You are only supposed to coat them lightly in oil to season them. And once you clean them (We NEVER use soap) you are only supposed dry them and again LIGHTLY coat them in oil.

Here's the thing with most new cast iron skillets: most of them are rough as hell on the cooking surface. If all of my old ones suddenly disappeared and I had to buy a new one, the first thing I would do is to put it in a fire to clean all the factory seasoning off of it, then I would take a sander and polish the hell out of the cooking surface. Once it was smooth as a baby's butt, then I would clean it really good and then season it.

If you don't believe me go look at a new Lodge skillet and then go look at a really high quality vintage skillet and look how rough the Lodge is compared to the old skillet.