Semi per oven help

[Garymitchell]

Hi I'm just setting up a semi and doing a great job with walls and fire pit etc but I'm looking at found a oven ,now the land I chose to build this camp is a hike so it stays untouched there is no rocks on the land or within a mile radius,now I'm thinking large pieces of slate as it's light and would be great for floor of oven and walls of oven and even the plate of the oven ,what do you guys think? My thinking is its light and I could bring a section of slate every trip I do out there even on burnings etc any help please

 

[decorum]

I googled an image search for 'slate oven'. Lots and lots of slate coloured metal home ovens and a few outside brick ovens covered with slate ~ brick inside, slate outside.

I could be wrong, but that probably says something.

An 'all' google search shows that many find that energetic disintergration has presented issues ~ it's a sedimentary, layered, material prone to flaking and, being, layered can trap water ... which can be interesting in a not good way.

 

[Garymitchell]

I googled an image search for 'slate oven'. Lots and lots of slate coloured metal home ovens and a few outside brick ovens covered with slate ~ brick inside, slate outside.

I could be wrong, but that probably says something.

An 'all' google search shows that many find that energetic disintergration has presented issues ~ it's a sedimentary, layered, material prone to flaking and, being, layered can trap water ... which can be interesting in a not good way.

Thank you for your input 😄

 

[tombear]

If there's any likely hood the stove will get wet or even damp between uses avoid anything flakey like slate like the plague! If it can be dried slowly then kept dry through fairly constant use you'd have no problems but that seams a unlikely situation if you ain't living there all the time. A slate bakestone could be slipped into a rubble sack or something between visits to keep it dry but a box like oven wouldn't be a runner.

Something I want to source as soon as I can is what functions like the Roman/ Greek clibanus oven. Replicas are expensive so some clever b@@ger worked out a cheap alternative. Go down to the garden centre and buy the biggest terracotta saucer plant pot stand they have and the biggest terracotta plant bowl that when inverted fits on top of the saucer. There will be a drain hole in the bowl that will need to be filled and a couple of big washers and nuts and ring or a hook on a suitably threaded rod will hold them together and provide a lifting point. To use put the saucer on the ashes, the object to be cooked (ideally raised off the base to prevent burning, a few stones under the baking tray or what ever will do ) on the saucer, place the inverted bowl over the top and pile coals/ ashes on the top.of that around the lifting point. Naturally if you have the know how you could make the whole thing from local clay, fire it etc. but that's beyond me at least! A big plant pot and non exploding flat stone would do the job. It would be small enough to bag up between uses and cheap enough to not worry about leaving it, or it could be buried without much effort. You could even have a duplicate set up at home to practice with in between times.

Some folk use similar set ups as cloches to use inside conventional ovens to bake bread so if you google homemade cloche or Roman Army Clibanus you should get pictures which will explain it much better than I have.

ATB

Tom

 

[Garymitchell]

Wow thank you for a great bit of advise