I built one with just clay and straw, used it every weekend for years, it cracked, rebuilt it, used for another two years, cracked again, rebuilt it a third time. I’ve moved to a new house and already miss it. Even if I’m not making pizza, it’s great just for an outdoor fire while sitting in the hammock. It’s contained and uses like 1/4 of the wood while not being as dangerous.
A great way to spend a weekend afternoon is to fire it up and loaf on the hammock. I’d also use it to bake bread, make peach cobblers in cast iron, and smoke bacon. Great times. Maybe I could get the parts to rebuild it this weekend…
The simplest explanation is you pile sand into a dome shape, then mix clay and sand and pile it on the sand, then mix clay sand and straw and use that for the outer shell. After the walls dry you can scoop out the inner sand dome.
I highly recommend renting a cement mixer, doing it with foot stamping takes a very long time.
lawl absolutely true, but also it gets below freezing here and rebuilding it only take a few hours so it’s nbd. I’d rather just rebuild it every few years vs stress out super hard a fancy one cracks
I built one with just clay and straw, used it every weekend for years, it cracked, rebuilt it, used for another two years, cracked again, rebuilt it a third time. I’ve moved to a new house and already miss it. Even if I’m not making pizza, it’s great just for an outdoor fire while sitting in the hammock. It’s contained and uses like 1/4 of the wood while not being as dangerous.
A great way to spend a weekend afternoon is to fire it up and loaf on the hammock. I’d also use it to bake bread, make peach cobblers in cast iron, and smoke bacon. Great times. Maybe I could get the parts to rebuild it this weekend…
What’s the basics of using clay and straw to make stuff like that?
https://www.themudhome.com/mudbuilding/how-to-make-a-cob-oven-and-avoid-the-common-pitfalls
https://theyearofmud.com/2009/09/12/outdoor-cob-pizza-oven/
There’s a book too, if you want more detail, that’s what I used when I first made mine like 12 years ago
https://permies.com/t/223763/Cob-Oven-bible-Build-Earth
The simplest explanation is you pile sand into a dome shape, then mix clay and sand and pile it on the sand, then mix clay sand and straw and use that for the outer shell. After the walls dry you can scoop out the inner sand dome.
I highly recommend renting a cement mixer, doing it with foot stamping takes a very long time.
That’s awesome, thanks for sharing it! Been a while since I considered making a backyard pizza oven, and now I’m down that rabbit hole again.
Awesome, thanks for the advice, I saved your post for reference.
lawl absolutely true, but also it gets below freezing here and rebuilding it only take a few hours so it’s nbd. I’d rather just rebuild it every few years vs stress out super hard a fancy one cracks
hot smoke or cold smoke bacon? i need like 90 bucks worth of parts to turn my smoker into a cold smoker and i’ve been putting off bacon until then
I don’t remember, I’d just put some raw bacon in there on a rack and eat when it was cooked and smokey
Primitive Technology would be so proud =)