Fire Handling Tools Wood Fired Pizza Ovens 🔥
Fire handling tools are the instruments you use to manage your coals and wood. Without a great fire handling tool you’re facing a lifetime of singed arm hair and tong brands burnt into your hands and a selection of charred sticks and poles laying around near your oven looking like the tribe came to visit and left all their spears behind: not pretty my friends, not pretty! With a great fire handling tool, corralling your coals is easy and your hands are well back from the heat so you can really take control of your oven.
We have three main options: the coal scoop, the ember rake, the log lifter and just lately we’ve added two small oven version options, primarily for those new small quick light ovens where the side walls of the oven chamber are very angled, or the ceiling is quite low or there’s just not a lot of room altogether...
OH, best also explain that for the last year or so, we’ve started putting half metal handles on all our coal scoops and ember rakes, which is probably a bit confusing seeing as there’s pictures up everywhere of plain handled fire tools!
Now our timber handles are pretty darn fire proof: the timber we use is very small celled and dense and Pete hardens each handle the old fashioned way: passing it through the fire 3 or 4 times and sanding between each pass, so we’ve never had anyone burn through one, but that said, the coal scoops and ember rakes are the only tools we make that pass directly OVER the fire, so it’s nice to have that extra protection on them and so, that’s what we do now! Well, unless your oven is really small and doing the half metal won’t give you enough lovely cool wood to hold onto, but mostly everyone gets the upgrade now.
Anyway, after you choose your main fire herder, if the budget allows, wood moving wise, we also have a truly unique tool, a log lifter, that will let you place your timber with precision. Basically, we’ve got you covered!
OK, so in this section you need to choose yourself a main firehandling tool. the choice basically comes down to the shape and the size of your oven chamber with a dash of what’re-you-up-to in there thrown in. never fear, i’ve gone into it all in great depth below, but essentially, if you have a round oven chamber, go the coal scoop, a straight walled oven, go the ember rake…
Coal Scoop
The coal scoop is a brilliant idea. Unfortunately, we can't take the credit. Our friend Mark (a great stone mason who makes ovens up here on the Sunnie Coast) made one of them for his roof. Not that he was making pizzas up there mind, but one day he found himself cutting the sides off an old shovel to clean his roof gutters out with and then a light bulb went off over his head (well, probably not literally!) and he thought "I reckon this might be good for the oven".
He was right! In your standard dome shaped oven chamber, the coal scoop’s curved shape is MUCH better for getting you right up against your round walls and its fantastic for the spreading-your-coals-out-around-the-edges and gathering-them-in-to-the centre motions you make in a round oven. It’s also really great for banking your coals over to one side of your oven, which is of course where you do usually bank them in a dome oven if you’re cooking pizza, so you can make the most of your space and cook on that lovely wide and easy to access central runway strip of floor.
So essentially what I’m saying is that the scoop gives you great control over your coals: ten minutes with one of these babies and you'll be directing your fire like an army general and moving it from zig to zag like an ice hockey player…
Thanks Mark!
PLEASE NOTE: the coal scoop in the YouTube clip does not have the new half metal handle.
Coal Scoop Standard Dimensions
Coal Scoop Features
- Large stainless steel ring, suits a wide variety of hooks and hangers
- Fire hardened qwilla large sized hardwood handle
- Food grade 1.6 mm thick stainless steel plate
- Solid brass 25 mm screws for good grip - no wobbly handles, ever
- Solid brass etched nameplate
- Brass capped stainless steel rivets
- Curved face allows you to encircle and move the whole fire
- Flat end allows you to direct individual logs
- Combination handle ensures protection for the handle when it passes over the fire, but also that there’s plenty of lovely cool wood up the other end for a non-burny grip!
As well as the standard size referred to here, coal scoops (and all other tools) can be made to your specifications and oven size. We have a Guide to Measuring Your Oven.
Tools can also be personalised with your wording engraved into the handles.
Ember Rake
Now, the ember rake, with its wide flat front is also a great fire handling tool, but it’s much better suited to a straight sided oven chamber and getting up against those 90 degree walls and into those tight back corners that you get in those ovens. It also excels at the pushing-your-coals-back and pulling-them forward motions you make in straight sided ovens AND it’s great for banking your fire at the back, which is where you usually bank your fire in them, particularly if you have a rectangular or tunnel shaped oven (i.e, the normal straight sided configuration, where your oven chamber length is more than its width).
So in a straight sided oven, this fire tool is a bulldozer. It cuts a real swathe through your fire and likewise, if you’re gathering your coals up for retrieval, it makes short work of the job.
PLEASE NOTE: the ember rake in the YouTube clip does not have the new half metal handle.
Ember Rake Standard Dimensions
Ember Rake Features
- Large stainless steel ring, suits a wide variety of hooks and hangers
- Fire hardened qwilla large sized hardwood handle
- Food grade 1.6mm thick stainless steel plate
- Solid brass 25 mm screws for good grip - no wobbly handles, ever
- Solid brass etched nameplate
- Brass capped stainless steel rivets
- Rake is made to be used in the horizontal/near horizontal position and to either push or pull items
- Because the blade is really wide, large logs and piles of coals can be moved with ease
- Combination handle ensures protection for the handle when it passes over the fire, but also that there’s plenty of lovely cool wood up the other end for a non-burny grip!
As well as the standard size referred to here, ember rakes (and all other tools) can be made to your specifications and oven size. We have a Guide to Measuring Your Oven.
Tools can also be personalised with your wording engraved into the handles.
OK so you with me so far? For the vast majority of ovens, the fire handling tool choice is pretty simple: scoop in a dome chamber, rake in a straight sided chamber.
That said, this division is not writ in stone. There are people with domes (mostly big bread bakers) who like themselves a rake and there are people with straight sided ovens (particularly if they have a nice wide doorway and their oven chamber is wider than it is deep and so they bank their fire to the side as you would in a dome) or who don’t do bread (but want to finesse their coals around for pizza, etc) who get a scoop and there are also people who – shock horror! – get both tools, which is why they’re both in the full set as, if you have the dough (hah!), the two do compliment each other well...
Small Oven Fire Tools:
Just to complicate things more, we’re finding – now we have these dedicated small oven tools – that occasionally people with bigger ovens like one of them too, just coz the shape or the size suits what they’re up to. Primarily though, these tools came about because the standard blades on the two above are just too ‘high’ for a lot of the new small/quick light/tabletop ovens that are being produced now.
What do I mean by small ovens? Well, firstly, I mean no disrespect! These ovens are great for small spaces or if you’re renting/moving about or if you simply want to bang out some quick pizzas or something without any fuss, so no judgement here! To give you an idea of what exactly I mean though, I’m talking about ovens with chambers 600 mm or under. Ovens like the Alfa 5 Minuti, the Jamie Oliver Dome 60 Leggero, the Morso Forno, the Ooni Pro, the Sapore Oggi or the Euro 60.
Most of these smaller ovens are domes, but the problem is not really the shape of the walls, it’s the height of the ceiling and the angle at which the ceiling meets the floor.
If you look at the standard fire tool dimensions tables above, you can see the issue: the blades on the scoop and rake are both 100 mm ‘high’ but quite often in smaller domes, the ceiling may only be 150-250 mm high in the centre of the oven and so given the smaller chamber diameter, where the ceiling meets the floor, well, the angle can be quite steep and a 100 mm blade just won’t let you get right up against the walls.
Small Oven Coal Scoop
SO: the small version of the coal scoop has a blade that is only 70 mm ‘high’. The blade is still the same length as it’s bigger brother, it’s just slightly more ‘curved up’ than the standard one in recognition of the walls in a smaller
diameter chamber being more curved. Basically, you should start looking at these small oven options if your oven
chamber is under 700 mm in diameter or if your ceiling is quite low (under 300 mm in the centre say?) and so your
walls are steeply sloped down to the floor. If that’s the case, I would consider going out to the oven with something
100 mm high and seeing how close the standard scoop will let you get to the junction of the floor and wall.
PLEASE NOTE: YouTube clip for the small oven coal scoop coming soon!
Small Oven Coal Scoop Standard Dimensions
Small Oven Coal Scoop Features
- Large stainless steel ring, suits a wide variety of hooks and hangers
- Fire hardened qwilla large sized hardwood handle
- Food grade 1.6 mm thick stainless steel plate
- Solid brass 25 mm screws for good grip - no wobbly handles, ever
- Solid brass etched nameplate
- Brass capped stainless steel rivets
- The shorter 70 mm high and more curved blade allows you to get in closer to the walls in smaller ovens
- Combination handle ensures protection for the handle when it passes over the fire, but also that there’s plenty of lovely cool wood up the other end for a non-burny grip!
As well as the standard size referred to here, small oven coal scoops (and all other tools) can be made to your specifications and oven size. We have a Guide to Measuring Your Oven.
Tools can also be personalised with your wording engraved into the handles.
Small Oven Ember Rake
As mentioned above, most small ovens are domes, so why, you might be wondering, would you need a small rake? Well, it turns out that when an oven is very small (and I’m mostly taking about those under 600 mm diameter table top ovens here) proportionally, the doorway is often quite wide, meaning you can manage to get enough angle to do side-to-side action with a rake (which you can’t in a bigger dome with a proportionally smaller doorway width) AND also, because really small ovens have such limited floor space, being able to pack your coals in very tightly against the wall (as you can with a rake) is a huge advantage because it increases the available cooking space and means you don’t eat so much ash and grit with your pizza: and that is always a good thing!
Of course, because these table top ovens are mostly domes, this small oven version of the ember rake needed to be really compact and to have curved sides, but even if your oven walls are not steeply angled, the half circular shape of the blade still gives you a big surface to let you really tamp those coals in tight and more or less make a vertical wall of them.
PLEASE NOTE: YouTube clip for the small oven ember rake coming soon!
Small Oven Ember Rake Standard Dimensions
Small Oven Ember Rake Features
- Large stainless steel ring, suits a wide variety of hooks and hangers
- Fire hardened qwilla large sized hardwood handle
- Food grade 1.6 mm thick stainless steel plate
- Solid brass 25 mm screws for good grip - no wobbly handles, ever
- Solid brass etched nameplate
- Brass capped stainless steel rivets
- Curved but substantial blade allows you to really pack coals in tight/maximise floor space in smaller ovens
- Combination handle ensures protection for the handle when it passes over the fire, but also that there’s plenty of lovely cool wood up the other end for a non-burny grip!
As well as the standard size referred to here, small oven ember rakes (and all other tools) can be made to your specifications and oven size. We have a Guide to Measuring Your Oven.
Tools can also be personalised with your wording engraved into the handles.
Other Fire Handling Tools:
Once you’ve got your main fire handling tool sorted, you might want to consider a log lifter. Unlike the section above though, this tool is definitely NOT for small oven people, it’s for the folk with big ovens!
Log Lifter
The log lifter is a truly unique tool! There’s not another company that makes one anywhere in the world, even the big Italian pizza tool makers, so we’re very proud of it.
Proud as we are of it, it’s also a symbol of our failings. We researched and tinkered with its design for four years and then we decided to launch it for Father’s Day, 2014. EIGHT YEARS LATER AGAIN and we’re only just getting it up (LAST HALF OF 2021)! Pete naively thinks that’s an example of how busy we’ve been, but I know, deep inside me that it’s an example of how slack we are!
Funny part is, despite it not being up on the site till now, we’ve sold an awful lot of these tools! Primarily this is because I’ve been telling 'Might As Well Have The Lot' set customers about them for about 9 years. I’ve had to do that you see, because in our minds the log lifter has been about to go up on the site IMMINENTLY for about that length time and I figured that, if you bought a full set of tools and then a month later it wasn’t a full set of tools anymore, you’d be pretty miffed, so best let ‘em know there was ANOTHER TOOL coming (and coming and coming and coming as it turns out!).
1200.jpg "Log lifter is a must have for your wood fired pizza oven.")
Anyway, those folk got one and told their friends about it and put it up on their Facebook pages, etc and next thing you know, people were telling US they wanted one (as if it was a ‘secret product’ for ‘members only’), which has all been great fun, but the relief of finally having it up is UNBELIEVABLE and we reckon it’s gonna become a best seller real fast, because once you have one, you can’t imagine how you did without it or indeed, why someone didn’t come up with it sooner. Of course, now you know that too: they DID come up with it sooner!
OK, so the Log Lifter does just as the name suggests, it lifts logs - crossways, longways, big, small, gnarly and/or misshapen - and allows you to put them on your fire exactly where you want them to go. If your oven is on the lengthy side or there’s no chimney out front or you’re a bit of a pyromaniac and like it blistering hot in there, well this can be a great thing as, whilst throwing your logs in and getting them to land in the right place may be great for your aim and hand eye co-ordination, if you get it wrong it can be eye watering and arm burning trying to sort it out if they’re a long way back.
My point is, it’s not just very useful, it’s serious fun to use. Almost a something-to-do-while-your-oven-heats game!
For a ‘newish’ tool, the Log Lifter also wins the prize for ‘Most Non-Pizza Oven Uses’. Customers have sent us pictures of it being used to rescue footballs from the roof, a shoe from down a gap between walls, a drone from a tree and of course, every single man who has picked one up immediately uses it to lift up a stubbie or a packet of cigarettes or his partner’s skirt (assuming his partner wears one that is!): you get the picture.
PLEASE NOTE: this YouTube clip is of a very early prototype log lifter. There is no wooden handle part on it and the jaws don’t open as wide as the proper ones do. New clip coming soon!
Log Lifter Standard Dimensions
Log Lifter Features
- Large stainless steel ring, suits a wide variety of hooks and hangers
- Fire hardened qwilla hardwood handle grips
- Solid brass etched nameplate
- Food grade, 1.5 mm thick walled stainless steel square bar used for solid arm and internal slider: will lift the heaviest logs without bending
- The standard lifter ‘jaws’ will open to 300 mm wide: holding the widest of logs easily
- The configuration of the 3 welded 8 mm stainless steel round bar prongs will hold the weirdest log shapes firmly in place
- Stainless steel rivets hold the two arms together: they’re never coming apart
As well as the standard size referred to here, log lifters (and all other tools) can be made to your specifications and oven size. We have a Guide to Measuring Your Oven.
Tools can also be personalised with your wording engraved into the handles.
