Now days they are called heavy and dense Firebricks but old masters still call them fire clay bricks just because they are made of simple fireclay (which actually is the most ordinary mud.) Fire clay can be easily located out in the nature but it must containing the right refractory properties, suitable content ratio of silica and alumina. Some shops call these bricks fireplace bricks. They are used for instance for building cooking chamber in wood fired ovens, for creating fireplaces, all sorts of fire boxes and wood heaters’ lining, linings in a small or the hugest industrial furnaces, (more…)

Red Clay Bricks

Substitute for firebricks can be old red clay solid bricks. In ovens these alternative red clay bricks will heat up, retain heat, cook, bake, roast, re-fire, absorb conduct store and hold the heat from wood fire and perform the same way as proper refractory firebricks do. If you can not locate fire bricks where you are or for any reason obtain them, Red Clay Bricks will perform much the same way in wood fire temperature levels and can be used instead.

How do I see it’s the right alternative for firebricks?

The replacement bricks must be of this type, old solids. Clay body is the same on the brick’s inside as it is on the outside. Break or cut one of the bricks (more…)

Insulating fire bricks are soft and light in weight. They can be easily cut by handheld hack saw or any other hand tool like chisel or even drill bit. Color of insulating bricks varies but usually they come in shades from light brown to white, see pictures. In refractory air is the best insulation and this is why insulating firebricks have excellent insulating properties. Their body is made of tiny air spaces similar to honeycomb effect.

How to use light weight fire bricks insulation

Use of light weight fire brick insulation is broad, mainly in industrial and hobby kilns heated up with either electric spiral elements or gas burners, furnaces, both for hot face lining or outer back-up heat insulation.

IMPORTANT:
Do not confuse lightweight insulating fire bricks with heavy dense firebricks. Insulating bricks are refractory too and of course (more…)

Hello to all, this oven design is FANTASTIC to say the least. Here’s a few shots of the oven, pizza, leg of lamb, YUMMY! I am SO glad I went with this, I fire up at 10:30 Sat. Morning after coffee, get things ready for pizza at noon, prep the bread for after pizza time while the wife gets going on what she wants to roast for dinner. Cooking time well organized. It is so easy, and the cooking time with all the insulation effort has been well worth it. After cooking dinner one Sat., I closed the oven door, Sunday, LATE afternoon, around 6 pm I went to the oven, opened the door to check the temp, it was still at (more…)

The base slab as part of a long wall. After ordering the CD’s from Rado I started building with the slab in November 2009 and had the first firings in March 2010. Because this is part of a larger south-facing garden project we decided to build it into one of the walls. It’s been a stimulating and at times challenging project although now we’ve had the first pizzas it has been worth it. Now I’m onto the new learning curve not just of how the oven behaves but also (more…)