How to Build a Clay Wood-Fired Oven
- 1). Lay 4 to 6 inches of sand on the base or area where you want to build the clay wood-fired oven. The oven can sit on the ground. However, for comfort you may want to build it on a base sitting about 26 inches from the ground.
- 2). Place firebricks on the smooth bed of sand. Set them lengthwise next to each other. Tamp the bricks down with the rubber mallet, until the sand fills the narrow spaces between the bricks, working much like mortar or cement would. There should be very little space between each brick. Be sure all bricks are firm and flat. Make all the bricks flush with the others by tapping the ones that stand out with the rubber mallet.
- 3). Add a pile of moist sand to the middle of your brick oven floor. This pile will create the form of the interior of the oven. The height should be made at half the floor's width, so if the oven floor is 24 inches wide, the height of the sand should be 12 inches.
- 4). Place the clay soil and sand on the tarp and then start mixing the two. The clay soil can be found in your backyard, a river bank, construction site or on a new road construction site. Use one part clay subsoil and three parts sand. Use your hands and feet to do the mixing. Add water in small amounts and continue stomping and kneading the soil, sand and water until it starts to clump like pie dough.
- 5). Make a large ball of mixed clay, raise it up as high as your chest and drop it. If it holds together, then it is ready to use. If not, add more water. If it is too wet, add more soil mixture to it.
- 6). Cover the sand form you made on the oven floor with newspaper so the clay doesn't stick to the sand. Start coating the sand form with a 3 to 4 inch thick mud mixture layer. Use your hand to measure the thickness, and keep it even throughout the covering.
- 7). Allow the clay shape to dry for a day. The walls should be moist to the touch. Test the dryness by pushing your thumb against one of the walls. If you can only slightly indent the clay, then it is dry enough to cut the door to the entrance of the oven. You can use a simple kitchen knife to make this cut. This entrance should be about 60% of the size of the height of the oven. Re-shape any dent you may have made while cutting the door opening in the walls with wet hands.
- 8). Allow the oven to dry for a couple of weeks. Check to see if the oven is dry by poking it. If it doesn't dent, then you can remove the inner sand and newspaper.
- 9). Build a wood door for the oven, not to be used when there is a fire in the oven, but to retain the heat after the fire has died down. Measure the height of the entrance and cut a 2x4 board to the appropriate height. Use as many 2x4 pieces as you need to attain the width of the entrance. Nail them in place with two horizontal pieces. If the clay oven opening is curved, then cut the arch curve in the door using a band saw.
- 10
Fire your oven 3 to 4 times to make it stronger before you start baking. When you decide to bake, start with a big wood fire in the oven, one that will last two to three hours and give the clay walls enough heat to bake with. Allow the fire to die down to embers, then push the embers aside or shovel them out before placing your baking goods in the oven. Depending on what you are baking, place the wooden door over the oven entrance.The retained heat from the walls will bake the bread, food or pizza dough.