The lame I am using pulls, tugs on my dough and kills the oven spring. I score in the clay pot so I have to angle it at 45 degrees. Should I get a lame like the black walnut that is angled? Also my Rommertoph 91111 lid slipped from my oven gloved hand. It now has a hairline crack in the top only. Can I still use it?
I think it’s likely that a new blade in your lame will solve the tugging problem. Not sure about the cracked lid – keep using it until you obtain a replacement? The point is to hold in steam evaporated from the baking dough. Some fraction of the steam will escape and so reduce the humidity in your little oven a bit. It might not matter much for a hairline crack. Cracked ceramic is seriously weakened, though, and so a replacement is probably a good idea before the thing breaks.