Fire brick quality

[barkzer]

Hi all,

I?m Matt from Tasmania, Australia.

I?m about to embark on building my own wood-fired oven, or trying to at least.
I?ve looked around for some fire bricks, and the average price in Tasmania where I live is $6 each, so it?s not the cheapest. However I think found at a brick and paving place a heap of firebricks they were selling due to not having a working kiln any longer. The price was $1 each, a bargain, right?
Only thing is they taper from 78mm down to 70mm, but that I?m sure can be worked with. Would it be hard to chip away, by hand or a cutter, the 8mm difference?

Also, they gave me the breakdown of the content, which from what I?ve read might be too low a quality fire brick?
73% Silica
23% Alumina
1.5 Ferric Oxide
1.1 Titania
1.2 ?accessory?

All help is much appreciated, and I?m glad to now be part of this forum; I?ve read a few posts and there are some good people about!

Matt.

[Toomulla]

Re: Fire brick quality

Tapered bricks are perfect if you pull them in a circle they will make an oven of about 1000 mm diameter(36") the taper will then be correct if they are laid with the taper horizontal and you only need to cut them in half( or taper the sides) I have attached a couple of photos from my attempt

[cobblerdave]

Re: Fire brick quality

Gudday
And they will work for a the hearth, the floor, as well by laying on thinner side tapered face to tapered face. The 2 bricks will form a rectangle. And you have even tops.
Regards dave

[barkzer]

Re: Fire brick quality

Hey thanks for the replies.
For the cooking surface I have 'decking blocks' from the same place. They're made from the same stuff as the firebricks and we're made for the base of a kiln. They're nearly twice as wide as a normal firebrick.
An idea about the firebrick makeup? Will the quality suffice?