Learning again

Don't worry so much . If the flues is clean and the install is all code and safe you will never melt that thing down .
But yes..don't walk away from it with full air on...or it will get hot..don't ask me how I know..lol.
The cats are sensitive at first and will go to the limit and then some for awhile.
Best advice is to try to keep the flames from licking the cat..so to speak.
Do not open the door with a cat very far into the active zone.
Uneven burning happens. Even on a new stove check the door seal with a dollar bill all the way around.
I'm not familiar with a Buck because I never ran one. I'm sure there will be some better educated post from Buck owners.
Happy burning!

We just watch the stove top temperature and the flue temperature and it works for us. As for the uneven burn, I would not be concerned because no doubt that other side will burn down when the fire needs the fuel to keep burning. It is common on some stoves. Even on our stove, the left side seems to burn a bit quicker than the right but by the end of the burn, you'd never know it.

Yep, the cat can go high on ya. If you get too much wood burning at the start, there's a lot of smoke for the cat to feed on. If it's approaching 1800, you can always bypass the cat or maybe get some flame going to eat more of the smoke (although I haven't tried that yet, since I've only had the cat heading toward 1800 a couple of times but it has leveled off for me both times before I got too worried.) I would have a better handle on the stove if I could be there throughout the burn, but it's usually 'load and go' for me over there, once the cat catches.
I burn several smaller splits to get the stove up to temp. When the cat probe gets up around 900 or so, I pull everything to the middle with a shovel and load it up. I'll put some smaller stuff in the middle to keep the stove heating up, and big stuff on the sides so it catches slower and the load burns more evenly, instead of taking off all at once. If you have a couple of flat ones on top of the ash drop lid, it seems to slow that side down a bit....some air comes in through the ash drop so that side can get hotter if you've got small stuff over there.
Tonight, I engaged at a little over 800 and it took right off. Other times I have to get it hotter than that. The 91 is a little picky but I think it can be run well with some experience. If I was there all the time to observe, I would also try to determine how different wood species or split sizes affect the stove's reactions during the course of the burn.

Revisit my threads on the 91 and you'll see I faced some of the same things you mentioned.
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads...unning-advice-tricks-and-tips-welcome.100464/
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/did-a-couple-tweaks-on-the-buck-91.107015/

Backwoods Savage said:

We just watch the stove top temperature and the flue temperature and it works for us.

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Hell, a chimp could run a Fv. And ignorance is bliss; You don't know if your cat is getting too hot in the Fv unless you put in a thermocouple or drill a hole in the top of the stove....the stock cat probe doesn't read the cat temp because it doesn't get back that far. Not sure, but the steel cats may be less prone to high-temp damage, but I haven't seen any steelies for the 91. That said, you didn't mention any problems with your old ceramic cat and I think it lasted quite a while for you, Dennis....
I'm not sure how much the occasional foray over 1800 would shorten the cat life, if at all.

This morning I had a few intact splits of Cherry left in the box, since it had only been 9 hrs on the load. I still had 250 on the stove front and about 600 on the probe. I opened the bypass, gave those splits some air and got to probe to about 900, stove 325. This is the only time I use the shotgun air. Then I loaded, first taking an Ash split in my left had and shoving the burning stuff to the right and leaving no coals over the ash dump door, so wood I laid there couldn't catch fire from underneath. I laid a couple flat-sided splits on the bare left side and stacked a couple more on top. Then I grabbed another split and shoved the coals back to the left, leaving a bare area which I stacked up with Cherry. Then I put a couple smaller Cherry splits on top of the coals (leaving room for flame to reach the top of the box.) Probe had dropped to about 800 with door open, but quickly got back up to 900 with airwash air only. Shut the bypass and saw the probe continue to climb so I knew the cat was catching. At about 1200 on the probe, I shut the airwash slider to about 1/4" and turned on the blower. Probe stabilized at about 1100. Then I left, so what happened after that is anybody's guess.

BrotherBart said:

Just don't bust the latch on that thing. A bummer on a real cold night.

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It is a pretty beefy piece of cast, but I guess you could break it....
It has two set screws, and mine is missing one. I need to get that in there, as the latch loosens up and moves on the handle shaft.