That is exactly how I care for the cast iron we use to cook with. We have about 8 or so pieces we use regularly and about 80 or 100 that are just "collected", we sold about 300 pieces when we downsized to our townhouse. Most of the stuff we use to cook with was my wife's Grandmother's and is well over 100 years old. As the article said, the older stuff is much more finely cast and smoother, some of the newer stuff like my griddles have the grainy casting and may never get as smooth as the old iron. Just as info, all that cast iron you see at flea markets and yard sales that is marked "USA" on the bottom and a designation like SK-8 (size 8 skillet) or other marking to indicate the type and size is most likely old Lodge cookware, they did not start putting the Lodge name on it till the 90's. There are some other "USA" iron that could be Birmingham Stove & Iron or others, but most will be Lodge, it will all be good. The older Lodge is much more finely cast and smoother. Lodge is the only cast iron cookware that is still made in the USA (well I think there is one or two "designer" brands that cost an arm and a leg). If you can find some Wagner Ware or Griswold or other marked brands at flea markets, buy them if the price is not too high. Most of the "collectible" iron we have is those and some of them are going for 100's of dollars.
For the most part I stay away from Chinese cast iron although I do have a couple of griddles I use. I just don't really know what kind of scrap metal they might have melted down to make that stuff, and most of it is really rough cast.
