Help finding a stone

[Shotgun682]

I have been checking many websites for a stone

If you want a fibrament stone Bakingstone.com is the best place to order one..Shipping is included

But I have been having concerns over cracking of Fibrament stones..

Just a few here have said that they have cracked on them from thermal shock and the 10 year warranty does not cover it for that.

Has anyone had an Old Stone crack on them?

Has anyone had a Cordierite stone crack?

[Art]

I have been checking many websites for a stone

If you want a fibrament stone Bakingstone.com is the best place to order one..Shipping is included

But I have been having concerns over cracking of Fibrament stones..

Just a few here have said that they have cracked on them from thermal shock and the 10 year warranty does not cover it for that.

Has anyone had an Old Stone crack on them?

Has anyone had a Cordierite stone crack?

I've had my Fibrament stone for a couple of years and have had no problem. I suppose if you put a cold stone in a hot oven or take a hot stone out of the oven, you might encounter a problem. Is that what you mean by "thermal shock"? If so, don't do that.    Art

[Shotgun682]

Hi Art

I would never put a cold stone in a hot oven

But things do happen and a few have said that they spilled sauce on the stone while placing their pizza on the stone and it cracked

Bread bakers also like some steam in the oven to produce that crisp crust.

Has anyone tried this for pizza?

You can spray the wall of the oven with water from a spray bottle to produce the steam

November has said he thinks it is almost impossible to crack a cordierite stone from thermal shock

[Art]

I have used the water spray method when baking baguettes on my stone with no problem. I can't say that I've ever spilled pizza sauce on it since I use a SuperPeel and that isn't an issue. I can't imagine that a small amount of room temp sauce would have any effect, though.   Art

[Pete-zza]

Shotgun682,

I have both a Cordierite (Old Stone) and a Fibrament stone, both about 3/4" thick, and I have never suffered any breakage with either stone in my standard electric home oven, although I am careful not to shock either stone along the lines mentioned in the posts above. The members who may best be able to answer your question about stone damage are the members who have LEB units (many of them experimental) where the bake temperatures can exceed 800 degrees F on occasion. From what I have read, some of those members say that for those very high-temperature applications one should not get the thin cheap stones as are sold at places like Linen 'n Things and Bed Bath and Beyond. One of the few members that I can recall who had a bad experience with the Fibrament stone is Y-TOWN, as he noted at Reply 8 at http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,6318.msg54289.html#msg54289. In his case, he was using his stone with an LEB unit that he assembled. With care, I think that most stones will hold up well in a home oven environment, although given a choice and budget permitting I would go with either a Cordierite stone of a Fibrament stone of a decent size and thickness.

On rare occasion I will read about someone using steam in the oven while baking pizzas. However, like Art, I have never tried that for pizza. Also, I can't recall ever reading about professional pizza operators using steam while baking pizzas. Maybe some bread makers who already have steam-assisted ovens to bake bread may bake pizza with the steam also, but I don't recall specifically reading about that.

Peter

[Jackitup]

I use a cast iron frying pan in the bottom of my oven when baking bread. When everything is well heated and ready to go I put the bread in and toss a handful of ice cubes in the frying pan, gives me a longer, slower steam using the ice. No problems with the stone. Only problem I've had was when the warden took my old one out to bake cookies and leaned it against the cabinet. Well, it fell and slapped on the floor and fractured in 4 places, I guess not Fibrament's fault?? I do spritz with a spray bottle too, no problems there either. I'm sure a large bolus of water would be a different matter though.
Jon

[bbqnpizza]

I too a few months ago was considering ordering either a cordierite or fibrament stone from online sources.  Then somewhere I came across that a cordierite Kiln shelf (stone) is essentially a cordierite pizza stone without a FDA sticker.  So I started calling local pottery ceramic supplies stores, and found at least two local sources for cordierite.  I wanted a round 16 or 15 inch stone, they had 16x16 but that wouldn't fit in my weber kettle, so I settled for a 15x16 octagonal 5/8 thick good up to 2000+F, for $18 plus tax.

I have been using that stone in my Weber Kettle, Weber Gas Genesis Grill, and my electric oven.  The stone in the kettle has had occasional fire flame directly touch it with no problems, however it is not recommend for application where direct flames touch the stone.

Personally, I chose to not pay freight and have to worry about shipping damage or what to do if the stone cracked after a few uses.  I know for $18-20 bucks I can easily replace the local source stone.

As a added NOTE:
I think reading November's post on comparing the two types of stones, should also help to make a final decision