Restaurant Oven Build- Part Five

The face of the oven creates the flue.  The flue and chimney is in front of the oven chamber in all wood-fired ovens.  Some ovens, like cob built ones and ancient mud ovens, don't have a flue at all but vent the smoke directly in front of the mouth, blackening the front.

If someone tries to put the chimney in the middle of the dome or vault, your oven will not heat as this creates something akin to fireplace, but with poor qualities at best.

A second arch allows for the space for a flue.  I have designed the front arch wider and a couple of inches higher than the mouth arch so that good visibility and working space is available to the baker.
In indoor installations I create two combustion air (or makeup air) channels on either side of the arch.

Before I mix mortar, I precut and pre-set most of the bricks.

The arch form is shimmed and the top of the form is covered with thin aluminum or steel to create a smooth surface and catch extra mortar.

The form can be removed soon after placing the keystone as gravity, and the small amount of mortar are holding it all together.

The brick sides are buttresses that will maintain the compression sufficient to hold the arch.  In this case the arch is nearly full which means that the force of the bricks is primarily on the base.

A level is an important tool that keeps the masonry true.