Posted on 12/27/2006 4:12:16 PM PST by AnalogReigns
Ever wondered how to make a real wood fire in your fireplace, with beautiful tall flames, which draws nicely, and warms the room up too? Do the fires which you have made not look like those in the movies, photographs or in cozy paintings and such?
It's an easy task with this method I learned in a book written by a man who grew up in early 19th Century Loudoun County, Virginia. Joseph Janney, in his 90s in the 1890s wrote a little text for his children and grandchildren to read about his life as a child in frontier America. One of the things he detailed is exactly how they built wood fires in their shallow fireplaces--which kept them warm all winter--their only source of heat.
It's very simple and requires a minimum of fuss. First you need something to support the wood--NOT modern cast iron "coal grate" log holders, nor the worse iron grates which cause the logs to roll together....these just don't work well making a lasting fire. Old fashioned "andirons" (those things with tall posts, sometimes brass, in front and flat rails a few inches off the fireplace floor extending to the back) or even a couple of bricks will work fine. I repeat, get rid of the typical home's fireplace grate--great fires cannot be made using them.
Next it's best to have a layer of ash on the floor of the fireplace and inch or so thick...acts as an insulator, and is called an ash-bed.
Be sure (of course!) to make sure your flu is OPEN!!! Also that your fireplace and chimney are clean and in good shape. (writer bears no responsibility for smoky or dangerous fireplaces!)
Then you need 3 sizes of logs. A large diameter (8" + depending on the size of your fireplace) should be placed horizontally in the back, leaning, if it has to, against the back wall of the fireplace. This is your backlog, and protects the brick back there, as well as projecting the heat forward. It will burn from its frontside back. I have also used 2 medium sized logs stacked for the same effect.
Next you need a medium sized log (4" to 6" diameter) up in front, up against the vertical log holder of your andirons. In between the backlog and the front-log you should have an area of 6" to 10" or so. This is why standard grates typically won't work...as these logs will roll together, something you do not want. Traditional andirons work perfectly (even though they are hard to find these days).
Finally you need small kindling sticks in the middle. The easiest way to make these usually, (if you don't have sticks available) is to simply split some of your other logs into smaller pieces and inch or so in diameter. Place a loose handful of these in that area between the back-log and the front-log. Of course pieces of pine or other softwood are ideal for kindling, as they burn fast...but be careful, as pine-pitch can also throw lots of sparks.
Then you use crumpled newspaper, or whatever fire-starter you like to light up under the middle kindling pieces. These should be roaring in no time after lighting the paper...and after 15 minutes or so you can place normal sized logs (like the front-log) in the middle...and your fire is buring from the middle on out. You keep adding wood to the middle of the fire--keeping the backlog and front-log where they are.
Such a fire made this way will kick out plenty of reflective heat (the main way a fireplace heats) and if the backlog is big enough, can keep burning all night and more. The front-log will burn from its back forward, protecting you from sparks flying out from the center burn area...and the back-log will burn from its front back, keeping the hottest part of the fire from cracking bricks in the back of the fireplace.
Such a fire makes for the perfect beautiful winter fireplace, adding grace and beauty to the season. This method is how our great-great-great-great-grandparents heated their homes.
A classic fireplace fire, burning from the inside out, showing the andirons and the front-log and backlog.
"Now, that's a fire!"- Eddie Murphy
I agree, there's no sense in having a fireplace unless you can poke at the log now and then.
I did however see an episode of Myth Busters where they proved that the draft from a fireplace actually lowers the temperature in outlying rooms.
I wonder if this method would cause a different outcome.
Do you know how to tell how bad the winter is gonna be?
By the size of the woodpiles in the yards.
Ah for the relief! After 53 years of cutting 20 cords of wood per year to survive a brutal gas bill, I am relieved of all that by my move to NW AZ.
BAD BAD BAD! You really want a good inch-2 inch layer of ash. My dad would bring in charcoal grill ashes for the first fire of the year.
Actually thats not true.
http://www.pyromasse.com/infoe.html
What the hells that got to do with a fireplace?
Thats a masonary furnace. Matter of fact, I know of a couple of old farm houses in WI that had the smoke house/room in the basment and the owners converted them over to heat the house. Same thing...but they aint fireplaces the people on here are relating to.
A fireplace is a fireplace, when you put and insert into them they become a woodstove at the end of the house-sometimes in the middle which is better.
It burns wood and some versions are made to burn wood all the time rather then just once or twice a day.
I guess it takes experience to know these things.
/Salute
PING for later
heat ducks
quack, quack.
Bind them together with duct tape.
"I would wager 90% in the lower 48, particularly in the
South, really do not know how to build a good fire"
Ah, those folks in the Ozarks would say you're wrong. Everyone there just about has a woodstove and acres of free firewood (if they own the land, that is, and many do).
They stay warm up in those mountains.
Also, some people in most Southern rural communities have woodstoves. I had my first woodstove years ago when I rented a house in southern MS. It was great, heated the entire house just for the cost of firewood! I was happy indeed.
Of course, in those Southern parts one doesn't need to build as many fires as the Northerners do. And the Southern city folks usually do just turn up the thermostat on their central heat. But the country folks still know how to make a good fire.
Good technique. I've dispensed with kindling, though, and started using Starter Loggs [sic] instead.
I generally like to leave a lot of ash in the fireplace, not just a bed, but I usually push it up to the sides of the fireplace, and really only scoop out enough to let about 2" airspace under the grate. If the coals block it, there is less air so the fire slows and produces less coals. That way it is self regulating.
You might want to try these folks for old-fashioned, hard to find items. They're an Amish company and still have sources for some of that kind of stuff.
Lehman's Non Electric
http://www.lehmans.com/?gclid=CPSE38e3tIkCFSoIFQodchSjUg
ping
A log home is our dream, too. I've had the floor plans since I was 20 years old. I like where we live, so I'm tempted to tear down "This Old Dump" and build it right here. :)
Ya Ya .....
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