soapstone interior question

[chestnut]

Hi guys and gals,
I'm starting to prepare for a springtime oven build, can't wait to get started. I have read through the forum and it seems that the consensus on soapstone is that it makes for a great pizza oven floor. I would like to not only make my floor out of soapstone, but also the dome. I haven't read any posts of someone using soapstone for the entire oven interior. Is there a reason not to use soapstone for the dome (and/or floor) of my pizza oven?

Thanks for the help, sorry if I have overlooked a thread,

--Chestnut

[texassourdough]

Re: soapstone interior question

The key to hearth materials is conductivity which controls how rapidly heat migrates to the surface to cook the bottom of the pizza. Soapstone is as I understand it somewhat more conductive than fire brick so you will probably want your hearth a bit cooler than a firebrick hearth. The heat that cooks the top is radiative and material is meaningless - and the flame provides most of the radiational heating anyway in a conventionally pizza fired WFO. The cost is likely to be substantially higher unless you have a cheap supply of soapstone!

Good Luck!
Jay