Saw a guy load a whole dish rack into his trunk at a yard sale and I thought he was nuts
I rolled my eyes when a guy at a yard sale in Dayton last Saturday handed over 30 bucks for an old rusted cast iron pan that looked like it came out of a barn. I even told my wife it was junk, but he heard me and said his grandma cooked in one just like it for 40 years and that a re-season would fix it. He pulled out a little tube of oil and a rag right there and scrubbed the cooking face clean, and the whole bottom went from orange-brown to that deep black in about 15 minutes. I felt pretty dumb, so I bought the next one I saw for 8 bucks and gave it a shot. Is there a trick to keeping the seasoning from flaking off after the first few cooks?
Sounds like you just needed to cook some greasy food in it a few times instead of babying it. Maybe it's just me but half the "flaking" people worry about is from scrubbing too hard with soap.