I was running into a bit of trouble cleaning it. Because the stone's surface is pourous you never want to put soap on it. And hot water and scraping wasn't doing the trick.
The fix? I put the stone in the oven during a 4 hour self cleaning cycle. Turn off the stove and let the stone cool down with the rest of the oven. Take it out and the pizza stone looks brand new! The color returned to the original light brown and it is completely smooth. I was impressed.
Some things to note:
- Some pizza stones are made of a different synthetic material so this method may not work on those
- Since the stone has been returned to the "original" state, you will probably need to use it a couple of times to reseason it. I've read some say to spray the stone with cooking spray the first couple uses.
