Fire resistant wood

[Roger Bell]

I would like to make a few of these oven rack push/pull sticks. Photo from Amazon.

Are there particular woods that would "resist" scorching in this application?

[Ted Jay]

I would like to make a few of these oven rack push/pull sticks. Photo from Amazon.

Are there particular woods that would "resist" scorching in this application?

YEA... petrified wood!

sorry, couldn't help it!

I think any hardwood would do, but over time you will have scorch marks IMO. If your not leaving them in the oven or just letting them sit on the racks then you should have minimal scorching. A wood like pine which has alot of resin/pitch in it would probably not last long.

Ted
Then again I could be wrong!!!

[Chip Lindley]

Hey! I could douse my wood pile with fire retardant to make the stove burn longer next winter!! ...hmm

But seriously folks, unless you leave the push/pull stick inside the oven, doubtful you will char it! They use big wooden paddles to insert/retrieve pizzas from HOT ovens, don't they?

[Thomas love]

Ipe has an A fire rating, although i have never tried to burn any. for push pull use any real hard species should work . Wondering now what the old wooden pizza spatulas were made of .

[Bill Huber]

Ipe has an A fire rating, although i have never tried to burn any. for push pull use any real hard species should work . Wondering now what the old wooden pizza spatulas were made of .

Do you mean a Pizza Peel.......

I was wondering myself what they were made of and started looking and found I was looking for the wrong thing, its not spatulas like I would have thought its a Peel.

I can't really find out what they make them from some say hard wood and others say pressed wood.

What is funny is the place I found the most WOOD Peels was American Metal Craft.

[Ted Jay]

Do you mean a Pizza Peel.......

I was wondering myself what they were made of and started looking and found I was looking for the wrong thing, its not spatulas like I would have thought its a Peel.

I can't really find out what they make them from some say hard wood and others say pressed wood.

What is funny is the place I found the most WOOD Peels was American Metal Craft.

Alot of Pizza Peel's are made from Bamboo. I didn't think of it earlier but I have a number of bamboo spatula's that have been holding up to high heat for years.

[DougButterfield]

I believe Ipe' has the same fire rating as cinder block

[Rick Markham]

Most of the Pizza peels I have used were made out of what looked like beech, others were made out of pressed woods, I think it varies a whole lot. They never burned up or got scorch marks in an oak fired coffin oven, unless someone left them in there. They all suffered the same fate eventually (and usually had the same length of life no matter what they were made of) the thin wood (so you can slide it under the pie) eventually failed on the sides, generally they broke at the laminations, but some failed in the actual wood grain.

I don't think you will have any problem using any kind of wood, sappy pine or PT lumber (ugh... horrible thought on that one) excluded, unless someone leaves the thing in there, in which case it doesn't much matter what it's made of. You might get some scorch marks at the contact point eventually. Metal transfers heat extremely rapidly, the brick or slate bottom of a pizza oven does not, but wouldn't be noticable in the design you have. It's a pretty nifty idea! Great idea for some gifts!

That being said, wooden spoons etc, are one of the most valuable tools to a professional chef, something that is often overlooked. Bamboo is by far my favorite, for a lot of reasons. It's a wonderful renewable resource, it's not very porous so it is easy to clean doesn't soak up colors from food etc, it acts like a very hard wood in that it can take a lot of abuse, yet is still flexible and you don't have to worry about it snapping if you have to get "down and dirty" with a big pot of mashed taters! No one enjoys lumpy taters with splinters in them

I have never seen a pizza peel made from bamboo, but after thinking about it, if I was still in the business I would probably hunt one down for the next peel purchase. I have a pretty good suspicion that it would outlast the traditional peels.

[David Cefai]

I've just had a look around Italian websites selling peels (pale per pizza) and the wood used is "faggio" ie beech.
Here's one: http://www.ristoshop.com/attrezzatur...4_227_258.html