The oven was built because of a deal and a promise, a quid pro quo as it was. It was built ahead of schedule, even though it took 2 years to build. It became a saga, it felt like a never-ending saga of aches and pains, worries and surprises, and in the end it was easier to build than I feared while doing the building!

I don’t want to give the impression that the oven is a creation of my imagination, far from that! I studied real-life models at the Landis Valley Farm Museum (where the deal and promise were made) in Lancaster, Pa. The book “The Bread Builders” by Wing & Scott went a long way in whetting the idea that I might actually be capable of building an oven, but more importantly, pointed me toward Oven Crafters (of Petaluma, Ca.) who provided the excellent step-by-step plans for building the oven (www.ovencrafters.net). Without them, I would’ve built a cinder block compost bin!

Everything that I read in preparation for building the oven talked of the weight of the finished oven, after all, an efficient oven depends on the large mass of brick and concrete for it’s efficiency.

The first photo shows the excavation work and strengthening steel used in the oven’s pad. The dark tic-tac-toe pattern are in effect the footers for the pad and were dug to about 1 foot below grade.

As with other handiwork on the oven, just when all is picture perfect, the handiwork is covered with concrete! They are difficult to see, but there are bolts laid into concrete which will hold the front roof posts into place: the height of optimism!!

After 21 days of curing (the concrete was poured in December, 2005 as I recollect) the concrete was ready for work… not that I was ready as you can see from the spring-time foliage. Here are the raw products for what will be the base structure of the oven.

And through the magic of photographic time compression (which has no concern about sore backs or worrisome planning) the job is done.

Getting serious now (from presence of mortar mixer and the pickup truck), the form-work for the hearth slab is complete (note support studs in the interior). The hearth slab will be 8 inches thick and supported by 3/4″ rebar running across and fore/aft on the walls. That would be a lot of weight, were this ordinary concrete! the bottom 4 inches of the slab is made from a 50/50 mixture of concrete and vermiculite (a lightener and insulator). the top 4 inches with regular mix concrete.

Well, we’ve skipped a lot of aches and pains…the hearth slab pour went well (ibuprophen helped) and after it’s curing, a layer of refractory brick was dry laid (no mortar) on top of the hearth and then the oven outline was traced with common brick soldiers. These were mortared to each other with the high temperature mortar used for the oven box, a mix of common mortar and “fire clay” (fire (refractory) brick that has been ground to a silt-sized particle). All that work compressed into one photo.

In the photo below,the back wall of the oven box has been added.

A close-up view of the “soldiers” sitting on the refractory brick oven floor. Baking is done directly on the refractory (blonde-colored) brick surface. The oven floor dimensions are 32″ x 36″. Note near the back wall there are 2 bricks cut on a slant. They are the start of the first oven roof arch.

And, VOILÁ, the the first arch is in place! The wooden forms are knocked out and moved forward to form the next arch (but not for arch #1…i let the mortar dry with the support in place!!)

After removing the forms, and my confidence in 2000 year old Roman engineering techniques bolstered, the step “repeat as in previous” became increasingly easier to follow,

until three arches later, the mass of bricks actually resembled the ovens I had seen elsewhere.

And, after all of the planning the instruction “fill in the hole as necessary” was an artistically appealing challenge!

With the oven box enclosed, it was time to prepare for the saddest part of the building process. Preparation, in essence, involved raising the front walls to height of about 6 inches above the height of the arch.

That meant starting on the chimney base. The chimney is actually on the outside of (in front of) the oven box. In order to allow access to the oven interior, therefore, required another arch, this one in plain view, however. Thank goodness for the four arches of confidence I had developed in working on the oven. So, up, up, up, the front wall went.

Not the neatest mortar joints, but remember what I said about covering most of the handiwork with concrete? Here it comes:

The wooden frame is the form for the concrete cladding that will entomb (he says morosely) all of the fine brickwork. But, before we pour, look closely at this view, it shows all of the construction layers already mentioned: 1) the cinder block wall, 2) the hearth-slab-supporting rebar, 3) the concrete portion of the hearth slab, 4) the hearth floor (blonde firebrick), 5) the common brick vertical soldiers of the oven wall and beyond the horizontally laid brick, the arches.

A wooden wall is added to the rear, and the concrete is poured, my sloppy mortar work  is lost for all time.

Charming, huh?

After a suitable time for mourning, it’s back to work, and in some respects it’s a more comfortable environment for me: carpentry. In the above photo you see studbolts protruding from the concrete-filled cells of the blocks. They will anchor the sole plates of the protective shell structure planned for the oven. An interior wall of cement board (non-flammable!) will be added to the interior of the wooden wall framing, and the space between the concrete coffin and the cement board will be filled with loose vermiculite (another fire-prevention measure). Another 6 inches of vermiculite will cover the top (as insulation).

The chimney has also grown, and by the next photo, so has the shelter framing as well as the roof! (it seemed longer when there was a trowel in one hand and a hammer in the other).

Pretty, board and batten siding added, and the oven is bake-ready.

And then, after 2 bakes, the spirit moved me again, and the final steps were taken, those of adding a stone facing to the cinder blocks, creating “instant” age, and even more charm.

It’s all over, except for the baking!