Looks like a "grate" idea to me....
Posted on 12/27/2006 4:12:16 PM PST by AnalogReigns
Well, improvements have been made over the years. ;-)
Does Franklin still build stoves? That is a pretty one you posted, I'd love to have an old cooking stove in a camp someday (if I can find one).
I have no idea. I was just pointing out that Franklin invented them.
The one pictured is a Round Oak...my favorite stove ever for heating.
I had a great old cookstove in my kitchen years ago. It was a beaut. Made the best-tasting bread you can imagine.
I can imagine. How hard is cooking on/in an old stove? When I lived in Upper Michigan, there was an old abandon church house that had a really neat one in the basement, sitting in about six inches of water.
I keep my eyes out for old treasures, hopefully someday I'll get lucky and find one!
Can someone explain the andiron vs. modern grate thing to me, please? Thank you :)
Cooking on them is an art, really.
Good luck in your search. They're out there, if you can find them.
Pretty cool. My dogs would "help" by being underfoot, too, LOL!
I'm sure you're right---country folk everywhere are familiar with making good fires. A lot of the "new" south though are city people. Oh well!
Franklin stoves are a lot more efficient than fireplaces, but that's not saying much. Modern air-tight stoves like those by Vermont Castings or others are amazingly efficient--and much more-so than a Franklin.
My original post though, was not about how to efficiently heat your home, but just how to build a beautiful fire in your fireplace.
OK, I admit it...I cheat.
I use a fake log like Pine Mountain or Duraflame in the back and place a real log in the front and another on top to create a triangle. It burns real well. I have one going currently.
32 degees right now in the So Cal mountains.
Dr. Martin Luther (the Protestant Reformer) had a tile stove similar to these--built in the early 1500s. I've seen it in his house in Wittenberg, Germany--very common in that part of the world, even today.
It was in the pine forests of Prescott, AZ, so I piled fuel (pine logs) perpendicularly across more fuel (smaller pine logs) prependicularly across more fuel (pine branches) over kindling (pine cones) over tinder (pine needles).
One match and POOF! Instant roaring fire.
Did I mention I was a Boy Scout?
I was told by an old timer that when you get your fire up and going you should be able to regulate or close back your damper. Is this true because every time I've tried this all I get is smoke in the room, but I've never tried ti with this method of fire building.
Sounds like the old timer was pulling your leg. Fireplace dampers are either open or closed...unlike with an airtight woodstove, you cannot regulate the fire by cutting off the damper...or you will definitely just get smoke in the room.
One trick my dad taught me, to get recalcitrant chimneys to draw, is to put a wad or two of newspaper up inside the (open) damper. Light this first, then light the kindling under your fire--and the paper burning up in the damper will suck all the fire up the chimney, where it should go. No smoke at all in the room that way...
Sitting here on a holiday, over a year later, enjoying my nice fire on a winter day...(with ANDIRONS ONLY, no silly grate from Home Despot here) I thought I’d resurrect this thread, in case others out there want the authentic, early American way to build a good fire in their fireplace....
a year late, but oh well....
Grates were originally designed for coal actually. They tend to roll the logs together, and mess up the pattern described above of big back-log, kindling/small stuff/open space, medium sized front log.
Grates appear to make things easier, since they are one-piece, but, for this traditional fireplace style fire, they don’t work nearly as well as andirons with an ash base.
Still haven’t bought anything for the fireplace, but your post has rekindled my interest. Thanks :)
Looks like a "grate" idea to me....
Wow, it’s been over 9 years since I posted this. How time flies! Sitting by a roaring fire right now....waiting for the blizzard which may be coming up our way from the South....
Woohoo!
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