kiln shelves

[patnx2]

Tomorrow I will be going to Santa Clara to buy a new kiln shelf. My choices that i have are a 16 inch round at 5/8 inch or 16 inch square that is one inch thick. Any ideas tonight?  Thanks for any feedback. I am leaning to the square as it is more flexible for bread too. Patrick

[The Dough Doctor]

Patrick;
My own personal preference is to have a stone as large as possible while still providing a minimum of a 1-inch space around all sides of the stone. Square shapes also provide better utilization of space, for example, a 16-inch round only has 201-square inches of surface area while a 16-inch square provides 256-square inches. Not a big deal with round shaped pizza, but it can be a big deal with bread, allowing you to possibly bake more bread loaves at a time on the square format than on the round one.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor

[Fire-n-smoke]

Another thing is if they manufacture the shelves there see if you can get them to cut one to a specific size for your oven.  I had two cut to 16 x 18 for my oven and they work great!  Sometimes i'll set one shelf over the other to make a "box"  which, in my opinion, seems to help the pizza and breads bake more evenly!
tom

[patnx2]

I bought the 16 inch,one inch thick,stone for the reason Tom mentioned above. i bake bread and usually a 15 inch pizza. I do want to try a 16 inch soon too. Sunday is pizza day and tonight, Friday,I mad my dough and into the frig.I may buy another in the future to make the top-bottom pizza. Thanks again, Patrick

[waynesize]

Good choice. I recently got an 18x18x1 kiln shelf. It fits perfectly in my oven. I am still figuring out the best placement in the oven for pizzas. I have not baked any bread on it yet, but that is one of the reasons I chose the size that I got. More surface for more or longer loaves. Good luck with your new shelf, and show us some of your results.

Wayne

[bigMoose]

Has anyone seen a  16 x 20(or 22) x 1  solid kiln shelf anywhere?  I have been looking and have not found one.

[pizzagetsmefrisky]

Has anyone seen a  16 x 20(or 22) x 1  solid kiln shelf anywhere?  I have been looking and have not found one.

I haven't had much luck finding sizes like you mentioned, I've seen a lot of pieces that come in a 1:2 ratio or perfect squares. I'd recommend searching for a square piece and cutting it to size. I just received a 20"x20"X3/4" piece from axner.com and found a local counter top fabrication shop that was more than happy to cut my piece down to 18"x20" and cut the 2" strip in half to use as raisers. I asked the owner what I owed him and he refused to take any cash from me so I told him I'd bake him a pie, he couldn't say no to that

Here's some photos of my new shelf - the round stone on top is my 16" old stone kitchen pizza stone that has served me well for the past 2 1/2 years, but it's time to retire it. I've got some emergency dough fermenting now to see how the new shelf handles, can't wait to try out baguettes too! (no more stubby batards!)

[bigMoose]

Thanks for the tip.  I never thought of the marble counter top guys to go to for a wet diamond cut. 

I have started baking baguettes and the round pizza stone doesn't cut it anymore!  Two 16 inchers plus two stubbies is what I can do now.  Just finished baking 4 + 4 in two batches.   Would like to load 5 or 6 full size, well 16 inchers anyway... 

[caymus]

Has anyone seen a  16 x 20(or 22) x 1  solid kiln shelf anywhere?  I have been looking and have not found one.

A local pottery store near me will cut them to size.  I would expect others to also provide that service.

http://www.amherstpotters.com/index.html

[pizzagetsmefrisky]

A local pottery store near me will cut them to size.  I would expect others to also provide that service.

http://www.amherstpotters.com/index.html

I wouldn't assume or expect every shop to provide cutting services. It depends if they're a reseller vs. manufacturer and even then they could turn you down for such a small order, not worth their time. Your safest bet is to call around and ask before making any serious moves.