Raking coals to the front

[tinman1]

Please excuse me for this one.
I'm reading over & over with sugestions about raking the hot coals to the front & leave a 1" ash bed in the back & load your splits on top of the ash bed ! By doing that alone the splits are going to ignite ? A little to mild here for me to try that out now.

 

[Huntindog1]

Yes, rake your coals to the front as alot of stoves have the primary air coming in washing over the glass to keep it clean then the air dives down to the coals and wood right in front of the door. By raking the coals forward they will get that air up front and glow cherry red ad ignite the wood up front. I would usually load some smaller splits on the front row of a East/West load. Now in the back you dont have any hot coals and I usually didnt even have ash. Now this takes some coal and ash management not to have to much in the stove but you will learn over time coal and ash management. So the back I now can load my splits all the way to the bottom of the stove and the wood is not laying on hot coals will not burn till later, plus now you can load more wood in the back of the stove since its not filled with ash and coals back in the back. So a big bulk of the wood in the stove is in the back not sitting on hot coals. So the stove is now basically burning front to back. For a longer burn time.

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/rake-coals-forward-and-stove-start-up-pictures.80659/

 

[Sconnie Burner]

If you have enough coals and good dry wood it shouldn't be a problem. Hardwoods will take a little more coaxing and leaving the door open a little longer. I myself toss a couple small 1-2" diameter softwood splits on before stacking it full of hardwoods. Then leave the door cracked until decent flames get going. I use a propane torch to light my fires and if the wood doesn't seem to light within a minute or two, a quick burst from the torch will ignite the gasses and presto, flame.

 

[Nick Mystic]

If you rake your coals to the front you should pay attention to where your primary air inlet is located so that you don't rake the coal directly in front of it and cut off the air flow. I like to lay a couple small sticks about a foot long and an inch to an inch and a half in diameter in a N/S configuration about a foot apart so that when I lay my splits in the stove running E/W there is an air channel running under them all the way to the back of the stove. This promotes good air circulation to obtain a vigorous fire in short order.