A while ago i mentioned wanting to try using a clibanus to bake bread on a open fire.
http://www.roman-reenactor.com/roman military bread making.html
However its taken until now for me to actually go to a garden centre and get the bits needed to mock up one. there's some lovely replicas out there but I cant afford them and i don't have the gear or skill to make one from scratch. I had seen on the internet a way of improvising one using a bowl shaped plant pot, a, well i don't know what you call them , a saucer that you stand a plant pot on and a few bits from a hardware shop so i thought I'd try that.
I didn't have a chance to shop around so the parts cost about £10 in all. I;m sure it can be done cheaper or made from dug and properly prepared clay in the field. This one can hold a 9", shallow, cake tin, A slightly bigger saucer thing would have been easier to use and more in keeping with the originals.but this is what they had.
When i can find it there's a pack of terracotta coloured fake Daz airdrying modelling clay floating about the house so I will probably add a rim of sorts near the now top to hold coals better. Since I don't know how much or little things will expand or contract I've left the metal work loose for the moment, its weight will make a good enough seal. Two large washers and two nuts on a screwed eyelet cap the drain hole on whats normally the bottom of the plant pot.
In use I'll use a few pebbles to make a air gap between the saucer and the cake tin to discourage burning.
Not sure when I'll next have a fire big enough to make enough coals to use it but ill post pics of the burnt offerings and anything Ive learned.
If your wondering the wooden thing top left is a nearly finished winding stooge for my silly vintage rubber powered planes and the piece or terracotta top right was rescued from a big planter that bust over the winter and which I'll use to have a go at turning spindle whorls from. I'll cheat and cut the blanks with a old tank cutter!
ATB
Tom
http://www.roman-reenactor.com/roman military bread making.html
However its taken until now for me to actually go to a garden centre and get the bits needed to mock up one. there's some lovely replicas out there but I cant afford them and i don't have the gear or skill to make one from scratch. I had seen on the internet a way of improvising one using a bowl shaped plant pot, a, well i don't know what you call them , a saucer that you stand a plant pot on and a few bits from a hardware shop so i thought I'd try that.
I didn't have a chance to shop around so the parts cost about £10 in all. I;m sure it can be done cheaper or made from dug and properly prepared clay in the field. This one can hold a 9", shallow, cake tin, A slightly bigger saucer thing would have been easier to use and more in keeping with the originals.but this is what they had.
When i can find it there's a pack of terracotta coloured fake Daz airdrying modelling clay floating about the house so I will probably add a rim of sorts near the now top to hold coals better. Since I don't know how much or little things will expand or contract I've left the metal work loose for the moment, its weight will make a good enough seal. Two large washers and two nuts on a screwed eyelet cap the drain hole on whats normally the bottom of the plant pot.
In use I'll use a few pebbles to make a air gap between the saucer and the cake tin to discourage burning.
Not sure when I'll next have a fire big enough to make enough coals to use it but ill post pics of the burnt offerings and anything Ive learned.
If your wondering the wooden thing top left is a nearly finished winding stooge for my silly vintage rubber powered planes and the piece or terracotta top right was rescued from a big planter that bust over the winter and which I'll use to have a go at turning spindle whorls from. I'll cheat and cut the blanks with a old tank cutter!
ATB
Tom
