stoned

[ihavezippers]

Is there a difference between different stones?...for instance, are some stones dangerous to use in my oven?  By dangerous, I mean, emitting noxious fumes or cooking other toxins into the pizza?

I am just curious b/c the Fibrament is so expensive.  I am wondering if I can go by Ace Hardware and pick up an ordinary landscaping stone or a slab of concrete. 

I might end up getting some red clay tiles, but I worry about them moving around putting the pizza in and taking it out.

[Pete-zza]

ihavezippers,

All of the different types of stones covered in the links I provided on stones, tiles, etc. should work without any problem. However, you do not want to use any glazed tiles. They should always be unglazed. Most stones and tiles will require some pre-seasoning. In most cases, commercial stones come with general instructions for seasoning the stones. If you decide to use tiles, I would just heat them in the oven for about an hour, starting at a low temperature and gradually raising the temperature in steps over the hour period and ending up at about 500 degrees F. That should drive off any gases. After that, you should be good to go.

There are undoubtedly other materials that you will find at Lowe's or Home Depot or similar stores that you can use, such as pottery trays and bricks, etc., but I have never tried using them. I wouldn't use them unless I have been convinced that they won't emit noxious fumes or gases. Also, some standard materials may be too thick and require excessive warm-up times to get them to the temperatures needed to bake pies. Unfortunately, you are unlikely to find personnel at the home improvement stores who will be able to answer the question of suitability of their materials for baking pizzas in a home oven. Many of them don't even know that unglazed tiles can be used for that purpose.

Peter

[scott r]

I did notice a post recently asking about if silica is all right in a tile.  There is silica in the tiles I bought, and I have shelved them in my back room because I am worried about it being in there.   Our fellow forum members seemed to think it was alright, but there was a warning on the tiles themselves about the silica potentially being dangerous.  Any more information about the toxicity of silica would be greatly appreciated here.

[Locke]

I am in way qualified on this subject but my understanding is that the danger with silicon dioxide(silica) is inhaling the dust which can lead to silicosis when the very small particles become lodged in the lungs leading to inflamation(much like asbestosis). So as long as you aren't grinding or cutting away at your tiles on a regular basis there shouldn't be any danger.

[Locke]

Here is one company's material safety data sheet for their Silica Sand http://www.badgerminingcorp.com/files/msds/pdf/ACF9EC4.pdf

Silicon dioxide is also used as a food additive as can be seen here http://www.bk.com/Food/Nutrition/ingredients.aspx

[RSMBob]

I never thought we would approach a topic relating to the longest word in the dictionary, but here it is....in talking about silicosis one cannot avoit the subject of (deep breath and limber fingers) ...

pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis

[gottabedapan]

I never thought we would approach a topic relating to the longest word in the dictionary, but here it is....in talking about silicosis one cannot avoit the subject of (deep breath and limber fingers) ...

pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis

Depends on which dictionary/-ies you're referring to: "aequeosalinocalcalinoceraceoaluminoscupreovitriolic" (51 letters), which appears in the second edition of the Complete Oxford English Dictionary, "Hepaticocholecystostcholecystenterostomy" (50 letters), which appears in Gould's Medical Dictionary, and "Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokai-whenuakitanatahu" (85 letters) which appears in the 1960 ed. of the Oxford Dictionary of Place Names, are all longer are all longer than "pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis" (45 letters), as are the names of various organic compounds—e.g., the scientific name of the protein Titin, at 189,819 letter—that appear in various dictionaries of organic chemistry.

Of course, all of these pale in comparison to the word "smiles," for as any third grader will tell you, there's a mile between the "s"-es; but the really clever third graders will tell you that "beleaguered" is even longer than "smiles" because there's a league between the beginning and the end of the word.