Pizza Oven...Fired

So after the last posting I put the oven inside to keep the rain off and allow the clay to begin to dry out. There is a lot of clay with a lot of moisture in it so I gave it several days. Once the clay was pliable but firm I began scooping the sand out from inside the clay form. This process took a little while and had to be carefully done to prevent damage to the oven itself.




Once the csand was out I began slowly heating the inside of the oven to begin seriously drying the clay. Again I wanted this to be a slow process so as not to crack anything (if the clay dried really quickly and shrank unevenly I worried the big dome would collapse) I couldn't get a fire going using wood because there was so much moisture inside the oven. I used a propane torch on low for several days. This provided a nice distractions from farm and winery chores, "sorry dad I need to go check on the oven", was probably a little overused by the end of the week.



Today it was dry enough to get a wood fire going on its own. I fired the oven for about two hours and go it really hot...probably close to at least 600 degrees F. I think it will get hotter after it finishes drying. There was still quite a bit of moisture in the oven when I was firing it.

Once the oven was up to temp, I swept the floor, pushed the fire to the back of the dome and cooked a pizza. It was a pretty big relief to see the thing work after all that effort. Hopefully this will be a nice addition to the winery.