Tools for cleaning out the oven?

[Rocko Bonaparte]

I can't reach the back of my cob oven too well to scrape out the last bits of the sand that originally formed it. This brought up a larger question to me of how I intended to get all the ash out of there. This brought up another question in me of how I was intending to push all the wood around when I was starting the fire.

It will be another week I think before I can really take this thing up to a good temperature so I wanted to learn a little bit more about good tools to use in the oven that I should probably have at the ready when it is time. I already have a pizza peel, but that was the easy part.

We have a nice hoe here that might push the wood around, and I initially was using it to scrape out the sand, but I couldn't get it into the curves right at the edges, so a lot got left behind. I am assuming there is a kind of brush that is like 45 degrees to the handle, all made of materials capable of withstanding high heat. I guess it could be like a workshop broom you'd use at home. But so far I haven't found one. When I looked up fireplace brushes on Amazon they all appeared to point straight out from the pole. Is that normal? Is that better?

[dmun]

You really need about five specialized tools for oven management and pizza handling.
For fire handling you need a long handled shovel and rake. For floor cleaning you need a long handled brass brush. For pizza handling you need a large peel to place the pizza, and a small one to turn it and remove it. You can improvise if you are good at metal fabrication, or you can spring for professional tools. A good food service supply that handles pizzeria stuff may have it locally, or you can buy it from FB:

Residential Pizza Peels | Pizza Oven Tools

[Les]

To get the sand out I would suggest using a shop vac. After that, a brush will work fine. I don't mind a little ash on my pizza but sand and mortar - no way.

[HeidiL2011]

Here at Forno Bravo we have the tools you need. Feel free to check out our website
Fornobravo.com.

Thanks
Heidi

[fxpose]

I made an 8" round aluminum pizza retrieval tool on a long copper handle which I also use for moving logs, coals, and embers around and also for shoveling ash. It's a very versatile tool.

As for clearing ash for pizza I blow away ash using a long 1/2" copper pipe flattened on the end.

So basically, I only use 3 tools for the oven, the third being a wooden peel.

[stonylake]

i use a 3-knott roofers brush to clean ash out of my oven after it has cooled, a brass brush when it's hot

[David D]

I use a shop vac to clean the ash out

[Lburou]

Originally Posted by stonylake

i use a 3-knott roofers brush to clean ash out of my oven after it has cooled, a brass brush when it's hot

"3-knott roofers brush ".....? What does that look like? 3 knots is how fast I walk, must be a real fast brush

[azpizzanut]

Hello All,

You can make pizza oven tools from discarded garden tools. I have a lathe so was able to cut long handles to the length needed and turn the ends to a nice shape then drill a long hole for the metal shank. I did a hoe and poker that way. Shop around on eBay for metal bristle oven brushes. I got working part shipped for roughly $20 and put it on a threaded wooden handle.

Peels are not difficult to make with basic hand tools but a better way is to shop around for an inexpensive wooden peel, then thin the front edge and add a handle to suit the length you need. This is another item I found locally and modified for less than $10 and an hour of work.

The metal peels I saw on eBay seem to be priced by the length of their handles, though I don't know why that should be. I bought three of various design and size but with the shortest length handles. Shipping was low because they were all under a critical postal shipping dimension. I removed the short wood handles and installed custom length handles that I made myself. This made for an easy and fun project. There were a variety of round, wooden, handles at Ace Hardware. I cut them to length and fitted them to the metal peels with rivets.

Cheers,