I try to fire up before or after they go for their walk. 
And that’s with the door cracked for a bit? Hmmm. Everything makes sense, except the amount of smoke.
Not sure how webby and Highbeam are making their determinations. If you go outside when the smoke is blowing down like that, does it smell like wood burning or like creosote?
Because we both actually have a Blaze King and lots of experience burning them. Ya, there’s some creosote that builds up in the box on these low burns. To burn it out it takes a long time on high, it’s not all going up in flames with each reload.
I noticed that controlling the flames and letting it catch at front fist instead of all at the same time, minutes later there is no smoke coming out. In my second install i have to go by that or it is a train. STRONG DRAFT. The other installed is more forgiven, but still.
I'm not talking about the older cooked-out creo "charcoal" that sometimes builds up in a cat stove. You might melt your stove trying to burn all that stuff off (I had that more in the Dutchwest, not much in the Keystone for whatever reason.) The creo I'm talking about which may be burning off in @Rangerbait's stove is the fresh, gooey stuff that is deposited over the course of the "long, slow burn" he is describing. This is the same stuff that is on your glass when it is black, but burns off in a while with a hot fire...that stuff is on the walls of your firebox as well. That is the stuff that can cause quite a bit of smoke, even after a good while with a hot fire. If he's got the bypass closed at this point, wood smoke would be burning in the cat. But like I said, I don't think the cat can handle all of that dense creo smoke. Now, I'll grant you that some regular wood smoke could probably make it through the cat unburned, if you have the air open quite a bit. To catch all of that wood smoke requires the "residence time" in the cat that BKVP has talked about, which you don't have if you are blowing the smoke through the cat at high speed. Hopefully Ranger can soon get the right conditions again where the smoke is blowing down off the roof, and he can tell us if it smells like wood smoke or creo smoke. And for sure, he can tell us how far he had the air opened up when he got this smoke.
Yeah, we would have to be there to see what is actually happening. Sometimes, like you say, big flames just in the front of the box will burn up all the smoke. But when the walls of the stove get hot with flame throughout the box, I have smoked out the hood with thick smoke...I go outside and it's definitely thick, stinky creo smoke. When the walls of the stove get hot, that is when the creo starts burning off. With the type of startup fire you're describing, I think the creo burns off more gradually, not all at once. You can still smell creo when you go out there, but the smoke isn't visible, only steam.
The hottest part of a cat stove during the cruise is the top of the stove around the cat. I'd wager that when you are ramping up a fresh load, with the heat and radiation of big flame in the box, the sides may be quite a bit hotter than at cruise. I can't really test this theory on my stove because of the buffering/lag effect of two layers of stone..but steel stove guys should be able to verify weather this is the case.
I'm not sure we can ascertain the color of the smoke from Rangerbait's picture on the internet. We'd have to be there to say for sure. But to me, it looks kinda heavy and dirty. White, wispy smoke is steam, gray or blue smoke is wood smoke. This creo smoke has an almost brown look to it. When I have a bad 'smoke out the hood' episode (doesn't happen every time) after a long, low burn, there's a thick, billowing cloud of foul-smelling creo smoke blanketing the area like a heavy fog. I mean, birds are falling out of the trees.
I think this is the condensed, concentrated creo on the walls of the stove burning off..hours worth of deposits being burned off in a relatively short period of time. Yes, later in the burn you will still get a little creo smell but I think that even though the majority has burned off the walls, I think the creo-burning continues at a lower level. It's a much worse smell than you would get just burning a few splits at your fire pit.
