Branch logger

[Marko]

Just had a read of the blog for your wood oven. Would you be happy to share detail of supplier / price range and how you came to decide to buy rather than make??

 

Basically I decided life was too short...

 

I had been collecting stuff to build one for around 10 years but never got around to it.

 

Two years ago a local builder built himself one and I asked how much to build mine; £1k plus materials. Thought about it but never got around to it.

 

Saw a video of these being built in Portugal and just went for it. At about £700 delivered I thought it was time to get it sorted rather than mess about any longer.

 

Lots of people have been to see it but unless you have access with a forktruck / telehandler it will not suit. There is not a chance at all of it being manhandled into position. It must weigh half a ton at least.

 

I just need to get it sited properly and a better worksurface sorted. Doesn't look as glam in the photo below does it?

 

Anyway, the point being is that the wood chunks were as good as (if not better) than normal logs as they quickly turned to red hot embers which could be moved about with ease.

[GreenGui]

Snap!! We bought one of those back in 2011, brilliant oven. We use branch logged willow to heat it up then cook pizza and bread.

 

I built a housing, laid it on an insulative 'vermicrete' base and filled the housing full of vermiculite and clay balls it now holds heat for approx 3 days in the summer and means that after you have cooked pizza you can go on and roast veg/meat then bake bread etc.

 

We were told it weighs 600 kg. Towed it home 150 kms in a trailer, used wooden rollers to move it then a block and tackle to lift into position.

 

Attached some pics, the block work is now rendered but I don't have a pic to hand.

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

Snap!! We bought one of those back in 2011, brilliant oven. We use branch logged willow to heat it up then cook pizza and bread.

 

 

 

I built a housing, laid it on an insulative 'vermicrete' base and filled the housing full of vermiculite and clay balls it now holds heat for approx 3 days in the summer and means that after you have cooked pizza you can go on and roast veg/meat then bake bread etc.

 

 

 

We were told it weighs 600 kg. Towed it home 150 kms in a trailer, used wooden rollers to move it then a block and tackle to lift into position.

 

 

 

Attached some pics, the block work is now rendered but I don't have a pic to hand.

 

 

I like that, a lot!

 

Going to have to have me one of those!

 

Is that an SF face blanking in first pic?

[Billhook]

Took delivery of the Urban SM 70 last week and it seems to work really well. Seems to take everything we put in up to three inch diameter without any problems.

My wife and I have been working together (rare occasion) and we managed to fill a lot of bags in a couple of hours. Output would be much improved if I had not just left a heap of tangled brash to deal with. Future logging sessions will be with all the branches facing the same way in a neat stack on the muck grab at the right height.

 

Why on earth do foreign manufacturers not find someone who can speak English when they write their manuals.

 

"It's hardly recommended to lubricate cog wheels and bearings"

"It's hardly recommended to use only proper lubrication designed for bearings"

"Keep your attention to screws, pegs and bolts which should all be hardly tight"

 

 

 

Took a sample to the local pub, mainly sycamore and not too dry but the landlord was very pleased using it on a open fire. He said one bucket full made a bed and lasted for two and a half hours and kicked out a lot of heat, so he wants more and I think we have agreed on a fiver a bag. Plus twenty five pence VAT.

 

I was interested to see the ovens. We have a very old farmhouse kitchen with an old range and bread oven.

I was never sure how it worked until an old fella showed me. You put all the wood inside the oven and start a good fire and when it dies down to red hot embers you rake it out into the cavity below and he said that there was enough heat in the bricks to do two or three sessions.

The smoke goes up a flue just above the oven door and is drawn over the top of the oven. Likewise the smoke from the embers below is drawn up the same flue.

I will post some more pictures later. I there is a WW 1 helmet inside the oven so that was probably the last time it was used!

 

Any bread or pizza recipes out there?

I shall have a go with the branch loggings.

[Billhook]

Here are some more pictures of the oven and range which must be pre 1500 as it is a separate building from the main house and I gather they always put the kitchens away from the main house in those days because of fire risk

[Billhook]

Here is a picture of the oven .

 

You can see the opening of the flue just above the oven door which takes the gases over the topbof the oven before going up the chimney. This also takes the smoke from the cinders below

[Billhook]

A better shot of the inside of the oven with World War One army helmet. (Maybe his punishment for desertion!)

[GreenGui]

Great pics. The oven you have is actually the correct flue arrangement for a Pizza and bread oven. The idea was that as the flue gasses exited out the top front of the oven, they heated the dome and drew in oxygen from the bottom of the opening keeping the fire going. The design that Marko and I have means that some of the heat is wasted directly out the flue at the top - the payoff is that you don't get smoke in your face! The Portuguese manufacturer of our ovens actually makes a version with a brick face and a flue design exactly like your antique version. Second pic here: Fc 120 - four a bois pour : pain, pizza, viande | DPI

 

Or here:

 

Four a bois exterieur - Achat / Vente Four a bois exterieur pas cher - Cdiscount

 

The old ovens have come back into use over here in France, people rebuild and repair them and they are classed as bits of rural heritage. In some cases grants can be had to repair them, particularly the big communal 'village' versions that everyone shared once it was hot.

 

Wish I could sell my branch logs for what you are getting:thumbup:

 

Edited to add links

Edited March 22, 2016 by GreenGui

[Billhook]

I have only sold one bag so far!

 

I gave the publican a bag and asked him to try it and give an honest opinion

 

He liked the product and then came the inevitable "How much"

 

Instead of talking pounds and pence directly I suggested that it had to be worth a couple of pints. When you look at a bag it is hard to disagree but then he realised he charges three quid for a pint so he felt he had a good deal when I lowered it to a fiver !

[richy_B]

The problem there is, if you work for beer you run the risk of it becoming popular and you'll sh*tfaced every visit!