I have a ceramic pizza stone that has only been used a few times and recently broke in half. Does anyone know if there is a way to repair it?
image|375x500
Huh. That’s tricky. One never knows whether a commercial product is low-fire or stoneware clay, and it can be special if you guess wrong.
You might look and see what the heat properties of JB Weld are… I know it can take some heat, but I don’t know how much.
1 Like
I had no idea they make a high temp that they claim will take 1000F and is suitable for e.g. exhaust manifolds… not sure I’d eat off it, but it does claim to be non toxic…
1 Like
I know this doesn’t help with your query but wanted to mention that, on the chance you were not aware and end up replacing your pizza stone, Pizza Steel’s are a thing as well. Heavy but durable.
1 Like
Thanks, I was actually going to switch to that if I end up replacing it completely. Which looks like that’s the best solution.
1 Like
Thanks! Sounds like replacing it may be the best option.
2 Likes
If you don’t want to spend a ton of money for a pizza steal, a cast iron skillet works pretty well. The only tricky thing is transferring the pizza from the rolling surface to the heated skillet
Or just make this pizza. It was so good.
You could just go to metal supermarket and buy a 3/8 or 1/2" slab of steel the right size
I am trying to make one for a friend, I just ordered some mica clay from New Mexico and from what I read it is a good choice for this. I will let you know if it works out, the clay is not that expensive to ship so it’s not a bad option.
I might be wrong but I think mica clay is low fire… looping in @Monikat and @Anette_Henningson
It’s is for sure but I read about someone using it after firing to ^08 I think but I was just going to try it out I am going to use the clay for raku mostly lol.
Hi and yes it is considered Low Fire, as far as I know.
08 is lower than we fire at DMS for bisque. Do you have a way to fire to 08? If not it is possible that Trinity could help you get this clay fired.
2 Likes
Mica clay is super-low-fire. I think it will handle the bisque (04), but those black bubbled things from the glaze firing a couple of years ago? Those were mica clay at Cone 6.
Actually, @cmcooper0 is the one that lead the mica clay special firing a long time ago. She might know how hot it can fire and still be happy.
1 Like
Yeah I’ve got an old manual L&L kiln I can use. I just saw they use this clay for cooking pots and stuff and I read about making a pizza stone out of it too so I thought I might try it too.
1 Like
Most folks aim for that 08/010 for maximum sparkly action with a strong pot but you can go a little higher without losing too much of the mica effect. We fired some of the leftover NM Mica to 04 and were able to retain some of the effect while not melting the pots. We did tests first though. Not all mica clays are the same, but in general, I would not recommend midfire temps.
As always, not all clays are the same and please refer to the manufacturer or whomever mixed it up for the tolerances. (And test, test, test!)
3 Likes
That’s the same clay I’m getting I think. The red mica from www.nmclay.com is what I ordered, is that what you had I would love some first hand knowledge of the clay!
It’s a lovely clay, my husband did some snazzy hand built decorative pieces with the white NM mica that I especially like. You’ll want to burnish and compress the heck out of it when leather hard and I’ve always found plastic grocery bags to be the best for that. I’ve tried thicker plastics, backs of spoons, polished rocks, makeup sponges, etc, and always come back to using my hands and a grocery bag. Smoothest results and no ridges.
Here’s where I swing wildly away from the ‘awesome traditional cookware’ camp, heh. I am decidedly not a fan of making your own cookware on a whim. Sometimes, everything turns out fine, but the level of how spectacularly badly it can go makes it not worth the risk to me. You can successfully use your handmade casserole for years but then that one time, after repeated heat stress, the bottom falls out and sends molten lava cheesy lasagna down your eighty year old grandmother’s legs. That thirty dollar dish from Corning has been formulated, tested and manufactured into a rate of safety compliance that results in very few third degree burns. I love functional ware and use a lot of it in my home, but I cook in commercial ceramics, then transfer my groovy results into handmade serving pieces. That is, obviously, a pretty extreme scenario, but back in the yesteryear of cooking over open flame, a broken dish just dumped your stew into the fire…and people had lots of groovy scars. 
If you still like the idea, and dude, you are not alone as folks all around make and use their own cookware, then I highly recommend doing a lot of research. Many mica clays will not be fully vitrified at your mica preserving temps so you don’t want to soak them in soapy water and they will absorb food oils as they won’t be glazed. Corners are also your enemy and will be prone to heat stress cracking, rounded pots are better (which is snazzy for open fire, less handy for modern ovens). Old school handmade cooking pots usually were heated slowly and cooled slowly which is pretty different than how most kitchen appliances operate so take a look at the tolerances of whatever clay you choose. I think it is very telling that if you look around the internet at experienced production potters, you’ll not find much cookware. Serving dishes aplenty, but the liability of cookware, ehhhhh.
Whichever way you choose, I wish you many safe cooking experiences and that you never have to clean burnt pizza off your oven elements!
2 Likes
And separately from my dream-bashing post of caution extremism, here is a link to some awesome mica pieces made by DMS potters a while back! So sparkly, yo.
2 Likes