Dear Rado,
Greetings from the Philippines!
Thank you for helping me build my old fashioned brick oven. The CD you sent was very detailed. It clearly showed me not only how to properly build an oven. More importantly, it illustrated all the principles involved.
I used your cd’s and an American Masonry Book to build my own version of a brick oven atop my fireplace. Both feature inlaid pipes though which i pump water to heat it for bathing, washing, cooking, etc. We have been enjoying both for about three years now. Thank you for your very helpful cd. Now I am helping another friend build his masterly tail oven.
On the pictures is my wife, Violaine.
As you will see on the photos, I improvised:
Picture # 1 (2/22/07). I built a brick fireplace at the northwest corner of my bee museum with the help the American Masonry Association’s Handbook on Building fireplaces. My innovation was to put pipes in it to heat water.
Picture # 2. Then, I built my brick oven on top of it. I triple reinforced the flooring with a heavy steel plate, water pipes, steel reinforcement bars and refractory cement insulated with a layer of vermiculite.
Picture # 3. I built a large dome so it would be proportional to my fireplace and bee museum. All firebricks and mortar are SK-36.
Picture # 4. I did a triple arch design, one reinforcing the other, to strengthen the face of the large oven.
Picture # 5. Here you can see some of the reinforcements used for the cladding. Notice the wall of white insulating bricks behind the bricks that make up the back of my oven. I wrapped the firebrick core with cladding, ceramic wool, vermiculite and insulating bricks. The pretty lady is my wife.
Picture # 5A. We just finished cladding. Note the pencil mark on the plywood template. We added an extra layer of vermiculite this thick. We also installed insulating brick on top of the vermiculite.
Picture # 6. Here, you can see the finished cladding, ceramic wool insulation and water pipes. These pipes are connected in series to the fireplace water pipes.
Picture # 7 (9/4/07). First, we fired up the fireplace. Notice no smoke and good draft.
Picture # 8. We then fired up the oven. Note that both are smokeless and have very good drafts. They share a single chimney.
Picture # 9. We have enjoyed our old-fashioned brick oven & fireplace for three years with many close friends. This is a picture of a typical breakfast, the morning after. We have cooked everything in our brick oven: soups, stews, bread, fowl, pork, beef, lamb, overnight roasts and more.
Picture # 10 (10/21/10). I think we overdid it. Left the door on overnight. The heat from the oven crept through a crack between the brick and heavy stainless steel flash-plate. Bypassed the ceramic wool insulation. And seared part of our door. I think we were doing about 1000F. While cooking the pizzas, I was not able to put my hand inside and used implements with very long handles. Good thing we made an extra door, see the last picture!
Picture # 11. Firewood storage – Please read the description in the last paragraph.
Picture # 12. Improper brick oven curing. My son put all the small pieces of firewood that we had stored in our very big fireplace underneath, to break-in our oven as we shopped for crusts and toppings. Measured it with my laser thermometer rated at 1100F maximum. My thermometer could not read the temperature. It went off the scale! Good thing I overbuilt it.
Picture ## 12A. Fireplace cooking is also an art. My wife stews with the help of her cast iron wok and a fireplace crane.
I am thinking of tapping our chimney and making a cold smoke cabinet. In your gallery, one person has already done it. To smoke fish, meats, cheeses and more!
Our bonus is: we have lots and lots of hot water (for bathing our smoke scented bodies) 3 to 4 days after we use our oven. For quick water heating, we use our fireplace. Moreover, because of the extra layers of insulation, we can cook in our oven 2 to 3 days after we use it, without any extra firing.
I cannot compliment you enough for your excellent work in helping people like me open up a new dimension of cooking, eating and sharing that we never could have imagined. It also helps that I planted 7 hectares of hardwoods 30 years ago. Each typhoon that passes contributes to our firewood stores – now for many years. See picture # 11 (10/22/10).
Name of oven: ilog maria brick oven & fireplace
Location: ilog maria honeybee farm, silang, cavite, phlippines
Coordinates: 14° 11.35N 120° 58.06E 1100 feet
Website: www.ilogmaria.com
Joel F. Magsaysay
Hi Joel,
You seem to be very clever. Very clever and skilled, what you achieved is quite amazing. And we like how you talk about your wife.
i viewed the page. it’s great!
thanks.
i hope this helps other people like us discover yet another way to live in nature.
yes, i cherish my wife and four children.
Hi, Joel. I saw the progress of you oven when you started building it. I am truly amazed at the photo and to know that it is now functioning! I remember the time when I took my brothers and sisters to Ilog Maria in early 2008, you were just starting to build it. I will have to look for those pictures and send it to you. I am not sure if I took a shot of the brick oven.
Congratulations! Have to try the pizza one day :-)
I would like to have my own brick oven in Korea.
I want to learn basic principles of cooking in these type of ovens.
I want to build my own brick oven but I don’t know how to go about it.
I live in the Philippines and am going to build an oven can you please tell me where to buy the firebricks and other materials needed? I live in Pampanga. Thanks
I admire brick ovens, indeed I need somebody to build me one. Where can I found some good company to build my dream brick oven? Please respond, thanks.
Congratulations on a great combination fireplace waterheater and most of all the beautiful wood oven.
We have just built a bread oven maybe bigger than yours with a barrel arch rather than the lower catenary arch.
We currently have a problem with smoke and I think it is maybe our flue is not wide enough or the height of the arch is too high for the exit to the flue?
Yours seems to have the exit for the flue down at floor level? From studying your photos carefully if this is the case you maybe rely on the updraught from the fire below to create a draw for the oven? Is this the case?
Thanks for your help, your oven looks strong enough to withstand tsunamis and earthquakes and sons burning all your wood!
Regards Laurie, Australia.
Hi Joel.
Just finished reading your article, wow! That unit is beautiful and functional. I’m thinking about opening a bakery with my asawa in Santor Bongabon, Nueva Ecija which is close to Cabanatuan, Luzon.
Question is, where can I find all of the materiel to built this oven? Any suggestions from anyone would be appreciated.
Thank you.
Fantastic oven. You have integrated the hot water pipes which I am trying to integrate into the plan of ours. Any further tips on this? Please do tell :)
Also, where is your chimneys draft point? Is it at the back?
Cheers
George
Dear All,
Sorry for the late reply, so here goes:
@ in the philippines, go to copengco for the bricks and asia pacific in san juan for the ceramic wool and vermiculite. Use google. I imagine there are more sources now.
@ rado sent me a cd which has everything. I donated about US$37 and it arrived within 2 weeks. I studied. Took me about two years to learn, build and finish both fireplace and oven.
@ flue is at the front but routed to meet the chimney at the rear. Catenary arch is best. Pay very close attention to the proportions, also height with respect to dome. Put an exhaust fan, as an easy solution, near the top of the chimney. Draw is a function of the arch, flue, chimney cross section, material and length to the top. Mine is 25 feet with a section of 16×16 inches, black iron. When everything heats up, no smoke. When there is fire in the fireplace, draw increases. But, you will have your hands full cooking and serving from both the oven and fireplace.
@ i put my pipes on outside the ceramic wool. Steam is a concern since it is EXPLOSIVE. I put relief valves from the air brakes of trucks, before and after the oven. Be sure to use schedule 80 super heavy duty galvanized pipes. I sed a small recirculating pump (no head) to recirculate the water from the oven/fireplace to two huge insulated pressure tanks. With a flip of a valve, i use a booster pump (high head) to pump up three floors to my bathrooms.
@ i recently built a modern kitchen at the back of my oven/fireplace to complement them.
@ you gotta do it yourself. No other way. Even taught myself to cook pizza, bread, roast chicken, cochinillo or suckling pig, cast iron cooking, etc. thats the fun. Cheers!
Hi Rado
Thanks so much for that. I am a very patient person and an happy to wait for the DVD to come to WA. I find your work exceptionally interesting and love the world wide interest it rightfully draws. Having travelled to a few of the European countries, my respect of the beauty and variations in these ovens, and without a doubt the absolutely marvelous food that they help create has peaked to the point I can no longer live without one.
If I did not have a hundred ideas before I found your sight I certainly do now. As this is a creation of passion it will take a while but be assured I feel it is going to be worth a picture for your site.
Thank you for your help and inspiration.
With respect
Lesley