LIGHTING A WOOD BURNING OVEN

To make it easy to understand the position of things in your oven think of a clock face the very back of the oven will be at 12 o'clock , the doorway is at 5-7 o'clock
the following directions are for a medium size oven for a large oven follow the instructions but make a fire on both sides of the oven
for a small oven use just 2 bricks and make the fire at the back of the oven

1)We suggest that when lighting your oven you use dry kindling wood , white alcohol lighter blocks from most DIY stores or newspaper We do not advocate the use of any form of coal, petrol, BBQ lighter fuel, gas poker etc.
2) We have found that the easiest way to start your fire is to start with a couple of lighter blocks place them on the floor of the oven 2" in from the wall at 4 o'clock
3) Light the blocks and cover them with tinder dry split kindling sticks no more than 1 cm in diameter 8-10 pieces
4) Pile up some bigger pieces of split tinder dry wood about 2.5cm in diameter 6-8 pieces
5) Stack some 5cm diameter tinder dry wood up against these again 8-10 pieces
6) you will find that the fire now extends in a half circle up against the wall and halfway across the oven .
7) Put 3 standard dry house bricks around the logs enclosing the logs campfire style
8) Put the door in at an angle so that air is pulled directly into the fire but do not shut off the air supply
9) While that is burning chop some various size logs from 1" to 4" in diameter so that you dont have to look for them when you need them .
10) If your oven is dry and your wood is tinder dry then within about 20 minutes you will have the oven over 350% F
10) Using a coal hook start closing the bricks around the fire until they form a straight line down the Right hand side of the oven think of this as a tough of hot coals and fire
11) Keep adding logs and making fire until you get the oven up to 650-700%F you can then start letting the oven slowly cool down to the cooking temperature that you require
12) Top up the fire with different size logs to maintain the oven at the desired temperature

I always put my thermometer at the back of the oven 12 o'clock this gives me the temperature at the hottest part of the oven .

You can make a fire without the bricks but when you are starting out you will find that the bricks keep the oven nice and tidy for cooking with a defined area for the fire and another for the food

Please keep in mind that if you install a flue pipe it will bring the oven up to temperature a lot faster .
oh I nearly forgot 99% of all problems in geting an oven hot or smoke free are down to wood condition
If you can hear the wood hissing on the fire it is too wet and will result in loads of smoke and low temperatures.
Your wood needs to be tinder dry to get the best results so chop and stack it as soon as you get it .