Removing rust & Seasoning an Iron Skillet...

I've had iron skillets with this problem. I don't think I've ever seen one that is totally ruined and that some elbow grease couldn't repair :-) Usually, I take fine steel wool and pour some olive oil (or other cooking oil) into the pan and go over it real good until the rust is off of it. Then I re-season it. Here's a good column in Wiki-e-how that explains it really well. Also, there's some other good cast-iron hints for upkeep and maintenance at the bottom of the page. http://www.ehow.com/how_11103_season-cast-iron.html