using chimmney bricks

[bluecarpenter22]

I have a bunch of the I guess soft red bricks. I'm wanting to use them for building a brick oven. any ideas. thanks mark

[dmun]

Hello and welcome.

Common bricks make excellent exterior and decorative bricks. Although some people have made their oven domes out of them, they have a problem with spalling (surface chipping) and cracking.

Here is the US, firebricks are cheap and readily available. It's a false economy not to use them. It's a LOT of work to build an oven: you want it to last.

That said, a red brick dome is better than no oven at all.

[bluecarpenter22]

in my area in northern missouri firebrick are not the plentiful. I have a few about 10 that I've had for 20 years or so. I can buy 6 at a time at a farm store but they are only about 1 1/4" thick and 4 X9 and cost about 14 bucks for 6 of them. that ain't cheap.
what did they do years ago? clay. I've thought about using clay or kitty litter for making one (the unscented kind). used it for making my forge and it works good. I just can't be spending the 6 or 8 hundred plus bucks on making one. thanks mark