Hi, I will be finished with building the oven soon but will be having a custom door made later in the summer. I want to cure the oven now, but I can’t figure out if it can be done without a door??? I have extra firebrick, can I just close up the front with them?
Hey there, Crewton! Welcome both of you to the BrickWood forum, and congratulations on your progress with your new oven.
You absolutely can (and should) cure your oven without the door in place. Your goal in a curing fire is to drive moisture out through the opening and the chimney. The oven won’t draw and the moisture will stay inside if a door is in place the whole time.
That’s also general advice for when you are firing up your oven (later) for cooking. I get prevailing westerly winds blowing into my westward-facing oven, and I find it useful to stand the door a couple of inches away from the opening, and/or offset a couple of inches to one side, when the wind is blowing very hard. Other than that, for the kind of really high temperatures this oven can achieve you want that door off. There are specific scenarios (baking being the biggest one) where the door is in place, but when you’re doing that you’re working with low-and-slow flame, or none at all.
We’d love to see photos, and there are other BrickWood builders who have had custom doors made, and a few even fabricated them themselves. Just search and you will find!