Beehive (round) Brick oven in Greensboro NC

[maburton]

I got these round foundation bricks from an old chimney from a textile mill here in town.

[dbhansen]

Re: Beehive (round) Brick oven in Greensboro NC

Wow, I love what you did with the stand! That's some nice masonry with beautiful bricks.

[christo]

Re: Beehive (round) Brick oven in Greensboro NC

Wow!! I guess having radiused bricks gives one a whole nuther way to look at making a base.

Very cool!!

Christo

[Dutchoven]

Re: Beehive (round) Brick oven in Greensboro NC

Radiused bricks you just picked up from a chimney at an old mill...how lucky are you!...I am sooo jealous...Oh and great work you lucky so and so
Dutch

[Ken524]

Re: Beehive (round) Brick oven in Greensboro NC

Please tell me you're a professional mason... That's phenomenal work.

[maburton]

Re: Beehive (round) Brick oven in Greensboro NC

thank you for the comments, I am not a mason, never laid a brick in my life. I am designing on the fly from material on my father-in-law's construction office. I am not going to pour a shelf for the oven, he had some cement window sills, 50" long 3 " thick and 6 inches wide with rebar already in them. He had plenty of steel so I am just going to lay the window sills on the steel angle beams for a slab. then pour vermiculite and FB board under the fire brick floor. A lot easier than pouring cement. I tried that, never again. So far all materials have been free. But I am gong to blow the bank on insulation from FB. I will show you a pic of the cement window sills when I get back to work in 2 weeks.

[maburton]

Re: Beehive (round) Brick oven in Greensboro NC

Why is it that I cant find anybody around that is as excited as I am about building this oven? My wife thinks I am an idiot. My neighbors think I am weird, everyone at work just looks at me like "why would anyone want to build one of those?" "have you ever heard of Dominoes?" I think everyone should want to build one. why dont they? Is it really just an excuse to drink beer? Is this what it is like to get old?

[Ed_]

Re: Beehive (round) Brick oven in Greensboro NC

Honestly, I don't know why anybody thinks Domino's is actually pizza. Of all the store-bought pizza I've ever had, it's hands down the worst.

I expect many of the skeptics will come around when you feed them the real thing. In the mean time, if it's also an excuse to drink beer, so much the better.

Hang in there!

-Ed

[Ken524]

Re: Beehive (round) Brick oven in Greensboro NC

Why is it that I cant find anybody around that is as excited as I am about building this oven? My wife thinks I am an idiot. My neighbors think I am weird, everyone at work just looks at me like "why would anyone want to build one of those?"

I have also received weird looks from people when I tell them what I'm up to. I'm sure the neighbors probably talk about me as the goofy pilot with the eyesore in the side yard .

I'm lucky that my wife and kids share "the vision" along with me. All it took to win over my wife's family was some pizza and focaccia appetizers I cooked during the fall curing fires.

I suspect my mom thought I was nuts until she found out this thing could also cook bread.

Trust me... any non-believers will be BLOWN AWAY when they see you pull real pizza out of that thing.

[Dutchoven]

Re: Beehive (round) Brick oven in Greensboro NC

YOu should just let them think it's a special kind of barbeque cooker/smoker...then when it actually is an oven you will give them one hell of a surprise...and like the others said it will be an eye-opening experience for all those skeptics!
Dutch

[krosskraft]

Re: Beehive (round) Brick oven in Greensboro NC

You can be at home on this forum with other WFO enthusiasts. Give your friends and family time, they will catch on. In the meantime, just read all the threads by other "overenthusiasts" and "Ludites" on this site.

[PizzaJNKY]

Re: Beehive (round) Brick oven in Greensboro NC

Maburton, trust me, you're not alone. All my family and friends also think I'm nuts. They ask "Do you really eat THAT MUCH pizza?" Uh...Yeah, I'm a pizza junky, and I am not afraid to admit it.

[Frances]

Re: Beehive (round) Brick oven in Greensboro NC

Hey, that's what this forum is for! We'll take any and every aspect of your oven very seriously.

My family love the pizzas and the oven, but I still get the feeling they're just humoring me when they listen to me go on about various aspects of the build and different oven types and WFO recipes and and and.... Like "OK, the bread tastes great, but could you please stop TALKING about it all the time?!"

Really cool stand btw... Why don't my parents have old bricks and stuff lying around then??!!

[brokencookie]

Re: Beehive (round) Brick oven in Greensboro NC

All those odd looks and rolled eyes are the signs of ignorance. They just don't know any better. Once you have tasted WFO pizza there is no going back. For now justify yourself by comparing the many expensive odd hobbys you don't have. For example,

"At least I don't drop thousands of dollars into a hot-rod that sits in the garage "

or

" My hobby will benefit the entire family, it's not like I am spending lots of money on radio controlled airplanes or buying dirt bikes "

My wife resisted the eye rolls and signs when I discussed WFO. ( she's very patient to have put up with me for 21 years). However, after we visited George and ate a WFO pizza (Hey, somebody had to say something nice about George) she became an enthusiastic convert to the build.

Maybe you could find someone nearby to visit, or someone on the forum could point you to a decent wood fired pizza place.

Hang in there. I sure the results will make you the most popular guy around.

That is until you start talking about crumb, autolyze and Caputo flour

[marcia]

Re: Beehive (round) Brick oven in Greensboro NC

I understand. Many of us are confused about food, cooking and eating. We are easlily fooled into thinking that food is simply fuel and not a sacrament that we share. And we come to believe that cooking is a chore and not an enjoyable, life-giving, nourishing ritual. I think that once your friends experience (revel in) the slow pleasure of oven-cooking, you wil have made converts!