Hi all

I have read a few articles about using granite as a pizza stone. Reports seem to be that it works fine. I have a spare bit of granite worktop so thought I would give it a go. Before I do I thought I would seek your advice...

I am a little worried that the granite coukd have sealant on it. Any ideas how I tell? Some sites have recommended putting it in a very hot oven and the sealer/ lacquer would start smoking and eventually burn off.... Anyone any experience of this?

Thanks

Lee.

On 5/3/2016 6:01 PM, wrote:
Hi all

I have read a few articles about using granite as a pizza stone. Reports seem to be that it works fine. I have a spare bit of granite worktop so thought I would give it a go. Before I do I thought I would seek your advice...

I am a little worried that the granite coukd have sealant on it. Any ideas how I tell? Some sites have recommended putting it in a very hot oven and the sealer/ lacquer would start smoking and eventually burn off.... Anyone any experience of this?

Thanks

Lee.


Since no-one with more experience has commented, let me add my thoughts.
Personally, I would be surprised if granite worktops have a sealer on
the grounds that I don't think it has significant porosity, and it
polishes mechanically to a good finish.

It seems a reasonable idea that cooking it at perhaps 250C will destroy
organic compounds and drive off volatiles (I am fairly sure it would not
have a "non-stick" sealer containing PTFE, which remains stable at
250C). You might then want to rub down the surface with suitable
abrasive paper to remove any residues.

Or perhaps you could re-polish the surface, or get it polished by, say,
a monumental mason.

You could talk to a funeral director (who will know the local masons).
They are invariably polite and considerate, and have quiet periods in
their working day, and take the long view on customer service.

On 04/05/2016 11:27, newshound wrote:

You could talk to a funeral director (who will know the local masons).
They are invariably polite and considerate, and have quiet periods in
their working day

In my experience, *all* of their working day is quiet...

--
F

On 04/05/16 11:36, Jethro_uk wrote:


Alternatively, risk £8.99 for something sprcifically intended for the
job ?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Argon-Table...one-Chrome/dp/
B017ITZOWO

No risk. My wife bought 3 of these in succession and every one of them
cracked after one or two bakes

Total crap. Avoid.

--
The theory of Communism may be summed up in one sentence: Abolish all
private property.

Karl Marx

On 04/05/2016 11:46, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Argon-Table...one-Chrome/dp/
B017ITZOWO


Did she wash them? On something similar I have the instructions say not
to wet them as they are porous and trapped moisture will expand and
crack the stone if placed in a very hot oven.

I found no difference between using a pre-heated stone and placing the
pizza on a open wire mesh that allows hot air from a fan assisted oven
to hit the base of the pizza, again in a pre-heated oven. I do favour
the thin base type pizzas so it may be different with a thicker base.

--
mailto: news {at} admac {dot] myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

On 04/05/2016 11:27, newshound wrote:

Since no-one with more experience has commented, let me add my thoughts.
Personally, I would be surprised if granite worktops have a sealer on
the grounds that I don't think it has significant porosity, and it
polishes mechanically to a good finish.

It's recommended to seal granite in the kitchen as it still
has a degree of absorbency I believe.
Did ours with Lithofin
http://www.lithofin.co.uk/en-gb/__i/...-MN-Stain-Stop
But it's no ordinary sealant. it's like a resin that goes of extremely
hard. If you don't spread it evenly you end up with lumps you'll never
get off.

No idea what the melting temp. is.
You could use it the wrong way up as the underside will be un treated
and also un-polished.
Give it a good burn-up in the oven at a temp and duration far hotter
than you'd use and see what happens.

On 04/05/2016 12:31, Chris Hogg wrote:

As an aside, and wearing my geology hat, when used to describe
worktops the term 'granite' is almost always mis-applied. It seems to
be used to describe almost any type of stone, only a few of which are
actually granite in the geological sense. True granite is a silvery
grey or pink stone usually with obvious crystal growths in it. None of
the black 'granite' worktops are true granite.

We did have an amusing moment when visiting the open day at a local
limestone quarry, where the nice person telling us about things who was
supposed to be a geologist told us they were quarrying special granite.

On 2016-05-04, Chris Hogg wrote:

As an aside, and wearing my geology hat, when used to describe
worktops the term 'granite' is almost always mis-applied. It seems to
be used to describe almost any type of stone, only a few of which are
actually granite in the geological sense. True granite is a silvery
grey or pink stone usually with obvious crystal growths in it. None of
the black 'granite' worktops are true granite.

So worktops are often taken for granite?

(groan)

Thanks all for your replies.

I also have a conventional pizza stone (about 20mm thick) and it works perfectly. I use it in the oven to bake bread. Also, leaving it in during the ovens self clean mode brings it up like new.

The granite is part of my brick BBQ I am building. I have a spare bit of granite which matches so thought it would be good to use it as the base for the pizza oven. It is black (mottled) so from the above assume not actually granite.

I have a small piece so will try putting it in the oven and see what happens.

Thanks again

Lee.

On 5/4/2016 1:40 PM, www.GymRatZ.co.uk wrote:
On 04/05/2016 11:27, newshound wrote:

Since no-one with more experience has commented, let me add my thoughts.
Personally, I would be surprised if granite worktops have a sealer on
the grounds that I don't think it has significant porosity, and it
polishes mechanically to a good finish.

It's recommended to seal granite in the kitchen as it still
has a degree of absorbency I believe.
Did ours with Lithofin
http://www.lithofin.co.uk/en-gb/__i/...-MN-Stain-Stop
But it's no ordinary sealant. it's like a resin that goes of extremely
hard. If you don't spread it evenly you end up with lumps you'll never
get off.

No idea what the melting temp. is.
You could use it the wrong way up as the underside will be un treated
and also un-polished.
Give it a good burn-up in the oven at a temp and duration far hotter
than you'd use and see what happens.




Great thing about this NG, eventually someone comes along who knows
something!

As far as I can see from the MSDS for Lithofin MN

https://www.extensive.co.uk/MST_MSDS...Stop_GB313.pdf

the "hazardous" components of this are heavy (i.e. long chain) mineral
oil which has been hydrotreated, so it is fully saturated (and will be
left with low sulphur), in a lighter mineral oil solvent. There's no
obvious clue as to what Mr. Rat's "resin" component is, but it can't be
intrinsically toxic if it is recommended for worktops, and it doesn't
trigger any of the normal warnings for an MSDS.

In its final applied state, after the solvents have evaporated, the
hydrotreated "heavy" should be biologically fairly neutral, and
"cooking" to 200 C is likely to evaporate most of it and leave any
residue as the sort of lacquers which provide the non-stick surface of
cast iron griddles or frying pans.

So I still don't see any great problem in using it as a Pizza stone,
even if it has already been "sealed".

Thanks newshound there is indeed a wealth of knowledge on this forum. I mocked up the pizza oven with a test piece of granite and whilst it didn't get to full temp the granite survived and no visible smoke etc coming from the granite itself.

This weekend I aim to get it up to temp and see how it goes.

Thanks all for your help

Lee.

I tested a small piece of granite in the oven. Cracked it up full (300 deg C) and all very uneventful. No smoke cracking or anything. So now assuming all well and going for the real thing.