Yeah, but I gotta be honest, I'm not totally sold on that theory. Plenty of "seconds" bricks are just cosmetic rejects with a chip or a weird color, they'll still take the heat fine. I've used surplus firebrick from a local factory that was basically just rejects for being a little too small, and they held up through a dozen firings no problem. Sounds like your buddy's problem might've been more about the specific warehouse he got them from or maybe he just got a bad batch. Not every cheap brick is automatically garbage, you just have to know who you're buying from.

...so did Bob say anything about how he sets the posts themselves, like gravel at the bottom or concrete all the way up? I've heard people argue both ways and nobody ever really shows you the tradeoffs for different soil types. The depth thing makes sense but I'm curious what else Bob throws in with it.

Austin is kinda the bootcamp capital so that tracks.

Read a blog post once that argued for the top outer corner as the only logical choice. The writer said your thumb naturally rests there when flipping through a book or planner. Bottom corners get covered by your hand. Tried it and they were totally right, flipping through my old journals is a pain now. My go-to is definitely top outer corner, no question.

My old oven must feel so betrayed right now, honestly.