Hello from a newbie

[Jono85]

Hi all, I'm Jono, I live in Wales and am new to Pizza Ovens.
Well I say new I've wanted one for years and have been researching them for the past six months,finally, 3 days ago I built myself one
Fired it up for the first time last night and boy do these things throw out some heat, cant wait to start cooking in it
which is where I come to my newbie question,
where can I get fuel for it, there is acres of woodland behind my home, but don't think it would be in my best interests to go hacking down the ancient Oaks,Ash and Beech etc, pine wood isn't an option, although I can get tons for nowt, it makes food taste yuk , also buying decent hardwood for burning is very expensive,
Is there somwhere I can get some kind of recycled burning materials, like the compressed woodchip fire logs you can get, or cheap bulk loads of charcoal etc Thanks for reading, looking forward to get to know you all
ATB Jono

[Lburou]

Welcome Jono

Congratulations on your oven Jono

I'd like to see some pictures! Any type of oven in one day is quite an accomplishment.

Look for dead-fall in those acres near you, you are bound to find some wood already on the ground, (what we call dead-fall), and the property owners would probably appreciate your policing dead-fall for them, ask them.

Most members here are compulsive purists relative to which oven they choose to build, how they build it, and what they heat their ovens with. Coal will heat the oven but not produce a flame while you are cooking a pizza, the compressed wood logs are not popular because of the presumed chemicals used to bind the saw dust and help the flame persist. Charcoal will make heat but not the flame you need for pizza. You need real wood to finish cooking that pizza.

I've read about enterprising members here finding scrap (hard) wood in the most unlikely places like a cabinet shop, log home manufacturer, or some other consumer of wood in the construction process. If you keep your eyes and ears open, you might discover plenty of scrap wood close to your domicile.

I heat our oven with scrap wood from building sites found near my home. Some of it is pine, but I use it first to heat the oven, then, use a log (dead-fall from my four acres) for the flame while I'm cooking. It works for me.

HTH, Good luck