Reply #15: I've been fighting this battle for a while

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I make a decent "artisan" pizza but I've yet to get one where the crust is pizzaria-ish.

The best I can suggest for a regular oven is...

Get one, preferably two pizza stones (or ceramic tiles). I put one on the bottom (on which to rest the pizza), the other above it (for radiant heat from above). I preheat at 450 for an hour. Going higher than 450 seems to increase likelihood of smoking, but doesn't incrementally improve the pizza much.

The stone makes a huge difference. When I originally got one, nothing seemed to be better - I had preheated, but to no avail. It wasn't until I learned that you have to preheat for a good hour that it made a difference. Then I added the second stone for the top level. Works pretty well. I happen to have a convection oven, which makes it all the better, but still I can't get to those high heats (although I will put an idea in a reply to H2S abovethread).

Beyond that, you need to go to some kind of customized higher-temp oven. I might spring for a NEMCO 6210 (goes to 700 degrees) but I have no idea if that oven will cut it. It might, I guess. If you want to try it, check out this link: http://www.kanokorn.com/pizzaoven.asp