I love cast iron and prefer to cook in my cast iron skillets. I have all of mine I've had for 44 years and my mother's as well. My daughter wanted all of my mother's when she passed away. I took most of them and gave daughter and son each a couple. Both daughter and son are single and like to cook and use cast iron, so they will just have to divide mine. I remember my mother using salt and a small brass brush to clean hers from time to time, they were all black as coal, but you could use a clean white cloth and wipe them off and not have a dirty spot on the cloth.