Masonry oven and the fire won't burn well. Modern masonry ovens sometimes bear little resemblance to their forebears, and can have just a cast deck (similar to a pizza stone) inside a more conventional oven exterior. Such devices are primarily used in commercial settings, though tabletop models are available. Cob is the British name for what is essentially adobe (from Arabic, "al toba," meaning "the mud;" "cob" is the Anglo-Saxon word for "lump," and is also used to describe round loaves of bread, or small, compact horses). As the most common building material on the planet, earth, clay and "cob" construction have
Masonry heater day and night. Because the radiant heat is given off at a low level a masonry heater is not likely to overheat a home the way a metal stove might in warmer parts of the year like fall or spring. The kachelofen design, a relatively large home heater surrounded with ceramic tile, has existed for at least five centuries. During the Renaissance period, the builders of kachelofens were part of a distinct trade and were called "hafnermeister". A kachelofen uses a maze-like passage created out of firebrick to release gases and smoke from the wood fire slowly, allowing the firebrick