LLigetfa said:Sorry Vanessa, I failed you. Maybe my stove failed you. An amateur blames his tools.LLigetfa said:
Today I tried a top-down fire and it was a pathetic failure. After the paper flashed off, I was left with the black carbon that choked off the air from the meager flicker of a flame. More paper, more kin'lin. More kin'lin, more paper. As the kin'lin burned through, they fell apart and rolled away from each other. I had to open the stove and tuck them back together so they could feed off each other. After 20 minutes and burned finger tips it looks like the fire can sustain itself. In an hour I might even get some heat.
The only benefit I see is less smoke and the glass stayed clean without having to keep the door open a crack. Despite going into this with a positive attitude, I just knew it wouldn't work.
I had pretty much the exact same experience using the top down method as shown by Vanessa. I played with it a few times, and found the modified top-down/bottom-up method as I described in post #27 to work the best with my stove. It gets the draft going faster and more efficiently with no smoke than any other method I've tried.