And it has been used by blacksmiths (and Chinese cooks) for millennia to treat steel surfaces.The instructions that come with the wok tell you what to do. Do it. But they are brief. Here are the details.FIRST STEP, you must clean the steel. It comes covered with oils to prevent rusting. You MUST strip all this oil off, to expose the bare steel surface. As instructed, use a scouring pad and go at it with detergent. Plan on working 30 minutes at this. Scrub, and rinse. Scrub and rinse. Take a white paper towel and rub the surface dry. If you are still getting black staining on the paper towel, then scrub some more. You want NAKED steel, without any oil residue on it. If there is oil on it, the oxygen cannot reach the surface when it is heated and oxidize the surface steel to black iron oxide, the beautiful blue magnetite surface you want.SECOND step is heating to HIGH temperature. The instructions say put the wok on high heat until the steel turns BLUE. Few people understand what that means. It means REALLY heat the steel, really really really heat the steel -- all of it, all of the wok.This requires a very hot gas flame. Use a 12,000 to 15,000 BTU (or higher) burner to do this. A BBQ is not hot enough, your oven is not hot enough. This is big flame on bare steel hot. Most modern stoves have at least one big high output burner. On my stove, I can take off the top diffuser plate from the big burner and and get a single huge gas jet -- this is what I use both for the bluing and for wok cooking. So get going. You might want to wear some heavy gloves while doing this. This is blacksmith work, not cooking. Keep animals and children away. If you touch that hot steel, it will not just burn you, it will brand you. Over a 15,000 BTU jet flame, it took my about 30 to 45 minutes to totally blue the entire wok.Turn the heat on high. Put the wok on the hot flame, and wait. And wait. And wait. You must heat the steel to over 550 F. (around 300 C.) before the steel will begin oxidizing properly. First you will see orange yellow steel, then suddenly it will start to look "blue." That blue is the black iron oxide surface forming -- the black iron on top of the silvery steel underneath gives a bluish color. If you have properly cleaned the wok, there will be very little to NO smoke. Smoking indicates you did not properly clean off the oils, which are burning and smoking, and probably contaminating your steel surface. If you are getting lots of smoke, STOP. Go back to step one and get the steel cleaned of oils.Now watch the blue surface expand. Carefully turn the wok over the hottest portion of the flame, move the wok very slowly so the blue transformation moves all the way to the edge. Slowly, very slowly, move up and down and around over the fire, working outward from the hottest blue edge, from center to top, expanding the blue area. When you are done, the ENTIRE surface of the wok should be beautiful blue steel. This is the the black iron oxide coat to the steel called "bluing." If there are orange or yellow-orange areas on the wok, then you did not fully heat and transform them. Heat them again until they turn blue.Okay, blacksmith work done. The factory could do this I suppose, but none do. Chinese cooks know how to do it on a hot fire -- and a wok lasts a lifetime, so one only needs to do it once in a life!STEP THREE. We are following the instructions that came with the wok. I am just explaining. Let the wok cool. If you put oil on that 550 degree F. steel, you will have a kitchen of smoke! When it cools quite a bit, put it back on medium flame. Now oil it, following instructions. This part may cause some smoke. It you are getting lots of smoke, turn the heat down. Use a high-temperature tolerant cooking oil, like Safflower oil, refined Light Olive Oil (NOT regular olive oil), or Peanut oil. Canola oil also works, but I hate the smell of hot Canola oil.The black iron oxide surface you have created on your "blued" carbon steel wok loves oil. It combines with oil quickly, it hugs and bonds with oil. And when coated with oil, it is a surface that is both non-stick, and non-reactive to rusting. Look at the color! It will be shimmering with an agua-blue hue, not a really black color.Cool the wok a bit. Turn it over. Look at that beautiful blue-black surface of magnetite you have created by proper tempering. It will be darker and thicker on the outside surface, which got hotter. Coat the outside with a thin coat of oil. Marvel at the pretty color. Coat it with more oil occasionally.There you have it. Your are now ready to use the wok. It is properly tempered, blued; you have created a traditional non-rusting, and non-sticking surface. Traditionally, now start the wok by cooking onions and ginger. This "seasons" the surface. This is the only part of the process properly called "seasoning a wok"!Attached are a few photos. In the first one, I added a faded blue sink cloth to help show the color. Notice the aqua-blue hue of the metal? This is blued steel color. (I have cooked a few dishes in this pan, so there is some brown oil gunk at the bottom.) At the top of wok, by the handle rivets, you will see an area that is orangish to silver -- well, that is an area I did not get properly blued. It was hard to get that area hot enough. So it goes, the job was less than perfect. But you should not have many areas like this on your perfectly blued steel wok.The second photo shows the outside surface, and its beautiful blue-black iron oxide surface. This is what you are shooting to obtain in this process.The third photo shows my stove burner on high flame, with the top diffusion plate remove. This gives a real jet flame, and I use it this way for wok cooking. I used this flame for the bluing process. Is that safe, you ask? Well, so far, both I and the stove are doing well, thank you. But I can offer no further guarantees. I added a photo of the wok on the jet gas flame, with the diffuser plater removed. Believe me, it is perfect for wok cooking.Addendum: Someone asked me about the handle wrap. I added another photo. The lower metal section of the handle gets very hot while cooking, and it is easy to slide your hand on to it. Ouch. I do what our cook in Taiwan did when I was a kid fifty years ago. I wrap it tightly with cotton fabric. Take an old t-shirt, cut a three inch wide and fairly long piece. Wrap the metal very tightly with several wraps of the cotton strip. Then put on a wrap of old-fashion friction tape over that to hold the wrap tight. Tuck the top and bottom ends of the cotton under the wrap. Coat the friction tape with some corn starch or flour to take away its sticky surface. This lasts a long time, and is easy to redo if needed.How to maintain: Simple. Never use abrasives (like a steel scrub) on the surface; doing so will remove the finish. Never use a detergent on the pan; doing so will remove the oil finish on the bluing, and detergent may contaminate the oil coating. One can usually clean the surface with very hot water and a kitchen dish brush. It really is a non-stick surface, when properly prepared and used. After washing, dry well and wipe a few drops of cooking oil over the inside and outside. And of course, don't store it in a wet place.Loose handle problems, another addendum: The wood of the handle of the wok dries and shrinks, and the handle may get loose after a few weeks of use; mine did, others report the same thing. This is a common problem with wood from high-humidity climates. To fix the problem, take out the two screws that hold the wood handle in the metal sleeve, then twist the wood as far as you can into the sleeve. Give it a couple solid taps with a hammer to set it tightly into the sleeve. Reinsert the screws. Fixed. Repeat if necessary later; my handle needed only the one fix. The wood of the handle will eventually dry and stop shrinking.

By far the best pan I've ever owned. It requires more care than a crappy nonstick Teflon type of wok (which is what I had just previous to this) but it is SO SO SO worth it.You do have to “season” the pan prior to use which is where people saying “1/5 rusted, food sticks” etc screwed up. I added pics I took throughout the seasoning process so you can get an idea of how it should look.There’s tons of guides (some much better than others) online for how to season a pan but in case you want the steps of how I did it to achieve the dripless smooth black beauty in the end here ya go:Pre-1. Wrap the handle in foil so it doesn’t get scorched real bad. It still can through the foil but it’ll protect it way better than being right next to open flame.1. Scrub off the factory oil with some regular dish soap and hot water, I used one of those bristly brushes to get around the welds and screws, a lot of people say use a wire brush - I did not out of fear of scratches and I got the oil off totally fine, if you start step two and it starts smoking, that’s because you didn’t get the factory oil off all the way tho.2. Blue the steel (in pic 2 you can see the process starting, it expands out in a ring), you’ll need to rotate the pan around just holding it tilted in each spot for a bit to totally finish the blueing process.3. After it’s completely blued, let it cool a little then rinse it in the sink, use a bamboo brush or a sponge (not wire brush) to gently give it a wash (NO SOAP, just water). Once done immediately place back on stove to heat the remaining moisture out of the wok.4. Using peanut oil (or any high smoke point oil, not olive oil lol) we’re now gonna start polymerizing the pan. So how I did this was I had a bowl and I’d pour a tablespoon of peanut oil into it at a time then using metal tongs squinching an old wash rag (rag will be dead, use one you’re ok throwing away after). Dip the rag into the oil then do circular swipes in the pan (once it’s fully hot).It will smoke. A lot. Like a lot a lot. This is good because it means your oil is polymerizing (turning into a nonstick solid surface, the black sheen). It’s ok to swipe a few times and keep at it to avoid letting any excess drip or bubble. When it slows down/stops smoking, you’re ready to apply another coat/more swipes. You will need to tilt the wok at angles to superheat the sides to get the oil to coat the whole thing, don’t only coat the center. If you notice the sides aren’t smoking as much and are lighter, it’s because the temp is too low on that section and you need to angle the pan to get that area better - more direct heat.When your bowl is out of its 1tbsp oil, add another dollop to dab your cloth in to apply another swiping to the pan. DO NOT just fill a bowl with oil or drizzle it in the wok, I’m serious when I say just a little at a time. The trick to getting your wok free of drips and bubbles is to apply very thin coats at a time and if you dab your cloth in a puddle of oil then soak the wok you’ll have a hard time getting it to polymerize and it will have drips and bubbles all over.5. I applied two extremely thin oil coats to the underside of the wok as well to give a much less dark but still protective coating (after I had already mostly finished polymerizing the inside of the wok, so near the end). It will get scuffed by your wok stand underneath probably but it’s not a big deal.6. Let it cool then give it a rinse in the sink, gently wash (NO SOAP, just water) with a soft sponge or gently with a bamboo brush (I use a bamboo brush). Return to stove, heat out moisture on medium heat and you’re done.I fried ginger slices and garlic slices in it at this step to get the first cook out of the way since some people think the first fry has a slightly more irony taste. No idea if it’s true but I did this step just to be safe lol.It sounds intimidating but honestly it’s not hard at all, just make sure you have good ventilation/a strong fan sucking air out of a window or your place will fill up with smoke fast during the polymerizing stage.AFTERCARE: Cook in wok, eat yummy food, rinse in hot water and DELICATELY scrub with a bamboo brush or soft sponge. NO SOAP. It cleans incredibly easily if you seasoned it properly. Return to medium heat to get the remaining moisture out then swipe it with a very lightly oiled cloth to help protect it from any chance of rust when not in use.If you put too much force into the gentle scrubbing while washing you WILL scuff your patina (the gorgeous finish you worked so hard to get on it) and be super sad. Ask me how I know. :c It’s not hard to patch if it’s just a small scuff though, I immediately put it over max heat and applied a few swipes of oil to polymerize the area and around it again and while you can still tell that the small spot isn’t quite as dark, it’s restored and cooks flawlessly.I know this review was long as balls but I hope it helps give ya a little direction with setting up/using this wok. 100/10 massively recommend.