New to burning, questions about Canawick bricks

You stack them on the hot coals and they smoke? It does sound like lack of air. Try stacking first in a 3 sided wall with open front and middle. Make your kindling fire in the open middle. You can have bricks in the middle but the point is not to block the air inlet.

I, too, am burning strictly bricks this season. Partially because it seemed like (and still might be) a very viable way to get through the winter, but also because buying my stove was very "spur of the moment" this summer and there would be no way to obtain, cut/split, and sufficiently season enough wood to burn. So far they work just fine in my F3. The key is definitely in the stacking if you're starting cold. If you just throw them in and try to get 'em going with some kindling or paper, you're probably gonna have a bad time. As for a reload, If you have a good amount of coals there should be no problem getting them to catch since most of these pressed bricks are way dryer than cord wood; which doesn't eliminate, but should somewhat alleviate your creosote concern as long as you burn hot enough. If they're having a hard time catching on a reload, they probably only need a little nudge. I'd only throw half a stick of fatwood in. As for how to stack I made a post about this a few days ago and have yet to find a better method than i already use. Your firebox should be plenty big to do it just like this:

http://libertybricks.yolasite.com/how-to-use.php

edit: For what its worth, I put the fatwood in the fort as I'm building it and light the middle of the stick by slipping a long candle lighter into the "front door" of the fort after the fort is already built. This may or may not work for you but it's perfect in the F3 since it has that front intake for starting which sucks air right into the fort and drives the fatwood wild.

Excessive smoke with wood briquettes means too much surface area burning/exposed to the coals, and stacking them in tightly packed "columns" on top of the coals should help.

A common theme in my old Jotul 8 was 2 masses/columns of bricks with a 1 inch gap between them in the middle, producing an "upside down waterfall" of flame.

spirilis said:

Excessive smoke with wood briquettes means too much surface area burning/exposed to the coals, and stacking them in tightly packed "columns" on top of the coals should help.

A common theme in my old Jotul 8 was 2 masses/columns of bricks with a 1 inch gap between them in the middle, producing an "upside down waterfall" of flame.

Click to expand...

spirilis said:

Excessive smoke with wood briquettes means too much surface area burning/exposed to the coals, and stacking them in tightly packed "columns" on top of the coals should help.

A common theme in my old Jotul 8 was 2 masses/columns of bricks with a 1 inch gap between them in the middle, producing an "upside down waterfall" of flame.

Click to expand...

I've been burning bricks for nearly a decade but I just can't imagine burning them by themselves. Assuming the stove supports east west burning I'd highly recommend a brick on each side of the stove left and right with a single wood spli placed across the bricks to form a bridge. For kindling - have a few bags of wood pellets on hand to allow a single scoop under the bridge. Light it up with your favorite starter method. Keep the air intake open full until stove reaches 350 or so. Then regulate intensity with lower draft. Definitely want to avoid a smoky fire. Afterwards its easy to maintain a decent fire with bricks periodically or preferably a combination of that and splits. I know you're trying to avoid wood splits so maybe this just doesn't offer you any help.