1/4 x 16" x 16" Steel Plate, A36 Steel, 0.25" Thick

As many others have noted, this is a simple ¼" slab of A36 steel plate. I received it in a very timely manner packaged as well as a steel plate would need to be. It arrived with some mill scale and a bit of edge-cut blowby on one side; I suspect it was cut on a water table but cannot confirm. The cut edges of the plate were otherwise quite clean. I did an overnight wash in a 50/50 solution of white vinegar and water, then dried it off. Using a file and 4½" angle grinder mounted with a 320-grit flap wheel I cleaned up the one blowby edge and did a very mild roundover on all the edges for a bit more comfortable handling, then switched to another 4½" angle grinder wearing a wire cup brush to address the coarser mill scale -- it cleaned up nicely. I then switched back to the grinder with the flap wheel on it to do the final cleanup on both surfaces of the plate. I managed a welding supply shop at one time, so I already had plenty of all these tools on hand. I then rubbed both surfaces and the edges with some used deep-fry peanut oil, stashed the plate in the oven and baked it at 450° for an hour and a half. I did that twice more, allowing the plate to cool completely -- which by the way takes some time owing to the heat-retention qualities of this product, a good thing -- between iterations. The plate is now properly seasoned and works wonderfully well for baking pitas, which is why I originally bought it, and for pizzas and other tasks for which you'd normally use such a product. I get great leopard spotting and all the best baking qualities you would want from it. It has been and will be a fine alternative to more expensive options and won't be as fragile as baking stones tend to be. If you have the time and tools to properly prepare this product for its intended use you won't be disappointed. A few caveats: This thing stays hot for quite some time, so you need to give it plenty of time to cool off prior to handling it. Also, as with any flat sheet of steel, you don't want to cool it too rapidly or you would run a risk of warping it. Lastly, as with properly cured cast iron cookware, DO NOT wash this product aggressively. Once properly seasoned, you should only need to wipe it down and occasionally reapply a coat of oil and reseason it.

It's a steel plate with a mill scale finish on it that needs to be removed. Most people put it in a vinegar/water mixture for about 24-48 hours and it pretty much just washes off. I am not that patient, not at all. I was excited to get my pizza steel and upon arrival, I started to sand the edges. Since I was sanding the edges already and I do recommend sanding/filing the edges as they are kinda sharp, I decided to sand the entire plate. I have heard that the reason cast iron cooks so well is because of the uneven surface. I have seen YouTube videos of people polishing the bottoms and they are not as anti-stick as when rough! I hand sanded it (used sponge backer) with 320 grit sandpaper of pretty good quality since a rougher surface seems to hold more oil and therefore a more desirable end result. The entire process of sanding and easing the edges took about 45 minutes to an hour. I brought it inside and washed it as the oven was heating up to 350*F. I coated it with a thin layer of olive oil and put it in there for an hour, I then let it cool to about 95*F before applying another coat of olive oil and put it in the oven again at 425*F for an hour. The patina or surface had turned a brown tone as you can see in the picture and seemed super slick. I cooked a pizza on it the next day after heating the oven and steel up to 550*F. Upon sliding the pizza onto the steel it didn't have that grab that my pizza stone had so make sure you pizza is able to slide off your peal. I cooked my pizza for 6 minutes and took it out. I was so surprised that the seasoning on the steel made it so slippery! I was amazed with the pizza crust as it was browned just perfectly. I love this pizza steel and have started to make pizza more often since cooking it in a home oven gives me better results than my local pizza shop. Clean up is a breeze, when cool I just wipe it clean with a damp cloth and put a very light coating of oil on it. I store it in the bottom oven and leave it in there till I am ready to cook again as it is pretty heavy being a thick 16" x 16" piece of steel. I highly recommend this item and would 100% buy this again. It was the cheapest pizza steel on Amazon at the time of my purchase because you have to season it yourself. I believe it is well worth the time to prep it for use and save the $60 + on one that was not seasoned as well as what I did.

Worked in multiple pizza shops as a kid and pizza stones never got me the results I was looking for in a home oven. This pizza steel is a nice, thick piece that is flat and very cleanly cut (did hit one corner with a file to remove a slight burr) that comes unfinished. It is $50-100 cheaper than the fully seasoned (like cast iron) options that are smaller and thinner. You have to scrub the piece well, bake it in the oven and coat with a few layers of oil. Process took me an hour or two and saved me $80 bucks. After it was seasoned, my homemade pizza is so good, I can't go back to ordering (unfortunately because the family insists my pizza is way better.) Dough recipe: Bloom one pack of dry yeast in 200 grams of warm water (~110 degrees) add a tablespoon of flour and sugar. The sugar helps the crust brown and crisp better at the lower temperatures of a home oven. Add 153 grams 00 flour, 153 All Purpose Flour, 8 grams salt and 4 grams of olive oil to a mixer (counter or bowl if mixing by hand) and mix until it just comes together into a loose dough ball. Let the flour hydrate for 5 minutes. Knead at medium speed for 6 minutes in a mixer and let rest for five minutes. Knead for another 6 minutes or until you can stretch the dough between your fingers and see light through it without it breaking (windowing.) Dump the dough out onto a clean counter and use the heel of your hand to tuck around the edges while you rotate the dough into a ball. The outer layer forms into a tight, smooth dough ball. Put your dough in a bowl with a touch of olive oil spread over the outside and cover with plastic wrap. Store in the fridge for 48 hours before use, use within 5 days. Pull and let rest at room temperature for one hour before use.

THIS is the pizza steel you want to buy because it works perfectly and is the best value for your money you can find. The steel gets very hot, and the trick is to getting it hot at about 500 degrees for 45 min or so before baking. Pizza goes on, sizzle sizzle, after a few min the crust is PERFECTLY crisp. If you've made homemade pizza before without the pizza steel, then you know it can be a challenge to get the middle of the pizza crust baked and crisp, but the pizza steel solves this issue entirely and you will never go to a restaurant for pizza again. The steel did come directly from the factory, and I saw a few reviews that mentioned sharp corners or burs, this is not the case. My pizza steel had rounded corners and it was not sharp or dangerous, aside from the enormous weight- but you should know what you're getting into when you order a sheet of steel. I think it's around 20lbs. There was only 1 bur on my steel but it wasn't really sharp unless maybe if you drop it on your hand, and that can be easily and quickly fixed with a file. The steel was also NOT grimy or very dirty. Sure there was a little, since it came from a factory, but all I did was wipe with a sponge on both sides, dry with towel, cover lightly in olive oil, and the bake at very high heat around 500 or so for an hr or two to let the oil cook onto the steel and create a nonstick surface. If you've ever had to season a pan before, like a cast iron or wok, this is no different. You are buying QUALITY EQUIPMENT so you have to prepare and season it first like you would other quality kitchen equipment. NO COMPLAINTS HERE. This is the best kitchen equipment I've bought all year and it is a game changer for dinner parties and a better alternative to eating out. THANK YOU

First of all, the order and shipping was straightforward and no issues whatsoever, and no delays over the busy holiday period. The steel arrived wrapped in cardboard, and weighed about 8kg (~17lbs). To season the steel, I followed the general advice you can find on several forums and subreddits dedicated to either carbon steel, cast iron and pizza making. I soaked the steel in a mixture of household white vinegar and water (roughly 75% vinegar, 25% water) for two full days, outside under a covered area. Because I didn't have a tub or tote wide enough to fit the steel and submerge it in the vinegar solution, I found an old tote lid that was wide enough and deep enough to set the steel flat and completely submerge it. After two days I used an old pot scrubber and then steel wool to scrub off the mill scale, which immediately came off. I then poured baking soda into the vinegar solution just to neutralize the solution, and then disposed of the solution. I then washed the steel in dish soap, then scrubbed it again with steel wool and barkeeper's friend. I then immediately dried it to keep from rusting. I preheated the oven to 260C (~500F) for 30 min, put a THIN layer of canola oil on the entire steel and baked the steel at 500F for about 90 min. After it cooled, I took out the steel and repeat this process twice more, each time using thin layers of canola oil and baking it at 500F. Yeah it was a little bit of work, but I don't mind working on things. The steel turned out great. The pizza so far has been great. Now if I could only get a much better stove that's efficient and evenly heats, but that's another story...

Thirs time or so I have ordered, works great for the various projects I use it on.

This thing rips. I read through all the reviews and tried every method to clean off the mill scale and season it, and here’s what actually worked for me. First, before even ordering, I had to make sure my oven was big enough. I took an aluminum baking tray, set it on the rack so it stuck out past the oven door, then closed the door completely. When I opened it again, I measured from the back of the oven rack to the front edge of the tray. That measurement is the usable depth. Mine was just over 16”. Getting the mill scale off was a pain. I soaked it in 5% vinegar for 7 days, which helped but didn’t remove everything. What actually worked was a $4 3” wire brush attachment from Harbor Freight with a 1/4” shank for my drill. I wore a mask, eye protection and ear protection. It took a while but stripped everything down to bare, shiny metal which is what you need. Then I used a non-woven scouring pad to even out the swirl marks and a metal file to smooth the sharp edges. I wish I had an angle grinder with a flap disc, it would’ve gone faster but the drill worked. Took about 30 min. For seasoning, I set my oven to 500°F with convection on since that’s as hot as mine goes. After grinding I quickly hosed the steel down outside to remove metal dust, washed it with hot water and soap, and dried it immediately so it wouldn’t rust. I sprayed a few light spritzes of avocado oil on both sides, spread it with a blue shop towel, then wiped away almost all of the oil with a fresh shop towel so it looked as dry as I could possibly get it. I wiped it away as if I never wanted it there in the first place, which is the correct way to season cast iron and carbon steel. Seasoning happens at a microscopic level in the pores of the metal, and wiping off the excess helps it polymerize cleanly without getting sticky. I baked it for 1 hour in that preheated oven, turned the oven off and let it cool completely inside until it reached room temperature, about 5 hours. I did that once more and it was ready to cook with. Total I spent to try different ways clean and season was around $20. A premade steel is an extra $30–40. Was it worth the effort? I'm annoyed by all the work still, but this one’s bigger than most, fits a full 16” pizza, and after all that work it has some sentimental value now. Just know what you’re getting into.

I bought this steel plate to use as a pizza steel and it works well overall. The steel itself is solid and feels like good quality for the price. It arrived with a few rough or sharp edges, so I used an angle grinder to clean them up. It also had a fairly deep scratch on the surface when it showed up. I have photos of both the sharp edges and the scratch, so this was not just normal cosmetic variation. Before seasoning, there is a fair amount of black residue on the surface. I had to rinse it with soap and water, then wipe it down several times with a paper towel and a little oil to remove the residue. It took a few rounds before the paper towel came away clean. This step is important to do before you start building the seasoning layer. It does not come seasoned, which is expected for raw A36 steel. I coated it with canola oil and baked it at 450 for about an hour. I repeated the process three times to build up a good coating. I cooked with it for the first time last night and it performed very well. The pizza released cleanly with no sticking, and the steel heated evenly. For the lower price compared to the more expensive competitors, the performance is excellent. Overall, I would give it four stars. The sharp edges and the scratch kept it from being perfect, but the steel quality and final performance are very good.