Removing Teflon

P. Breathnach

I have a small saucepan which was Teflon-coated. The coating has become damaged, and has been flaking off: a white sauce can now look as if I ground some black pepper into it!

I don't want to dump the pan. It's part of a set that suits me well enough, and I hang them on the wall, where they look fairly presentable. One solution would be to strip off the rest of the Teflon. After a lot of effort with a steel potscrub, I managed to strip the base pretty well. But it would take a lot of hours and a lot of effort to continue the operation up the sides of the pan.

Can anybody recommend an easier fix?

Faith

Perhaps a stupid question, but if it would take you hours to scrub off the sides, does that not mean it's unlikely to be flaking into your food? Maybe just remove the rough bits and leave the rest?

P. Breathnach

It's a creeping problem: I had one go with the potscrub, removing the rough bits. New rough bits developed at the edge of the cleared area. So I scrubbed some more, and have a new edge to the cleared area. You can see where it is going.

Perhaps I should make only brown sauces for a while, or toss dried herbs into my white sauces.

listermint

Polisher / Grinder / Dremel with a relevant metal polisher attached.... Job done in minutes.

P. Breathnach

Battery on charge right now: will report back later.

Later: It's working, but I don't have a very good abrasive polisher, so it will take a couple of goes - more than one battery charge. Thanks, listermint.