I MUST do a review on this terrible wok. But first I want to tell you that the wok is NOT preseasoned as someone posted here. It has a horrible FACTORY COATING!! I have spent at least 12 hours trying to remove the factory coating so here goes. I read the manufacturer's directions, which were to first fill it 1/2 to 1/3 with water and boil it for 5-7 minutes. Remember this is a flat bottomed wok so is OK for electric range. I scrubbed it out after boiling using a harsh pad for at least 10 min and rinsed it thoroughly. Then it should have been ready to use, so I coated the sides with a little rapeseed oil and then added about a TBL or 2 of rapeseed oil to the wok and heated it on med. heat until it was hot enough to start cooking. I tested the heat with a drop of water. When it sizziled I added chunks of red onion and ginger and swirled it around bottom and sides until the veggies were charred. This took about 20 min. Then threw them out. It was suggested to do this to further season if with flavor. After throwing out the charred veggies, I brought the wok to the right temp on the stove, and when I put a drop of water and it sizzled, it was ready for cooking our first meal. I added mushrooms, red onion, bok choy and red, orange and yellow pepper strips and cooked them for a few min or until they were still crunchy. All good so far. Then I added chunks of chicken. Guess what. The chunks STUCK TO THE BOTTOM. When I wiped out the wok with paper towels, I saw that the bottom was BLACK but the sides retained their original color. We still tried to eat it over rice, the veggies were ok but the chicken was terrible. I then read every review here using the word OVEN. OK I thought, I'll try to remove the factory coating using the methods posted by a few others. I again scrubbed it out vigorously with a harsh scrubbie, the copper colored ones you get at your supermarket. I did try to buy it at a Dollar Store as someont suggested, but they don''t sell them. After scrubbing it throughly, and made sure it was totally dry, I removed the handle which is attached with a round metal end which screws out. There was no way to remove the helper handle, as someone posted here could be removed with a phillips head screwdriver but is welded, t and I wet a wash cloth well enough so it did not drip, wrapped it around the helper handle, and wrapped that with heavy duty foil. It then went into my oven, faced down, and brought the temp to 450, heating it for 30 min. It started to throw off nasty fumes so I waited until that stopped. Had to put a window fan against the balcony screen door the smell was so bad. I then took it out after it was cool enough to handle but still pretty warm, and cleaned it out with paper towels. WOW, I got a lot of orangy colored paper towels, a LOT of towels. OK. looks like this is the factory coating but all wasn't going to come off, so I scrubbed it again with my scrubbie and put it in the oven as before, wrapping the handle as before. I should mention that some of the coating in the first round in the oven dripped onto the wash cloth and became a HARDENED BLOB. I just knew more coating coming off the wok. So I then started the third round of placing it in the oven, of course wrapping a completely wet washcloth around the helper handle covered with heavy duty foil so it would not melt, and brought the oven temp again up to 450 for 30 min with the wok facing down. The wok should be already in the oven as the temp rises. After it was cool enough to handle but still pretty warm, I again wiped the inside and outside too with paper towels. AGAIN, yukky orangy stuff was coming off, and it was a alot, on the paper towels. Once again I scrubbed it out as above, replaced the wash cloth with a wet one, wrapped it with heavy duty foil, and into the oven it went bringing the temp again to 450 for30 min. I then cooled the wok leaving it in the oven which took about 2 hrs. This morning , I got no more orangy gunky stuff off the inside or outside on the paper towels. YAY, it was ready to be seasoned with again, red onion and ginger chunks on med-hi heat until they were charred, swirling them around bottom and sides which took about 20 min. I then threw out the charred veggies. Now ready to see if anything stuck to it after putting some rapeseed oil on the bottom and waiting until I got a sizzle on the bottom from a drop of water. That's when you add your veggies. All looked good but I wanted to see if anything would stick to the bottom. I cracked an egg and threw it on the bottom. IT STUCK! Someone here posted a pic of the stuck egg on the bottom! I then washed all out. It is going back. Someone here posted he used laquer remover for getting rid of the coating. And used linseed oil to season it. I'm pretty sure he is right. But it's too late to start over again. Spending 12 hours on it is ENOUGH. In fact, this morning I had a circle of the coating on the bottom of my sink, and it must have come from my final scrubbing. I could not get if off even after scrubbing it a long time with my scrubbie. This is how horrible and tenacious the factory coating is. I urge you to read review here using the seach words OVEN, COATING, STICKING, LACQUER, EGG and LINSEED OIL. I have now ordered the Lodge cast iron flat bottomed wok and am getting ready to season that even though the info provided says it's already seasoned. When I bought my dutch ovens, I researched how to season the cast iron ring around the top which was not enamel coated. The posting for this was the same as what I used when I put this wok in the oven. Only this time for the dutch oven, all I had to do was put a thin layer of oil on the exposed cast iron, place it in the oven cold until it the temp came up to 450 and baked for 20 min. The exposed rims are now seasoned perfectly, getting no rust on the rims. Some posted here that the wok rusted. Also search for the word RUST.
