The Thermal Layer, Firing Your Oven
January 4, 2011
This was a serious source of frustration for me. Everything I read and watched said something different. Some sites said fire your oven right away
All of the posts here follow the journey and the evolution of our understanding an the building of our earthen oven. This journey developed skills and a love of working with earth in a way that we no longer have in the mainstream. This provided skills and an understanding for myself and my children in a way we never expected. We hope to inspire others by documenting this journey. It’s time to go play in the mud.
This was a serious source of frustration for me. Everything I read and watched said something different. Some sites said fire your oven right away
After I removed the arch frame I began working on the chimney. I used three bricks on each side of the arch to span from
While we left the thermal layer to cure I decided to finish cutting the door before the cob got any harder. I had made a
After the thermal layer sets you have to cut open a door. You need to do this for two major reasons. The first reason is
The thermal layer is the layer that makes your oven work. I read that same line over and over again as I was doing my
At this point we were starting to get excited thinking how we were so close to being done. Wow we had no idea how much
Once you have the bricks home it’s time to lay your oven floor. I used a 2×4 about 8 feet long as a screed to
Once the base was done it was time to start building the first oven. At this point I had to decide what to make the