Top Down firebuliding?

building a fire with full size splits on the bottom, medium splits in the middle, small splits or kindling on top, and then
a firestarter to top it off.

theres an excellent video on here somewhere hopfully some else can point you toward it it was from cannada. but basicly you put some small splits in then but some smaller wood ontop till you end with your kindling then some newspaper about 6 pieces tied in the middle. lit the paper and shut door allmost all the way the fire will burn your kindling and work its way down. works good ive dun it a few times and will use both methods for now. search for the video i think the thread was something like < whens the best time to add wood> or somethking like that

Lots of people build bottom up. log cabin style with the kindling at the bottom. The fire burns from the bottom up. Upper logs collapse down into the fire. Top down, the kindling is placed on top of the logs. Fire burns from the top logs down to the bottom. Better draft cause the start is at the top, longer burns because all the logs are not catching at once. It takes well place kindling to get it going.

Hum, "gotta" try it sometime. I always build a fire bottom up. Start with kindling and paper and after the small wood is burning well I add medium size and later larger splits. That works, but I have no idea what works best. Sounds like top down would make for fewer door openings, all of it is in there when the fire is first lighted.

video link of top down fire: http://www.ec.gc.ca/cleanair-airpur/default.asp?lang=En&n=8011CD70-1

I don`t like it. Usually I do a combination of both. Seems to work best for me. But then my name is Sonny-not Sarah :lol: And I don`t have a fetish for expensive clothes either.

Sorry, just couldn`t resist= bad,bad and more than bad. :sick:

SamC said:

interesting, I will have to try that. It just sounds a little more tricky to get right. Thanks for all the posts

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Tricky, yes. If you have a small stove place two full size logs parallel on the firebox floor, put your firestarter in the middle and then a bunch of small
stuff on top. As another poster suggest, it will minimize opening the door to add more wood.

I go both ways, depending on my mood. I really like top-down. It works well. I put a couple of splits on the ash layer in the bottom of the firebox, then some smaller stuff and some splitter trash, then 1/4 of a Super Cedar, then some more splitter trash/really small stuff scattered over that, light it up and off it goes. If I'm in a different mood, or I'm building from a hot coal bed instead of from cold, I build a more conventional "bottom-up" fire, which only differs significantly from what I just described as to when I put in the first larger splits and as to whether not the Super Cedar is needed. Does this make any sense at all? I've read it three times and I'm still a bit confused. :smirk: Could be I should turn down the volume on the Pandora I have running. Rick

Tried it for the first time a couple weeks ago. I'm sold.

BrotherBart said:

fossil said:

I go both ways, depending on my mood.

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Why am I thinking of about six great Navy jokes right now? :lol:

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Because you're Army...what's the big mystery there? Otherwise you'd know at least twelve, right off the top of your cranial-covered helicopter-jelly-brained head. :coolsmirk: Rick

Thanks, and great video, my first lesson on rolling newspaper into a tube and tying a knot in it...I've never seen that before.

Well, when the weather goes back below the current 60 daytime temps and I'll have a fire again, and try the paper tying too.

I have a soapstone and I found the top-down to increase the amount of time it takes to get the stove up to heat.

What I do now is put a couple small splits on the bottom then build a small teepee fire on top. This gets the stove warm quickly and a bed of coals to start loading the larger splits.

I don't care for the top down myself.
I don't waste my time with paper either.
Firestarters is the only way to go in this house.

Funny thing about it is that I was just looking for a link to that a few days ago. I used to build them like that a few years ago. Don't know why I got away from it. It does work well.

I've done both, can't say I have better luck with top down, but it does produce less smoke than bottom up.

I liken top down to more like a fire in the woods where it creeps through the easy ignition sources and the heat gets the less volatile stuff going. Not that I've started many fires in the woods outside of a few rocks in a circle nor teased Santa Ana winds.

I go top down for a cold stove, and old-school when starting over coals.

There is a video on youtube of a women that's starts some big splits with news paper only in about 5 minutes. Her wood was nice and seasoned and she had a good draft. She just stuffs some news balls in with the door cracked open. check it out.