[mstiles]

I have been getting different answers to the question,
"Can I use bluestone coping around a fire pit." One supplier said don't do it and tried to sell me on granite, but the other said it shouldn't be a problem as long as they don't build to big a fire. The patio around the pit is irregular blue stone and a curved sitting wall mirroring the pit is topped with a 2" thick slab of curved blue stone, so bluestone would be the logical choice for top of pit. I have seen what happens to it when you thermal it with acetlyne, but I can't imagine fire reaching that temp. It would sit about 2 ' above base of fire with no overhang. What do you think?

[signguy]

if you ever want to know how a certain stone will react to fire put it in the fire . I had to build a fire pit out of a certain stone I had never used before . So i took three pieces home and tested there properties with fire, One i placed on the edge of the fire pit(copping) and one in the center and one close to the centre(so I could remove it during the burn.I then built an average fire,once it got good and hot i removed one stone from the center and let it cool quickly ( becareful rocks can actually explode with drastic temp. change) let the rest of the rocks cool naturally and check for crackes or even tap lightly with hammer to se if the stone has lost it's integradey. this may seem like a lot of work but you can do this with several types of stone at once and record your findings for future fire pits....