How things change in such a little time. Two weeks later and I now own 45 cast iron skillets. Only reason is that I found a guy who had some on craigslist. I was only going to get a couple but when I shot him a lo ball offer on his entire collection he took it. I am in the process of stripping them and re-seasoning them. After tons of research I am using Lye and I set up an electrolysis. Some people have luck with fires, self cleaning ovens, etc, however the people that do this for a living do not recommend those methods because they can cause warping and cracking. The lye and electrolysis is about as easy as it can get, and no chance of damage to the pieces.