About the grill

Should You Paint a Wood-Fired Grill?

Short answer: no.

Every Somerset Grill and Woodstore leaves the workshop as bare steel. We oil Gunmetal. We pre-rust Cor-Ten and let it carry on weathering. We paint neither.

What Wood Fire Does to Paint

For years we tested high-temperature paints and coatings. Every one burned off, starting at the Ember Maker where the heat is fiercest. The best of them lasted a handful of cooks. A log catching in the firebox takes the steel past what high-temperature coatings are rated for, and once it lifts at one spot the rest follows.

A coating that fails on a grill ends up in your food or on your patio.

What to Use Instead

Raw steel. Most cooks already know this from the kitchen. A cast-iron pan asks for a wipe of oil, and your grandchildren will cook on it. A grill is the same choice, at a higher temperature, and raw steel has nothing on it to flake into your food.

Gunmetal is mild steel, oiled and heated until it forms a seasoned surface, and every cook adds to it. Cor-Ten goes further. It forms a dense rust patina that seals the steel underneath and stops. No treatment, ever. 316 Stainless needs no oil or seasoning, and it will discolour with heat. That's normal.

Why Ours Are Bare Steel

Less energy, less waste

Painting or coating steel means a preparation line, a spray booth and an oven to cure it. That's energy spent on a layer that wouldn't survive the fire. We'd rather put that effort into thick steel and good welds, which are the things that last.

Repairable for life

A scratched raw-steel grill needs a cloth, some oil and a fire. If a Gunmetal Grill has sat wet for a winter, a rub with fine wire wool, a good hot fire and some oil bring it back.

It looks better used

Ours looks best after 10 years of weekends. Deep and varied, a little mottled. We want it to look used and cared for.

The Trade-Off

Gunmetal asks for 2 minutes of oil after a cook, and for you not to leave it under a wet Cover for 3 months. Cor-Ten asks for nothing. In return you get a grill with nothing to flake off, and a finish that's yours.