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I have read over and over that you want a rough finish on a wooden pizza peel for best results. But other people seem to state that it is simply the moisture absorptive nature of wood that causes wooden peels to work better.

I purchased a cheap wooden peel with a slick shellac like coating and would like to fix it, but I am not sure how rough (i.e. what grit sand paper) is optimal for the surface of a peel. Has anyone ever done any tests or have any experience with different roughness's to find the optimal finish to put on a peel?

Quotes:

A wooden peel tends to have less problems with sticking as the wood is rougher, absorbs water and doesn’t get condensation. - https://www.crustkingdom.com/how-to-use-a-pizza-peel/

"Raw," unfinished wood peels have a rough, porous texture ... they actually tend to be more nonstick than coated peels. - https://www.businessinsider.com/best-pizza-peel#wood-versus-metal-pizza-peels-7

Here is a post written by a profession who apparently uses peels so rough that their employees get splinters - https://thinktank.pmq.com/t/wooden-pizza-peels-to-sand-or-not/15723/2

Jonathon
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    Where have you heard that a rough finish is good? – GdD May 19 '21 at 18:09
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    And why would you consider exposing something with a varnish (can’t be shellac, that melts at 75° C) to the very high heat of an oven set for pizza? – Stephie May 19 '21 at 18:16
  • @GdD Exactly my thoughts. Especially considering that many use semolina to minimize friction. – Stephie May 19 '21 at 18:17
  • Mechanically, there's good comparison with a pizza peel & a Formula 1 racetrack surface (bear with me;) Too smooth & it's very grippy [good for cars, not good for pizza] Too rough & it digs into the tyre [pizza dough surface] & again becomes very grippy (not good for tyre life or pizza). Somewhere in between is the perfect 'slip'. – Tetsujin May 19 '21 at 18:40
  • You'll want to check what that coating is to make sure it's food safe. If you can't I'd sand it off. – GdD May 19 '21 at 18:57
  • @GdD Added quotes and examples of what I am hearing about peels. Reading over all this again, it seems people are split on if it is just the moisture absorbing nature of wood that makes it better, or its small bumps and groves. It sounds like most people know wood thows a better pizza, and are just making up reasons that sounds plausible, but someone must of tested this stuff. – Jonathon May 19 '21 at 19:38
  • Note that the last might refer to the handle or grip bit in my experience that is where splinters are mich more likely. Especially if in a commercial setting the handles are longer than in peels for home ovens. Just a hunch. – Stephie May 19 '21 at 19:45
  • @Stephie Yes, very little information their unfortunately. I get teh impression that they sanded the handle smooth to stop teh splinter problem, but I suspect that the handle and the launching surface were the same roughness (specially, very very rough) and the launching surface remained that rough. – Jonathon May 19 '21 at 19:50
  • Oh, and wording may make a huge difference here - *raw* wood is always slightly rough, because the fibers of the wood are exposed and never super flat, but not in the way that the term *rough* implies at a cursory reading of the question. I for example was mislead. – Stephie May 19 '21 at 19:51
  • Re. The surface assumption: while wooden home peels are often made from one piece, handle and “shovel” in one, I have worked with enough where they were separate parts, joined together. In lager ovens, the handles can get damaged easily by the backward/forward motion and catching at some edge - and you end up with very nasty splinters. I wrote a somewhat longish answer about bread peels a while ago, including a discussion of handles [here](https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/28818/what-characteristics-should-a-bread-peel-have/54376#54376). – Stephie May 19 '21 at 19:54
  • A rough surface (rather, a less than perfectly smooth) surface basically means that the pizza dough skims the surface of the ridges, reducing surface contact. This is basically similar to there semolina thing, though semolina also works like tiny ball bearings. I would agree that it shouldn't be "rough" but rather "not perfectly smooth" .... – AMtwo May 19 '21 at 20:38

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Based on personal experience:

The critical issue is that the peel be textured enough to "hold on" to flour or semolina, allowing the pizza to slide off of it. This means the ideal texture is the same as a new cutting board, oiled wood sanded to 120 grit or so. It's not rough as such, but rather just not smooth like plastic. I once got a bamboo pizza peel that was high-polished, and I found that 15 minutes with some steel wool was enough to make it usable.

The other issue you're going to have it that shellac is probably going to melt or catch fire in the pizza oven. So, while a light sanding with 100grit paper or even steel wool would probably do it for "roughing up" the pizza peel, you might find you have to strip off all the shellac to actually use it.

FuzzyChef
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  • I'm not sure I agree completely, I've used a metal peel for years and I've never had a problem with it holding onto semolina, and I've made a lot of pizza. – GdD May 20 '21 at 08:01
  • Huh, my experience is completely different. That's why I have a wooden peel for launching, and a metal peel for turning/picking up. Most of the other folks in the Ooni Pizza Oven community have the same setup, unless they use one of the perforated metal peels for launching. – FuzzyChef May 20 '21 at 15:26