Brick Oven Dome Building: part two

I have experimented with the timing of setting the mouth arch and find that the sooner the better.

Fitting the dome to the mouth arch is perhaps the most technical of all the aspects in building domed brick ovens.  It requires that the bricks comprising the dome splice onto the mouth arch at the same slope and arc as the rest of the dome bricks.

Secondly, it is best if the mouth arch is built from full arch bricks without using sliced pieces to fill gaps.  This is a 24" wide mouth that uses a combo of #1 and #2 arch bricks.  Extremely thin joints allow for the bricks to first laid dry and then mortared in the same positions.



Once a few more chains of dome bricks are set, the form can be removed and the arch bricks cleaned.

 The interior of the mouth arch is sculpted to meet the dome curve, an aesthetic as well as aerodynamic consideration.

As shown here, the walls of the throat are mocked up.  The working face of the oven will be a lot wider than the mouth allowing for great visibility as well as space for handling product.  Generally, I  make the face arch the same diameter as the interior dome.
Construction of the throat (a later post) will show the corbelled chimney.

French ovens would build a horizontal lintel over the mouth while Italian ovens form arched faces.