Wipe on a thin layer of neutral oil, bake upside down at 425F for one hour, then cool in the oven. More even than the stovetop, but not for wooden handles.

Scrub with coarse salt and oil, use steel wool for heavier rust, then reseason immediately. Rust on carbon steel is cosmetic and always recoverable.

Scrub back the damaged layer, wash, dry, then apply two or three thin rounds of oil heated past its smoke point. Full stripping is rarely necessary.

Grapeseed, canola, sunflower and avocado are the best seasoning oils. Flaxseed builds the hardest layer but flakes. Full comparison with smoke points.

Keep it dry, keep it lightly oiled, keep acid out. Includes what your pan looks like at 10, 30 and 100 cooks, and how to fix everything that goes wrong.

Wash while warm with hot water and a brush, use soap if you want, dry on the hob, then wipe on thin oil. Soap does not strip seasoning.

Scrub off the factory coating, wipe on a very thin layer of neutral oil, then heat until it smokes for two minutes. Repeat three or four times.

A sticky carbon steel pan is nearly always too much oil, oil that never smoked, or seasoning that is simply young. Here is how to tell which and fix it.