interior surface of bricks

[spinal tap]

I have some mortar that oozed out beyond the bricks and I took a grinder to it but touched the surface of the bricks making some shallow gouges/scrapes. I've read when building the oven to keep the non cut side of the bricks facing the inside of the oven. What's the significance of this practice?

How is the performance or effectiveness of the oven affected if the interior surface is not factory finish?

Thanks,
Nate

[Laku]

Originally Posted by spinal tap

I have some mortar that oozed out beyond the bricks and I took a grinder to it but touched the surface of the bricks making some shallow gouges/scrapes. I've read when building the oven to keep the non cut side of the bricks facing the inside of the oven. What's the significance of this practice?

How is the performance or effectiveness of the oven affected if the interior surface is not factory finish?

Thanks,
Nate

Doesn't affect the performance. As far as I know that's purely aesthetic flaw.

[Mistertoy]

Originally Posted by spinal tap

I have some mortar that oozed out beyond the bricks and I took a grinder to it but touched the surface of the bricks making some shallow gouges/scrapes.

I hit a brick with a grinder as well and smoothed them with course wet and dry sand paper (wet with water) - worked well.

Brett

[Bacterium]

while sorta on the topic

I've always wondered, if you are using second hand bricks, for example out of an old fireplace (say 30+yrs old) and their outside edge is blackened - would it pose any risk for a pizza oven? I mean from toxins or whatever crap was burnt in the fire and subsequently went up the chimney and possibly deposited on the bricks themselves

Worst case I guess is just put the cut side inwards

just wondering.......thoughts?

[texman]

i would guess the smoother surface is just cleaner. The smoother surface has fewer cavities to catch particulates that might fall in your food and gunk up the dome. fwiw.
Tracy

[spinal tap]

Originally Posted by Bacterium

while sorta on the topic

I've always wondered, if you are using second hand bricks, for example out of an old fireplace (say 30+yrs old) and their outside edge is blackened - would it pose any risk for a pizza oven? I mean from toxins or whatever crap was burnt in the fire and subsequently went up the chimney and possibly deposited on the bricks themselves

Worst case I guess is just put the cut side inwards

just wondering.......thoughts?

This was a concern when I was searching for used bricks. I was worried about bricks used in a commercial enviroment where various metals were in contact with the bricks. I guess buying bricks from a residence would not be as big of a risk. But decided to buy new bricks because they werent that expensive.

Nate

[Bacterium]

Well that's it domestic would be relatively low risk...... I guess with a few decent fires pre cooking most of whatever might have been there was burnt off.

[jab49]

Originally Posted by spinal tap

I have some mortar that oozed out beyond the bricks and I took a grinder to it but touched the surface of the bricks making some shallow gouges/scrapes. I've read when building the oven to keep the non cut side of the bricks facing the inside of the oven. What's the significance of this practice?

How is the performance or effectiveness of the oven affected if the interior surface is not factory finish?

Thanks,
Nate

The plans talk about laying the bricks with the cut side out, but purely for appearance. I managed in my fatigue on a couple to do just that, but after a few looks in the oven, it doesn't look bad at all - just "rustic" and I can't see how it would affect performance in the slightest. More worrying is the impact of grinding - how does that vibration throughout the oven affect the integrity of the mortar? If anything, I'd be leaving the grinder out of it. One advantage of using refractory mortar vs home brew is that it takes a very long time to go really hard so you can clean up for some days afterwards.
(see, now that I've closed my dome but yet to complete the whole oven, I'm an expert. :-) )

[GianniFocaccia]

Yeah, yeah, JT. We're all experts after we complete our ovens! Funny!

I read here that bricks don't actually vitrify when they're fired, but do take on a hardness on the perimeter of the brick that is sometimes not obtained in the center of the brick. I think this is the reason behind placing the cut side out.

[Les]

Pretty much every brick in my dome has the cut exposed to the fire (it looked very clean going that route). Been using it for about 4 years now and no problems whatsoever. My biggest concern was spalling since I didn't use mortar - that hasn't happened either. (knock on brick)