Yes, you can buy a steel plate from a metal shop and bake pizza on it.
I wouldn't.
Not because steel doesn't work. Steel works incredibly well, it's why I built an entire company around it. The problem is that most steel plates were never designed to be cooked on. And that difference matters more than most people realize.
About the Author
Andris Lagsdin is the founder of Baking Steel. He grew up in his family's steel fabrication plant, Stoughton Steel, in Hanover, MA and invented the original Baking Steel in 2012. With a background as a trained chef under Todd English and over 50 years of family steel expertise behind him, Andris had the unique combination of knowledge and equipment to create something that didn't exist before. Every Baking Steel is still made in the family shop. In 2026, Andris launched the 72-Hour Pizza Dough Mix the same recipe he's been teaching for over a decade, now in a bag.
What's Actually On That Steel You Bought
Every piece of steel plate that comes out of a mill has something on it called mill scale. It's a bluish-black oxide layer that forms during the hot rolling process. It looks like a finished surface. It's not. It's iron oxide, and it flakes off under heat. It doesn't season properly. It's not a surface that's ready to cook on.
Removing mill scale requires serious industrial equipment, machines that most people have never seen, let alone have access to. The metal shop down the road isn't doing this for you. They're cutting a piece to size and handing it over. That mill scale is still on it. And now you're trying to season over it, and wondering why the seasoning won't bond, why the release is uneven, why the surface never quite settles in.
A steel plate is raw industrial material. A Baking Steel is processed, finished, and prepared to be a cooking surface. All our Steel comes from the USA. That's the difference.
The Moment That Changed Everything
In 2012, I read an article in the Wall Street Journal about Modernist Cuisine and the idea of baking pizza on steel instead of stone. Within minutes, I was designing it. I was literally talking out loud to myself. Because I realized something that most people would never have the chance to realize, I was sitting inside the only place that could make this thing the right way.
I had something most people don't: a full-scale steel fabrication plant. My dad built Stoughton Steel from the ground up, laser cutters, industrial shot blasting, milling machines, industrial conveyor ovens. The equipment required to take raw steel from the mill and turn it into a finished tool.
Without that plant, the Baking Steel doesn't exist. Period.
I didn't just have an idea. I had the infrastructure to execute it at an industrial level, for a consumer kitchen product. That's the part most people don't think about.
Cutting Steel Is Not the Same as Making a Kitchen Tool
A steel plate from a metal shop is a steel plate from a metal shop. It was never intended to go in your oven. Nobody checked the flatness. Nobody finished the edges. Nobody checked for coatings or surface contaminants.
When we make a Baking Steel, every piece goes through a process that took me years to develop inside my family's plant. Precision cutting. Industrial shot blasting to remove every trace of mill scale down to bare steel. Precision-finished edges so you're not handling a sharp piece of metal with oven mitts at high heat. Then we season it in an oven, just like your favorite cast iron pan, to protect the surface and make it ready to cook on from day one.
That process requires industrial machinery. Not a garage. Not a grinder. Not a YouTube tutorial.
What You Get With a Baking Steel
Here's the difference in practical terms:
Properly prepared for cooking — mill scale fully removed with industrial shot blasting equipment, not a wire brush. Surface is clean, seasoned, and ready to cook on from day one.
Precision-cut dimensions — sized specifically for standard U.S. home ovens so it fits without interfering with heating elements or fan circulation.
Precision-finished edges — smooth, crisp, safe to handle. No jagged cuts. No slag.
Precision flatness — every piece checked before it leaves the shop.
Factory-applied seasoning — baked on in a commercial oven to protect the steel and make it cook-ready out of the box.
A founder who answers emails — that's me. I teach live pizza classes every week, I create recipes, and I'm here if you need help dialing in your setup.
A lifetime warranty — because we stand behind every piece that leaves our shop.
We're also upfront about this: surface rust, patina, and discoloration are natural characteristics of carbon steel, just like cast iron. They don't affect performance. With proper care and regular seasoning, rust is completely preventable, and we'll show you how.
The Baking Steel came to life in 2012. I launched it on Kickstarter with a goal of $3,000 and hit it in a day. Food scientist Kenji López-Alt was one of the first people to validate the science. And thirteen years later, I'm still here, still making every Baking Steel in our family's shop, still teaching classes, still obsessed with helping people make incredible food at home.
That's what you're buying. Not just steel. A lifetime tool backed by a lifetime of knowledge.
If someone wants to buy a plate from a metal shop and give it a shot, I understand. I'm a maker. I get it. But I also know what I know. And I wouldn't trust the performance of a piece of steel that hasn't been properly cleaned, properly finished, and properly seasoned with the right equipment.
That's not marketing. That's 50 years of steel.
And if you're ready to make great pizza, start with our 72-Hour Pizza Dough Mix.
