firing a brick oven

I'm firing my outdoor oven this morning, and am noticing the temperature is very much related to not only to the quantity of wood, but the type- and whether or not it;s dry.When I fire it with 2x4 ends and pallets[ which sometimes are hardwood] I get a good coal bed and the temperature hits 600-fine for pizza but too hot for bread.I have to let it cool down to about 400 before putting in my hearth loaves and baguettes or they burn on the bottom.
This morning I'm struggling to get it up to 400-I had a bunch of cedar fencing and it just doesn't get hot ennough or make a coal bed.
I have a batch of rye, whole grain hearth loaves and a dozen baguettes ready to go.
Not having a dial to turn does make it a bit trickier to get the heat right.Great bread though-I much prefer it to regular oven baking- the brick oven does bread just beautifully, golden brown and crusty .

[BobBoyce]

Sounds absolutely yummy!

[FrankTheTank]

This is true, heres a page with a huge list of woods BTU values...

http://hearth.com/what/heatvalues.html

http://hearth.com/what/woods.html this page shows that cedar has poor coaling qualities...

thats sounds like some really good bread.

[ratherbefishin]

one thing that is important is not to just go by the initial temperature- which can reach up to 600*-you have to let the coal bed die down over an hour or so in order to allow the brick to heat up-which will then retain the heat for baking.The initial temperature reading is air temperature, and if the fire burns down too quickly without a good coal bed,[ 6'' deep] the retained heat just isn't there.I find it takes a good hour with the damper shut , after the wood has burned down to let the coal bed heat the brick before attempting to begin baking.Hard wood or even fir makes a decent coal bed- Pallets are a good source of free wood and often goods coming in from Asia are on hardwood pallets[ incidently- a good source of small pieces of hardwood for wood working]