You said: "Just placed my order for a 15"x20" Fibrament-D stone."
Did you receive your stone yet? I was looking at the picture of it at
Yeah, it's tapered at the edge.
When you pour cement into a mold that has vertical sides, there's a higher risk of air bubble defects along the molded edge than with sloped sides.
These defects would hardly detract from the usefulness of the stone, but some people might object to them, which would increase product returns.
It's also much easier to remove from the mold when the sides are sloped, and this lowers the defect rate as well.
The entire sloped area on my 15x20 stone is about 1". It's not a big deal. I agree that at the angle they shot the picture, it looks bigger than that, because of the curved corners. The corners on mine aren't curved.
I didn't get any fancy box, though, just lots of bubble wrap :)
As for it's performance, that's bloody great. See:
Thanks for your reply. It made me 'finally' make my purchase. I had been set on the "Pizza Gourmet" stone which I have been using for many years and has given me very good service, but I couldn't find it. I found a stone rated best by America's Test Kitchen.
On the FAQ page of the web-site they show a loaf of bread on a stone with the stone positioned wide-side up
Yeah, nearly all of their photos, and their logo, show it narrow side up.
The sheet of paper that comes with it has the same logo in the letterhead, narrow side up, and then at the bottom has a diagram indicating that it should be used wide side up.
I used to think ill of these kinds of aesthetic mistakes, until one of my friends pointed out that engineering oriented companies are too busy getting the work done to fuss with the marketing. Still curious, though.
A better question is why their pizza artwork usually shows a pan pizza. I have one of those pans, I've used it successfully, and find i like pizza off the stone better.
The wide side has some texture, a subtle rise and fall to the surface, probably due to the cement being drizzled in and not entirely smoothed out.
A less even cooking surface probably improves the escape of water vapor during baking, or something.
If you search through google groups, I could swear that Hans Kuntze (who's a far better and more experienced baker than i) explained it to someone in the last 12-18 months.
You could always drop the inventor an email, too. his address is on the website.
InspirePoint website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.