Hello Jim -
Beautiful oven! LOVE the color combo!
I see why you wouldn’t want to add additional masonry front to the oven.
I liked your suggestion about a decorative metal frame, but before you do that, let’s look at this from another direction… let’s discuss your firewood.
Most smoking issues (in all ovens -not just BrickWood Ovens), can be directed to the type of wood species and exactly how seasoned the firewood is. Sometimes the firewood isn’t as seasoned as it should be (it looks / sounds well seasoned, but there is still moisture in the wood). This can result in higher than normal smoke levels.
We were confounded a couple of years ago with the same issue. Our usual firewood supplier delivered a cord of moist firewood - and the oven produced more smoke than normal. Later that year, we purchased the a new cord of well-seasoned firewood and that did the trick. The new wood burnt clean and almost smoke free. You will also notice that as your oven get’s hotter, you’ll see very little smoke.
Like cooking in a wood fired oven, it takes a little bit of practice… but you’ll be a wood-burning pizza oven Jedi in no time!
Our suggestion - keep firing the oven as normal, work with the oven door to direct the smoke… try a different species of wood… and always make sure your wood is good and seasoned.
Here in the Birkenstock capital of the country, we have a great resource from the Washington State Airwatch Agency and they have created a fantastic PDF on everything firewood. From cutting to curing to burning - they cover it all! Burn Dry Firewood PDF
And in closing, why on earth haven’t you sent us more pictures of your beautiful oven for our Photo Gallery?!? It’s super easy to send up to 20GB of pics and videos, so please be sure to send us as many as you can!! BrickWood Ovens - Submit Pictures.
Thanks Jim!
Kevin