Ours are really great.
Hello!Not so rough, at last the 10" one, which is the one used so far; can wipe with a paper tower without any problem. Maybe the manufacturer paid attention on coarseness complaints. Just a little water before putting on the stove, and it was wonderfully hydrophobic.First thing cooked out of the box, an omelet, with some oil and butter; just a little stick around part of the border. Second thing, fried eggs; almost no sticking.The first time we ever cooked with cast iron long ago, was frying eggs. They stick so hard, that it looked like part of the iron. After viewing so many videos and reading so many tips, what was wrong? We figured out fairly quickly: the heat. The pan was so hot, that the eggs began to cook before landing on the pan; yes, exaggerating, but it was too much heat for eggs. After long cleaning that mess, next eggs barely started to cook when dropped on, they started to get white very slowly, no sizzling at all. Sizzling = stick when dealing with eggs over cast iron.Haven't made anything else yet (like a steak) but felt the necessity to write the review right away, because seasoning it with a little oil after cleaning was not a problem with a paper tower; it got eventually destroyed, but not to the extent that cannot be used in about three pieces to be able to finish the seasoning; then have to get rid of all those paper tower flakes, which was fairly easy hitting with a kitchen tower.Maybe we were lucky, but these units are great (just tried the smaller one from a set of two) and we are very pleased with the quality and the price. Remember, keep heat extremely low for some cooking, and you will be able to move the eggs around the pan, turn them over for a while, and get then perfectly and flavored cooked.Highly recommended, but you must learn how to use and care for them.Update: yes, you are right, 'paper towel', just one, 'not a tower of paper' which would mean 'a lot of paper towel'. I know you got it and ignored it, but it looked very funny to me when realizing it, lol.