How do I break a small piece off a pizza stone?

June 11, 2009 12:18 PM

How do I break a small piece off a pizza stone? I need to make it a little smaller so it'll fit under the hood of my grill. Is there a way to score it so it'll break where I want it to?
posted by markcmyers to Home & Garden (16 answers total)

Do you have a dremel? That's what I'd use (with the appropriate bit, of course).

...I mean, short of a tile saw.
posted by aramaic at 12:22 PM on June 11, 2009

Best answer: I would suggest getting unglazed quarry tile from your local hardware store. Cheaper than a pizza stone, and you can buy a couple in case your cuts don't come out right the first time.

Use a tile cutter to score the tile and snap it. A handheld tile cutter will work, but I would recommend renting a wet saw, which is motorized, if you are picky about the cuts.

I recently tiled my kitchen. The handheld cutters were more frustrating than the saw. The saw was messier, but much much much faster for the quantity of cuts I was making.
posted by dubold at 12:24 PM on June 11, 2009 [5 favorites]

I second the unglazed tile recommendation. The fierce heat of a grill will eventually cause the stone to become brittle, and more likely to crack. I warned my mom about this and sure enough, one day she opened up the grill to find her stone in a dozen pieces.
posted by TungstenChef at 12:35 PM on June 11, 2009

thirding the unglazed quarry stone. seconding dremel tool (so much more fun then renting a wet saw or buying a hand cutter!)

-c
posted by chasles at 12:40 PM on June 11, 2009

If your really, really want to get the pizza-stone i smaller sizes, then buy a stone-cutter's-wheel for your angel-grinder.
posted by Rabarberofficer at 12:49 PM on June 11, 2009

Since the tools to do this and even the tool rental sound a little expensive, why not ask a hardware store that specializes in tiles, or a tile contracting place, to make one cut for you, just as a lumberyard will do a cut or two of lumber on request. If they would do it, the fee would be probably less than renting the machine, and you'd have the benefit of their skill.
posted by Listener at 1:03 PM on June 11, 2009

I suspect that the pizza stone would not break evenly or cleanly. Mine has feet, which would interfere with a clean break.

Do you have a circular saw? If so, buy a masonry blade and cut the stone. Wear ear, eye, and face protection.
posted by Midnight Skulker at 1:14 PM on June 11, 2009

Take it down to your local tile place and offer them a few bucks to cut it. It'll cost you far too much to rent a saw yourself.

That said, if grilled pizza is your goal, you'll get much better results if you learn to do it without the stone.
posted by bondcliff at 1:26 PM on June 11, 2009 [1 favorite]

Use firebrick instead of ruining a good pizza stone. You can cut the fire brick to size at any hardware store. They have the tools.
posted by Gravitus at 1:33 PM on June 11, 2009

If it were me, I'd drill a line of holes with a masonry bit. Thus scored, I'd attempt to break off the part I wanted to remove.

Of course, if it were me, the process would likely result in several holes in my hand, a smashed thumb, and a ruined pizza stone, so you might not want to take my advice.
posted by mudpuppie at 1:36 PM on June 11, 2009 [2 favorites]

Any chance you could sand the edges down to make it fit? That's what we did when we got a pizza stone and then moved to an apartment with a small oven.

(Years later, the stone remains intact.)
posted by onell at 1:38 PM on June 11, 2009

Anecdotally, my roommate accidentally left a pizza stone on one of the stove's elements while it was heating up and the pizza stone broke right along the scorch-mark left behind. Ymmv.
posted by Adam_S at 2:40 PM on June 11, 2009

In traditional photography, we say that one should never crop the image to fit the paper. Crop the image for the image, and cut the paper to fit afterward.

Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think there would be a parallel in pizza preparation.

Find the largest piece of stone or unglazed tile which will fit on your grill and start making pizzas to fit it.
posted by imjustsaying at 3:06 PM on June 11, 2009

I make pizzas right on the grate, and they're awesome.
posted by OmieWise at 3:22 PM on June 11, 2009

Watch out when you grill with a pizza stone. I broke one right down the middle from the heat. With pizza stones, you need to let the stone heat up with the oven, and that's hard to do when you're working with charcoal.
posted by msbrauer at 4:26 PM on June 11, 2009

If you can find a soapstone tile so much the better,they take heat very well, you can cut it with a hand saw, soapstone is impervious to stains and is usually very pretty to look at.
posted by hortense at 12:31 AM on June 12, 2009