... which isn't saying much as I have only been burning two weeks :lol:
I had read something here mentioning the "top down" method of fire building and thought it sounded like a good challenge. I could find no specifics on the method so kind of just assumed it meant laying wood in an arrangement where the kindling was atop the larger logs and once started the fire could progress downwards without the frequent stoking.
Well I tried it and it worked beautifully. The building of the stack was interesting and as I had no idea what I was doing I just tried to lay it so that each stage would ignite the next. I use one stick of fatwood and dried up pieces of bark to start my fires, then had thin pieces of wood underneath, then small splits underneath that, and two large splits on the very bottom.
Is that how it goes?
Once I lit my fatwood and closed the door I did not have to open it again for five hours. I watched it closely and of course slowed down the air intake once it got up to temp but otherwise it was a hands off evening.
I was very pleased with myself :coolsmile:
I am finding this initial learning process to be fascinating. But I have noticed that my fires do much better if I tend them by instinct rather than by my new thermometer that I bought because you guys said to. There is nowhere good on my insert to put the thing and I thought my fire got much too hot way before it indicated it was in the overfiring zone. You can just kind of tell when it is time to damper it down.... right?
The thermometer is currently on the face of the insert directly above the door. My door gasket is amazingly thick so the bottom of the thermometer slips a tad behind the doors upper edge nicely. But I have to wonder exactly what temp I am measuring as it looks to me as if it would just read the "front of the insert" temperature.
But I digress.
I am mainly just bragging about my newbie fire building skills
And now that I've said that I'll probably take half an hour to get one going tonight.
I had read something here mentioning the "top down" method of fire building and thought it sounded like a good challenge. I could find no specifics on the method so kind of just assumed it meant laying wood in an arrangement where the kindling was atop the larger logs and once started the fire could progress downwards without the frequent stoking.
Well I tried it and it worked beautifully. The building of the stack was interesting and as I had no idea what I was doing I just tried to lay it so that each stage would ignite the next. I use one stick of fatwood and dried up pieces of bark to start my fires, then had thin pieces of wood underneath, then small splits underneath that, and two large splits on the very bottom.
Is that how it goes?
Once I lit my fatwood and closed the door I did not have to open it again for five hours. I watched it closely and of course slowed down the air intake once it got up to temp but otherwise it was a hands off evening.
I was very pleased with myself :coolsmile:
I am finding this initial learning process to be fascinating. But I have noticed that my fires do much better if I tend them by instinct rather than by my new thermometer that I bought because you guys said to. There is nowhere good on my insert to put the thing and I thought my fire got much too hot way before it indicated it was in the overfiring zone. You can just kind of tell when it is time to damper it down.... right?
The thermometer is currently on the face of the insert directly above the door. My door gasket is amazingly thick so the bottom of the thermometer slips a tad behind the doors upper edge nicely. But I have to wonder exactly what temp I am measuring as it looks to me as if it would just read the "front of the insert" temperature.
But I digress.
I am mainly just bragging about my newbie fire building skills
And now that I've said that I'll probably take half an hour to get one going tonight.
