00:00:00:00 - 00:00:07:18 Speaker 1 Your resume is good in numbers given to give more people.

00:00:07:18 - 00:00:30:00 Speaker 1 You're listening to the Barbecue Nerds podcast, where smoked meat science and flavor is our favorite experiment. Hey, barbecue lovers, I'm David, your resident pitmaster and science geek, along with my co-host Frank. We're diving deep into the world of barbecue where tradition meets innovation. Now let's get to today's episode.

00:00:30:03 - 00:00:40:22 Speaker 1 Because we've discussed a lot about cleaning the inside of the pit when it comes to the outside the pit, you need to maintain that just as much, especially for those that,

00:00:40:22 - 00:00:51:05 Speaker 1 are used to leaving a pit outside in for weather seasons. Or they just simply throw a tarp over the top and they leave it there for the wintertime?

00:00:51:07 - 00:01:12:21 Speaker 1 Well, guess what, folks, when you take that Tarp off at the end of the winter and you're ready to start cooking in the spring, that metal still had the opportunity to be able to get a little bit of humidity underneath, and that starts to build up. You have the sun coming down. That's that. Those UV rays are creating almost a greenhouse effect on the inside soil.

00:01:12:23 - 00:01:29:04 Speaker 1 You're down to get a little bit of rust, so you must, must, must get back out there. Season the outside of that pit, rub it down, clean it up so that you're able to maintain that beautiful exterior. Look, not just for guys

00:01:29:04 - 00:01:46:05 Speaker 1 like you and I who go on camera and show these things off, but for those that are going to have friends, family, neighbors over and they want to when they're looking at the first thing they see, the first thing anybody sees before you put anything on there is the state of your cooker.

00:01:46:07 - 00:01:57:02 Speaker 1 And that speaks a lot about the maintenance and the care that you're going to put to the inside of your cooker. So yeah, you know, one thing tends to go with the other.

00:01:57:04 - 00:02:20:01 Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah. As far as that goes. Like that's that's why I like the, the oil finish on the outside so much is because it's so easy to, to get it back to zero. And as a matter of fact, when you oil your pit instead of painting it well, I say that like I never paint anything. I'm colorblind, I hate paint, I don't want to put the extra effort into it.

00:02:20:03 - 00:02:26:14 Speaker 2 I can wipe that thing down with oil and it's going to look beautiful. So bingo has been sitting outside since

00:02:26:14 - 00:02:28:06 Speaker 2 I can't even remember when.

00:02:28:06 - 00:02:39:12 Speaker 2 When I did the video, you saw how rusty it is if you watch the season your pit video. I still haven't oiled the outside of bingo since that video, so it looks even better now than it did before.

00:02:39:14 - 00:02:45:23 Speaker 2 Now that surface rust like that though, that's what builds that patina. So people use.

00:02:45:23 - 00:02:48:10 Speaker 2 Muriatic acid or some kind of,

00:02:48:10 - 00:02:56:01 Speaker 2 like from Jax Chemical, you can get a lot of different bluing and blacking and different kinds of compounds that,

00:02:56:01 - 00:03:05:01 Speaker 2 create that look. Right? So that patina is highly sought after to get a good patina on something and get it.

00:03:05:02 - 00:03:07:11 Speaker 2 So one of my favorite pictures of bingo,

00:03:07:11 - 00:03:26:12 Speaker 2 like, I, I did all of that. If you ever watch the Smoker Builder YouTube channel far enough back when I started that build, I did a short or a video about how to how to get rid of the paint and everything off your propane tank without sandblasting. Because I hate sandblasting, but I want to preserve mill scale look.

00:03:26:14 - 00:03:28:14 Speaker 2 And so mill scale is that dark,

00:03:28:14 - 00:03:39:02 Speaker 2 coating that's on the outside of the steel. And once that's off, it's shiny and bright. And so when you sandblast, you're going to get rid of all of that and you're going to have this pitted,

00:03:39:02 - 00:03:44:19 Speaker 2 white metal finish. And it's it just looks like crap. The only thing you can do with it is paint it.

00:03:44:19 - 00:04:03:16 Speaker 2 And so I didn't want that. So I went to all the trouble to get down to that mill scale so that I could preserve that color. And then also, I wanted to have some kind of tiger stripe looking like rusty finish on that. That way when I hit it with the oil, it would pop. That's what boiled linseed oil does it.

00:04:03:22 - 00:04:29:15 Speaker 2 It just has this really cool look to it that you can't duplicate any other way. So I did all that, and then I let it sit outside with zero coats of oil for like, I don't know, a year, something like that, cooking on it and everything else. And then right before we went and cooked the NFL draft up in camp when it was in Kansas City, I got out there, Aaron and I did, and we oiled that thing up and man, it looks good.

00:04:29:15 - 00:04:48:06 Speaker 2 If you want to see a picture of bingo, go to the Smoker Builder Facebook page and look at my profile picture. That's one of my favorite pictures of bingo, because that that patina really came alive. Well, it's better now than it's ever been. So whenever I do go out there and oil that thing down, it's going to be a showpiece.

00:04:48:06 - 00:04:57:11 Speaker 2 I'm super excited about that. Of course, I kind of I've always been around old cars and, you know, the rat Fink thing and hot rods and stuff like that. So,

00:04:57:11 - 00:05:08:21 Speaker 2 I'm into that. But that natural steel, like the story that it tells, you know, that's that's what it's all about. And so as you cook on your pit, you're going to be doing that to your pit as well.

00:05:08:21 - 00:05:28:00 Speaker 2 The grease that drips down the front, that makes that nice little streak down the front, across the logo, the smoke slinger logo, that brown weird that happens from the firebox door that comes up, all that tells stories about all your looks and how long you've been cooking on this pit and stuff like that. Lean in. It's cool.

00:05:28:00 - 00:05:33:15 Speaker 2 The big gouge when you hit it with the forklift, and it's got this around the front of it that tells a story, you know, lean in.

00:05:33:20 - 00:05:35:09 Speaker 2 That's what Erin tells me. Lean in.

00:05:35:09 - 00:05:37:07 Speaker 2 Anyway, that's the pit builder in me.

00:05:37:09 - 00:05:38:14 Speaker 1 Unbelievable.

00:05:38:14 - 00:05:40:08 Speaker 1 I, you know,

00:05:40:08 - 00:06:00:04 Speaker 1 my wife tells me time and time again that she she has no problem cleaning the dishes, doing the laundry, cleaning the floors, cleaning up after the kids. But the one thing she's not going to do is clean my pits. Yeah. That's it. That's. That's where she draws the line. She doesn't do that.

00:06:00:04 - 00:06:06:20 Speaker 1 She refuses to get out there and start scrubbing the pit. So that's on me. I have to take care of that.

00:06:06:20 - 00:06:10:13 Speaker 1 But then again, I'm the one in the house that does all that type of cooking.

00:06:10:13 - 00:06:19:15 Speaker 1 And we used to have this agreement that I do the cooking, she does the cleaning, and she has no problem cleaning the pans and cleaning the dishes and cleaning up after me around the stove.

00:06:19:17 - 00:06:24:20 Speaker 1 But she's not touching any one of these 800 pound pits. That's so.

00:06:24:22 - 00:06:28:18 Speaker 2 Yeah. So now, talking about cleaning the outside real quick. We might as well hit on that.

00:06:28:18 - 00:06:33:05 Speaker 2 So if you in fact do fine, like if you do oil your pit,

00:06:33:05 - 00:06:44:10 Speaker 2 or if you have a black painted pit that the paint is starting to wear off. If you want to do this one little trick, it's it's basically what's called feather edging is what it's called.

00:06:44:12 - 00:07:16:15 Speaker 2 You take something that's that's like really fine grit. You don't want to get too thick or too course because you're going to be removing material that you may not want to be removing. So like a 400 grit sandpaper or 240 grit sandpaper, nylon brush, something like that. But if you get down into scouring pads and like Brillo pads or those green scotch-brite pads, those can remove quite a bit of material and you'll wind up with streaking that happens or material that you've like.

00:07:16:15 - 00:07:37:14 Speaker 2 If you've got a rough streak where usually what causes it on the outside of a pit is when you had like this brisket that you pulled off to wrap and it was juicy and rendering and all that seasonings, the seasonings are very acidic. And so when that salt and that, those seasonings get on there in that grease and they run down, that's what you're trying to deal with.

00:07:37:14 - 00:07:53:03 Speaker 2 Whenever you get that rusty stuff. And so if you if you take like a nylon course bristle brush, it'll remove that without removing what's underneath of it. Right. So you just got to be careful and just be gentle with it.

00:07:53:03 - 00:07:54:13 Speaker 2 A little nylon brush,

00:07:54:13 - 00:07:55:11 Speaker 2 some kind of a,

00:07:55:11 - 00:07:57:19 Speaker 2 other, like, even just a,

00:07:57:19 - 00:08:04:12 Speaker 2 microfiber towel sometimes is enough abrasion to to clean some of that off and smooth it out.

00:08:04:14 - 00:08:21:00 Speaker 2 And then you can actually take an oil it and you won't even know a difference. And if you want to get that back from like bare metal or something like that, what you can do is mix in a little bit of graphite or something with your oil, and then that'll help you get that color back, something like that.

00:08:21:00 - 00:08:38:10 Speaker 2 That's that's a great way to fake it out. In the shop we do what's called hot bluing, which we'll we'll take a torch and anneal and we'll heat up that spot, like where a weld is or something or something we ground off will heat and heat and heat and heat and heat and get it really red. And then we'll take that oil and hit it on the oil on there.

00:08:38:10 - 00:08:48:21 Speaker 2 And that'll just instantly like it'll take that color back, it'll get black or get darker. And then we can blend that, like I'm saying, with like a towel or something to get that color back.

00:08:48:23 - 00:08:50:04 Speaker 1 What about using those,

00:08:50:04 - 00:08:52:18 Speaker 1 those magic erasers? I know that they're still.

00:08:52:20 - 00:08:53:19 Speaker 2 They were great.

00:08:53:21 - 00:08:54:05 Speaker 1 Yeah.

00:08:54:09 - 00:08:55:12 Speaker 2 Your magic.

00:08:55:14 - 00:08:56:11 Speaker 1 They are.

00:08:56:13 - 00:08:57:12 Speaker 2 They clean everything.

00:08:57:17 - 00:09:05:13 Speaker 1 Oh, yeah. They don't. There's. Is there any negative effects to using that? No. We say like the logos and the emblems that we have on our pits.

00:09:05:15 - 00:09:21:01 Speaker 2 My elbow, hand up. That's the only thing I can think of from scrubbing sometimes. But no, there's no negative effects other than that they work great. I saw that you did that. By the way. I saw your your post about that. I think somewhere or a text I can't remember.

00:09:21:04 - 00:09:22:05 Speaker 1 I think it was

00:09:22:05 - 00:09:26:07 Speaker 1 it was one of our people from the, the smoke slinger,

00:09:26:07 - 00:09:27:08 Speaker 1 group,

00:09:27:08 - 00:09:38:01 Speaker 1 who recently purchased the mini smoke slinger. And with that, he's also getting himself a full size. And with that, he's also most likely getting himself something else.

00:09:38:03 - 00:09:39:18 Speaker 2 Oh, I remember now. Yeah, yeah.

00:09:39:18 - 00:09:40:18 Speaker 1 Yeah, he's he's,

00:09:40:18 - 00:09:43:08 Speaker 1 he's lined up for the the trifecta, right?

00:09:43:08 - 00:09:43:22 Speaker 1 As I call it.

00:09:43:22 - 00:09:45:06 Speaker 2 He had a barbecue problem.

00:09:45:10 - 00:09:59:14 Speaker 1 The he's he's going to the holy trinity of smoke slinger smokers. Yeah. He got himself a mini, and he was making himself Texas Twinkies. And during the. Those were awesome.

00:09:59:14 - 00:10:09:09 Speaker 1 They are awesome. Glorious cleanup process. He pulled out the magic Eraser. And I'm sure his wife was thrilled to find out that there's one less in the house now.

00:10:09:10 - 00:10:12:17 Speaker 1 And you get to clean the exterior

00:10:12:17 - 00:10:21:01 Speaker 1 of his mini smoke slinger. And I saw that going from the prior look where the the smoke slinger logo had,

00:10:21:01 - 00:10:22:03 Speaker 1 had a good amount of,

00:10:22:03 - 00:10:23:07 Speaker 1 what's the political word,

00:10:23:07 - 00:10:31:07 Speaker 1 schmutz on it. And then he goes over it and suddenly there it is, brand new and cleaned again.

00:10:31:09 - 00:10:33:01 Speaker 2 It were brand new. I couldn't believe.

00:10:33:01 - 00:10:36:14 Speaker 1 It was done. Excellently done. The way he cleaned it up.

00:10:36:14 - 00:10:38:00 Speaker 2 Yeah. Looked like day one.

00:10:38:02 - 00:10:39:01 Speaker 1 Yes.

00:10:39:03 - 00:10:42:15 Speaker 2 Yeah. That's awesome. By the way, if,

00:10:42:15 - 00:10:45:12 Speaker 2 if you don't know about it, we have a free Facebook group.

00:10:45:12 - 00:10:58:09 Speaker 2 You'll see a bunch of these guys in here on that group cooking on their cookers and stuff like that. That group is awesome. I, I've been in a lot of Facebook groups. I used to own a barbecue for one of the big three barbecue forums, big four.

00:10:58:11 - 00:10:58:23 Speaker 2 And,

00:10:58:23 - 00:11:14:11 Speaker 2 I've never been in a group that I've in some really cool groups, but I've never been in a group like the Smoke Slinger Pit owners Group. It's really cool. Them guys in there are absolutely nuts when it comes to barbecue, and they cook constantly and,

00:11:14:11 - 00:11:17:13 Speaker 2 they're throwing down some really great food. So it's a great group.

00:11:17:13 - 00:11:26:23 Speaker 2 If you guys aren't a member already, we invite you over on Facebook. It's called the Smoke Slinger Pit Owners Group. Carlton's in there, Carlton's on,

00:11:26:23 - 00:11:29:19 Speaker 2 team smoke slinger there. He's a pro staffer, by the way.

00:11:29:21 - 00:11:32:11 Speaker 1 Correct. Well, great to have him here with us.

00:11:32:11 - 00:11:33:10 Speaker 2 Carlton in here.

00:11:33:10 - 00:11:34:13 Speaker 2 Speaking of that,

00:11:34:13 - 00:11:37:07 Speaker 2 if for any reason you're interested in,

00:11:37:07 - 00:11:38:20 Speaker 2 smoke slinger brand of products,

00:11:38:20 - 00:11:47:03 Speaker 2 don't be afraid to go over to smoke slinger.com. Fill out the little form you're going to get on the phone with Dave, most likely, but possibly me. And,

00:11:47:03 - 00:11:52:00 Speaker 2 we'll be glad to answer any questions you have. We enjoy talking on the phone about barbecue.

00:11:52:02 - 00:11:53:07 Speaker 2 We love it. And,

00:11:53:07 - 00:11:58:09 Speaker 2 we want to make sure that your barbecue journey is as successful as you hope it is.

00:11:58:09 - 00:12:00:08 Speaker 2 Can I pimp out one more thing here?

00:12:00:10 - 00:12:01:09 Speaker 1 Please do.

00:12:01:11 - 00:12:09:01 Speaker 2 We've got a free fire management online course. If you are new to barbecue and you,

00:12:09:01 - 00:12:22:00 Speaker 2 are just trying to figure out the basics, like you, maybe not. You maybe don't have, like, your own timeline. You maybe don't understand some of the things that Dave and I are talking about when it comes to managing a fire coalbed, how big it should be.

00:12:22:02 - 00:12:46:04 Speaker 2 Wood splits, wood identification, things like that. Go to smoker builder, the letter u.com smoker builder EW.com once you sign up, it's free to join. There's no strings attached once you sign up, you're going to see another group of guys that are crazy about barbecue. These guys like to build pits and run pits, but there's some free, there is a free fire management online course.

00:12:46:06 - 00:13:04:18 Speaker 2 You can go in there and take that. We've got new modules that we'll be adding pretty soon, but there's four different kinds of pits in there that you can learn how to run. And also there's some barbecue pit engineering stuff in there and some other courses coming soon as well. So appreciate you guys looking into that.

00:13:04:18 - 00:13:07:11 Speaker 2 Well, hey, guys, I really appreciate you watching.

00:13:07:11 - 00:13:26:17 Speaker 2 Every night. Every, Monday night at 7 p.m. central, 8 p.m. eastern time. You can join us here at the Barbecue Nerds on the Barbecue Nerds podcast on YouTube at Real Meat Stick, or YouTube at Smoke Slinger Pits. Or you can join us on the Facebook page at Smoke Slinger Pits.

00:13:26:19 - 00:13:27:06 Speaker 2 And,

00:13:27:06 - 00:13:30:22 Speaker 2 we go live every week. And then eventually at some point, once I,

00:13:30:22 - 00:13:36:12 Speaker 2 get around to it, I try to get it all edited up and put it on the iTunes one to thank you, all of our,

00:13:36:12 - 00:13:45:10 Speaker 2 podcast listeners that are listening on other platforms. That's really cool. If you don't mind, give us some podcast platform reviews and,

00:13:45:10 - 00:13:47:12 Speaker 2 you know, keep it realer.

00:13:47:14 - 00:13:49:08 Speaker 2 I guess what we're going to do now is,

00:13:49:08 - 00:13:50:12 Speaker 2 move on to the next,

00:13:50:12 - 00:13:50:23 Speaker 2 deal,

00:13:51:01 - 00:13:57:13 Speaker 1 Next time we're talking something smokin, follow us at Real Meat Stick at Smoker Builder.

00:13:57:13 - 00:14:02:05 Speaker 1 And for the scoop, keep those know keep those pits clean. Nerds.

00:14:02:05 - 00:14:26:11 Speaker 1 That's a wrap for today's episode of the Barbecue Nerds podcast, where smoked meats, science, and flavor always comes first. This episode is brought to you by Smoke Slinger, the craftsman behind some of the best barbecue pits and offset smokers in the game. Whether you're a backyard warrior or a pro, Pitmaster smoke slinger builds custom pits designed to help you cook your best barbecue ever.

00:14:26:13 - 00:14:46:21 Speaker 1 Visit Smoke slinger.com to see their lineup and bring competition quality smoke to your own backyard. A big shout out to smoke slinger fueling our passion and keeping the smoke rolling strong. And as always, keep those pits hot, the smoke rolling and stay nerdy about barbecue.