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.
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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