what do you guys mean when you say "top down"? starting a fire? can i get pics or a description? im sure this is a really stupid question.
Sorry
Ray
Sorry
Ray
stupid question
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Put your kindling in the stove first. Take two or three full sheets of newspaper and roll each into a long tube on the diagonal. Then tie each into a knot. Place on top of kindling. Light the newspaper. Probably leave door of stove ajar to increase air flow until fire gets going. Add wood. Enjoy.
Works well because the hottest part of the burning paper is around the base of the flame, which sits on top of the wood. I use this method all the time and it is the best fire starting method I have seen.
Works well because the hottest part of the burning paper is around the base of the flame, which sits on top of the wood. I use this method all the time and it is the best fire starting method I have seen.
Pretty sure there was an excellent Canadian goverment produced video floating around here last year featuring the 'topdown' method. We're old school and have never used it...but it has it's merits.
This video goes into a lot of detail about stove operation. But it does talk about the top down method:
http://www.ec.gc.ca/cleanair-airpur/videos/Woodstove_mgt-Eng.wmv
I did a top down fire in our firepit this weekend. It works really well.
http://www.ec.gc.ca/cleanair-airpur/videos/Woodstove_mgt-Eng.wmv
I did a top down fire in our firepit this weekend. It works really well.
Okay - you've talked me into it. The next fire I start I'll try the top down method.
Never too old to learn.
I spent an hour reading stuff on John Gulland's site:
http://www.woodheat.org/
Thanks for posting it.
Happy Burning.
Never too old to learn.
I spent an hour reading stuff on John Gulland's site:
http://www.woodheat.org/
Thanks for posting it.
Happy Burning.
greythorn3 said:
Counter-intuitive. Bigger logs on bottom, kindling and smaller stuff on top. Light it up. Smaller stuff burns, drops ashes / coals into the gaps and voila, fire.
When ever I need to start a new fire, I use a firebrick. You can cut the firebrick into 4 peices and get 4 times as much out of the box of bricks. You really just need small splits and one of these and your off and running.
MAPP gas is just a yellow bottle of gas used frequently by plumbers for sweating copper joints instead of propane. I have certainly used mapp gas in campfires. They have a really cool torch head that auto-ignites and releases the mapp gas when you push the button. Easy on- easy off.
If I'm going to be using gas to start a fire, then I whip out the 500,000 btu propane powered weed burner. We don't need no stinking kindling.
In the stove, I'm a log cabin of kindling on the bottom kind of guy.
If I'm going to be using gas to start a fire, then I whip out the 500,000 btu propane powered weed burner. We don't need no stinking kindling.
In the stove, I'm a log cabin of kindling on the bottom kind of guy.
I tell you, every stove is different. Between my cabin, my home, my grandmothers, the guy I used to work for as a teen, and prolly 1/2 dozen other stoves I've lit and burned over the years, I can tell you that they all resemble women in that it takes something different to get the fire going for all of them.
In my home, the Fisher stove that I've burned will NOT light for beans using top down. Trust me when I say I tried that. However, using this method:
![[Hearth.com] stupid question](https://www.hearth.com/talk/attachments/002-webp.209791/ "[Hearth.com] stupid question")
![[Hearth.com] stupid question](https://www.hearth.com/talk/attachments/003-webp.209792/ "[Hearth.com] stupid question")
![[Hearth.com] stupid question](https://www.hearth.com/talk/attachments/004-webp.209793/ "[Hearth.com] stupid question")
![[Hearth.com] stupid question](https://www.hearth.com/talk/attachments/015-webp.209794/ "[Hearth.com] stupid question")
I could have the stove roaring in moments. (DISCLAIMER: Newbies to your stove, use less wood! I knew this stove and wasn't afraid to load it accordingly.)
However, I just installed a new Englander 30. I'm excited to try the top down method again to see if this stove responds as it does in that video referenced earlier.
pen
In my home, the Fisher stove that I've burned will NOT light for beans using top down. Trust me when I say I tried that. However, using this method:
I could have the stove roaring in moments. (DISCLAIMER: Newbies to your stove, use less wood! I knew this stove and wasn't afraid to load it accordingly.)
However, I just installed a new Englander 30. I'm excited to try the top down method again to see if this stove responds as it does in that video referenced earlier.
pen
pen said:
It will or you ain't doing it right. And if you don't do it right Vanessa will come to your house and put a flaming bag of dog crap on your porch. :lol:
The key to top down is that the kindling has to be dry. Just like any other fire starting method. But with the others you just keep sticking stuff in the stove until a fire starts. With top down done right you don't open the door again for five or six hours.
Less smoke for the wife.
BrotherBart said:
Well dry kindling isn't the issue I would hope. The kindling splits seen above come from specially selected ash logs that have been sitting on top of my wood racks for going on prolly 3 years (in the same room as the stove) and going on another 1 or more in the split form in buckets just waiting to take off like the large match sticks they are intended to be.
I think the last stove just rejected the idea. I swear I did just what Vanessa would have wanted! Really
Dang I hope she's nicer in person and owns a small dog .pen
I tried the top down method last year a few times, but for me, it is easier to put in a fire starter of some sort, throw some small stuff on it, and big on top of that. By the times I tie the paper in knots (for the top down) I could have a fire roaring in my furnace or fireplace with my method.
Those pics show the "tunnel of love" method. We used that exclusively growing up with LOPI stove that could take logs NS. Dad always had newspaper stacks and I would have super piles of kindling split from used cedar shake roofs.
I start the same as Pen above, tried the top-down and it is nowhere as good for me as the one posted pictures of above.
And if you don’t do it right Vanessa will come to your house and kick your ass.
Since watching that Canadian EPA propaganda video I have nightmares of her kicking my ass as I'm lighting my old 1983 cast iron stove the old fashion way, you know, without twisting up the Sunday edition of the Boston Globe.
I rarely use any newspaper. A little mixture of saved tinder and some twigs, say the magic words and light the dam thing.
I never put anything in the temple except wood.
Since watching that Canadian EPA propaganda video I have nightmares of her kicking my ass as I'm lighting my old 1983 cast iron stove the old fashion way, you know, without twisting up the Sunday edition of the Boston Globe.
I rarely use any newspaper. A little mixture of saved tinder and some twigs, say the magic words and light the dam thing.
I never put anything in the temple except wood.
Ratman said:
I have spent a lot of time in Boston. What else is the Globe good for? :lol:
Keep doing it the way ya do it. Different smoke for different folk.
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