Wood Stoves
Part One

Using Wood Stoves

By Ole Wik

Photographs by Manya Wik

Contents

Chapter 1. Why Wood?

How 1 got started with wood stoves. Some comments on energy, economics and ecology.

Chapter 2. About Wood Stoves

Common elements. Increasing specialization. Diversity of types. Wood range. Wood cookstove. Combination range. Kitchen heater. Franklin stove. Freestanding fireplace-stove. Pot-bellied stove. Parlor stove. Box stoves (cast iron; sheet steel). Airtight heater. Cabinet heater. Downdraft stove. Wood furnace. Standing heater. Collapsible stove. Laundry heater. Galley range. Marine fireplace. Marine cabin heater. Caboose stove. Wood-fired water heater. Drum heater. Barrel stove kit.

Chapter 3. About Ovens

Integral ovens. Stovepipe ovens. Stove-top ovens.

Chapter 4. About Stovepipes

Function. Sizes, types, finishes. Joints. Adapters. Elbows. Dampers. Tees, draft correctors. Stack robbers.

Chapter 5. Stove Accessories

Poker. Ash hoe. Shovel. Whisk broom. Tongs. Gloves. Trivet. Foil door closure pad. Cleaning tools. Wire brush. Stove polish. Stove pad. Ash can.

Chapter 6. About Wood

All wood is not created equal. Different types: dry, half-dry, punky, pitchy, green, driftwood. Different species.

Chapter 7. Using Wood Stoves

Fire as a living thing. Starting a fire. Getting a stove to draw. Rekindling a small fire. Heating: life cycle of a fire. Moderating a fire. Taming a stove that won't shut down. Holding a fire overnight. Keeping a small fire. Incinerating. Ashes.

Chapter 8. Cooking With Wood Stoves

Frying. Roasting. Simmering. Pressure cooking. Toasting. Charcoal cooking. Baking with and without an oven.

Chapter 9. Stove Safety

Suggestions for safe location, installation, use and maintenance. The creosote problem. Stack fires. Soot removers. More safety suggestions.

Chapter 10. Getting Wood

Where. Types of saws. Sharpening saws. Sawbucks. Splitting wood. Wood carrier.

Chapter 11. The Personality of Wood Stoves

Stove idiosyncrasies. Stove talk. Reading smoke signals from the stovepipe.

PART TWO:- MAKING WOOD STOVES

Acknowledgments

Many of my friends will recognize their stoves and their ideas in these pages. This is especially true of Oliver Cameron, who helped me get started on my very first homemade stove, and whose creations are sprinkled throughout this book. For favors large and small, I would also like to thank Scotty Bacon, Don Bucknell, Truman Cleveland, Dan Denslow, Tommy Douglas, Nelson Griest, Larry Gay, Jack Hebert, Keith Jones, Mike Jones, Howard and Seth Kanther, Ted Ledger, Pete MacManus, George Melton, Pat Reinhard, Mike Schieber, Bob Schiro and Don Williams.

I am also grateful to my wife, Manya, for much helpful feedback on the manuscript; to her dad, A. J. Klistoff Sr., for translating my stove designs into beautifully welded steel; to the staffs of the Alternative Sources of Energy Lending Library and the Seattle Public Library for help in obtaining various research materials; and to Dave and Kaye Rue and Barbara Donnelly for letting me use the schoolhouse when the cabin was too hectic for writing.

Finally I would like to offer thanks to the craftsmen from all over Alaska whose designs appear in these pages, and who are carrying on the art of building wood stoves by hand.

Part One

Using Wood Stoves

Chapter 1

Why Wood?

When I first went to live in the Far North, I knew next to nothing about wood stoves. But I was firmly committed to wood heat, so I looked through the mail-order catalogs, picked out a model that looked promising, and sent off the order. Freezeup was well under way by the time my cabin was built, and still there was no word on the stove. I wrote to the supplier, who replied that he was out of stoves and had put my money on account.

So there I was, 35 miles above the Arctic Circle, 3 miles from a small Eskimo village served only twice a week by mail plane (weather permitting), 250 miles from Fairbanks and the nearest source of commercial wood stoves. It would take weeks for a stove to arrive through the mail, and the temperature was already getting down to -10 - F at night. I would soon have to return the little Yukon stove I had borrowed.

If I were to have a stove, I would clearly have to build it myself. So I went to the village, bought a leaker oil drum for $1, and arranged for a friend to bring it to my camp with his dog team. I cut up the drum with the few simple tools that were at hand, and started bolting the parts together. I made a few blunders as I went along, and got more and more discouraged about the probable outcome. But there was no choice; I had to keep going.

Finally the stove was finished. I attached an elbow and two joints of stovepipe, loaded the firebox with wood, pulled a bit of loose birch bark from a tree for kindling, and lit it up. I really didn't expect much. But when the wood caught fire, the stove started drawing and puffing like a little locomotive, and soon I could see the paint on the barrel metal begin to blister and peel from the heat. Now I began to get excited; this thing was going to work! I went into the cabin for the kettle and soon boiled up a congratulatory cup of tea.

From that day on, I have been fascinated with designing, making and using wood stoves. That first little stove served all of my heating and cooking needs for two full winters, and then did service as a tent stove and laundry-water heater as I moved on to other designs. Progress continues, but it is time now to share what I have learned, and to get in touch with others around the country who are engaged in similar studies and perhaps exchange ideas.

Wood has been man's primary fuel for most of his existence, and in many parts of the world it is still the dominant fuel. When I first came North in 1964, only a few households in the nearby Eskimo village could afford to use the only alternative fuel, stove oil. But with the wave of relative prosperity that began to sweep over the valley in the late 1960's, more and more families switched to the prestigious new fuel, and today only 5 households out of 29 rely solely on firewood for space heating.

So here we have a small community, surrounded by tundra and forest, switching from an inexhaustible supply of free firewood to a diminishing supply of increasingly expensive oil. The village mirrors the nation; Americans are surrounded by unused energy sources, yet they become increasingly dependent on distant sources of heating fuels.

The big fuel scares of recent years have generated wide debate over the American energy appetite. Shouldn't we move toward renewable sources of energy whenever possible? Shouldn't we cut back drastically on energy use? Shouldn't we use the complex organic molecules found in petroleum for making pharmaceuticals, polymers and special lubricants rather than burning them for their simple heat content? Can we long afford the environmental and
economic burdens of dependence on fuels that are increasingly distant, scarce and costly?

Wood stoves are not the whole answer to the American fuel problem, but at the household level they can make a major contribution to energy self-sufficiency. There is evidence that more and more people are turning in this direction. Permits for gathering firewood on public lands are up sharply, and some wood-stove price lists indicate that certain models must be ordered as much as 24 months in advance.

In this rush to wood stoves, it is altogether likely that many people will pick the wrong stoves for their needs. Others may get stoves that are reasonably well suited to their situations, but may not know how to get the most out of them. You should find solutions to both problems here.

I hope that those readers who are toying with the idea of building a stove will find ideas and encouragement in these pages, and go ahead with their projects. I hope that those who have already built homemade stoves will share their successes (and failures) with me, so that I may pass them on to others.

Figure 1.2 - Toward ecologically sound heating: Dead wood cut by hand and hauled with the aid of one dog. The wood ash should be returned to the forest to complete the cycle. 

Chapter 2

About Wood Stoves

The first colonists to reach the American shores relied on local rocks and mud to construct their heating sytems. Whether by necessity or custom, these open fireplaces retained a dominant place in homes even as the emergent cities grew large enough to threaten local firewood supplies. But by that time, foundries had begun turning out cast-iron stoves which were more efficient than fireplaces and which gradually took their place as a heat source. The process of evolution has now generated a remarkable variety of wood stoves.

All modern wood stoves retain certain features of their most remote ancestors: a firebox to hold the burning wood, a draftopening to admit air to the fire, a flue to permit smoke to escape. However, increasing specialization in function has led to striking differences in how these common elements are combined.

Figure 2.1 - -Cookstoves are generally poor for serious heating, and heaters are usually unhandy for cooking. Some people get around the problem by installing two stoves. Here a wood-burning range has been teamed up with a wood-burning airtight heater.

There are some truly excellent wood heaters on the market today, and some remarkable cookstoves; but the cookstoves are generally poor for serious heating, and the heaters are usually quite unhandy for cooking. The reason lies in basic structural differences between the two types. A good cookstove requires a small firebox to contain an intense fire right up underneath the cooking surface, and insulated sides to prevent excessive heat loss to the kitchen. A good wood heater, by contrast, needs a large firebox to hold a long-lasting fire, and large, bare sides to encourage maximum heat transfer to the room.

As wood-stove specialization continues, it becomes easier to buy the right stove for one's needs. By the same token, it is easier to buy the wrong kind. Let's survey the various types of stoves that are commercially available in the United States today, and see what the market offers. (For a list of manufacturers, see the Appendix. Homemade stoves are covered in Part II.)

WOOD RANGE

(Figure 2.2). This is Grandma's classic kitchen stove. The product of generations of use and development, it is unexcelled for cooking and baking. The stove top is generally made of warp-proof cast iron, in several sections. The section over the firebox usually has one or more circular openings for adding wood or for stirring the fire with the poker. The body of the stove is made of sheet steel and the sides are insulated. Various accessories are available, including hot-water reservoirs, warming shelves and towel-drying racks.

Figure 2.2-Model 51 15 LB wood range by Atlanta Stove Works. The firebox is at the left, the oven in the middle, and a hot-water reservoir at the right, with a faucet behind the door.

WOOD COOKSTOVE

(Figure 2.3). This is essentially a stripped-down, simplified, miniaturized version of a wood range.

Figure 2.3 - Model 8316 Winner cast-iron cookstove by Atlanta Stove Works. The firebox is at upper left, the oven at lower right.

Figure 2.4 - Model CE119Y Monarch "Duo-Oven" combination electric coal/wood range by Malleable Iron Range Company. The firebox is at the left, four electric burners at the right. The oven can be heated by either wood or electricity. If the wood fire dies down, the electric oven unit will automatically maintain the temperature set on the dial.

COMBINATION RANGE

(Figure 2.4). Combination cookstoves provide a sort of halfway house for those who would like to switch over to wood without entirely giving up the advantages of their electric or gas ranges. These stoves are fully capable of cooking and baking with wood alone, but they are also fitted with conventional burners. Thus, instant spot heat is always available for rush meals, for summer afternoons too hot for wood-stove cookery, and for times when the woodbox happens to be empty. The ovens are fitted with thermostats, which afford a convenience Grandma never dreamed of: If the wood fire should dwindle, the conventional energy source takes over and maintains the oven at the desired temperature.

KITCHEN HEATER

(Figure 2.5). This is essentially a wood range with the oven cut off. Simply styled in white enamel, a kitchen heater can be placed next to a conventional gas or electric stove to provide a bit of extra heat to the home, or to keep the stew pot gently simmering all day long.

FRANKLIN STOVE

(Figure 2.6). The classic Franklin stove represents a first step in overcoming the notorious inefficiency of a fireplace without completely sacrificing the undeniable appeal of an open fire. The Franklin features folding doors that can be left open (to give a view of the burning logs) or closed (to convert the unit into a stove). Although advances in technology and design have produced more efficient stoves, the old-style Franklin retains a considerable following, and foundries still turn them out.

Figure 2.5 (left)Model 24PY Monarch kitchen heater by Malleable Iron Range Company.

Figure 2.6 (right) - Model 261 Franklin fireplace heater with optional barbecue grill by United States Stove Company.

FREESTANDING FIREPLACE-STOVE

The concept of a combination fireplace and stove has been carried forward to the point that the results can no longer be termed Franklins. One line of descent leads to the Fire-View (Figure 2.7), a radiant heater fitted with a removable tempered-glass window for viewing the burninglogs. Another leads to beautifully styled cast-iron units with tightly fitting, swing-away doors, such as the Jptul No. 4 (Figure 2.8), or the Morso No. 1125. And yet another leads to fireplaces that are completely freestanding, such as the Washington Stove Works' Zodiac (Figure 2.9).

Figure 2.7 - Wood heater by Fire-View Distributors. Inner collapsible steel door is open, so that the fire is visible through the tempered-glass window, which may also be removed when an open fire is desired. The steel door allows you to close down the heater to maintain a fire through the night.

Figure 2.8 (labove) - Combi-Fire No. 4 by J0tul. A heavy cast-iron door converts the unit into a heater when it is closed, and swings away beneath the firebox when an open fire is desired. The door handle is visible at the bottom of the stove.

Figure 2.9 (above) - The Zodiac freestanding fireplace by Washington Stove Works.

Figure 2.10 - The Greenbriar fireplace by Greenbriar Products, with optional Pyrex glass door in place. An optional water coil just beneath the flue captures waste heat; the hot water can be piped to conventional heating systems or to storage tanks of solar heating systems.

The Greenbriar fireplace-stove (Figure 2.10) features an optional hot-water coil which captures heat from stack gases just as they are about to pass into the chimney. The hot water can be circulated to existing baseboard radiators, to hot-water heatingsystems, or to heat exchangers placed in the ductwork of forced-air heating systems, greatly increasing the overall efficiency of the unit. In a truly energy-efficient house, the hot water can also be piped to the storage tank of the solar heating system.

POT-BELLIED STOVE

(Figure 2.11). The pot-bellied stove dates from the days when cast iron was the most easily available type of metal for stove construction. Like the Franklin, it has built-in nostalgia. Rugged and durable, it burns coal, wood or a combination of both.

Figure 2.11 (above) - Model 13, the Cannonball pot-bellied stove by Washington Stove Works.

PARLOR STOVE

(Figure 2.12). In the days before central heating, parlor stoves were used in those rooms where appearance was a consideration. They are large cast-iron heaters decorated with greater or lesser amounts of nickel trim "gingerbread."

Figure 2.12 - Model V parlor stove by Washington Stove Works.

BOX STOVE I: CAST IRON

(Figure 2.13). Box stoves also trace their origin to the days before the invention of rolling mills and sheet steel. Any foundry could easily produce the various platesthat lock together to form the stove's basic box shape. The result is a stove that is simple and durable, with a flat top that is handy for certain kinds of cooking. Unfortunately, the older models are rather inefficient; since they have no baffles, the hot gases are free to escape directly up the stovepipe. Air leakage between the plates is also a problem, making it more or less difficult to control the fire.

Figure 2.13-No. 38 Monitor cast-iron box stove by the Portland Stove Foundry Company.

European designers have produced some striking cast-iron box stoves that offer markedly improved performance, along with a more refined appearance (Figure 2.14). They feature slanting baffles or top-mounted gallery boxes that force the smoke to take a longer path before reaching the flue, giving up heat along the way. They also have improved seams which permit very little air to reachthe fire. As a result, the stoves deliver far more heat per cord of wood burned than a stove without baffles, and do a much better job of holding a fire overnight (Figure 2.15).

Figure 2.14-Mois0 Model 2B0 with heat exchanger, from Denmark. Distributed in the U.S. by Southport Stoves.

Figure 2.15 - Cross-section of the Mors0 Model 2B0. Due to the baffle in the upper part of the firebox, the logs burn from front to back, like a cigar. Even without the heat exchanger, the hot gases have to take a long path to reach the flue, giving up heat along the way. The heat exchanger draws out still more heat that would otherwise escape up the stovepipe.

BOX STOVE II: SHEET STEEL.

The invention of sheet steel and the means for welding it together led to great advances in wood-stove technology. For the first time, it was possible to design a stove with truly airtight seams, and so to gain almost complete control over the rate of combustion. Use of sheet steel also freed stove designers to think in terms of innovative shapes, such as the Bader Burn Right (Figure 2.16)., and portability, exemplified by the Yukon and sheep herder stoves (Figures 2.17 and 2.18).

Figure 2.16 - The Bader Burn Right by Kickapoo Stove Works, Ltd.

Figure 2.17 - A lightweight Yukon stove carried by a passing musher. The stovepipe is tapered, and nests inside the firebox; when installed, the bottom of the pipe forms the rear leg of the unit.

Figure 2.18 - Sheep herder stove with built-in oven, formerly distributed by Colorado Tent & Awning Company, but currently unavailable commercially.

AIRTIGHT HEATER

(Figure 2.19). If sheet steel is made thin enough, seams can be made by rolling rather than welding. Airtight heaters carry lighthess to the extreme; the small and medium-sized models can even be sent through the mails. (Large models, still within weight limits, run afoul of size restrictions.) Since they use a minimum amount of materials and are easily fabricated, airtights are inexpensive. They are not at all fussy about the type of wood they use and are easy to regulate, so it is easy to maintain an overnight fire.

Figure 2.19 - Reeves airtight heater by Empire-Detroit Steel Division, Detroit Steel Corporation.

The thin walls of an airtight heater naturally burn out more quickly than those of heavier, more expensive stoves, but the useful life can be extended by protecting the stove from moisture when not in use and by selecting a size large enough that it can loaf most of the time.

CABINET HEATER

(Figure 2.20). This type of stove consists of a heavy, airtight steel firebox encased in an attractive enameled cabinet. The firebox, which is designed to take large sticks of wood, is fitted with a heavy, gasketed cast-iron door that closes tightly. Incoming air is preheated and distributed along the bed of coals, so that the wood burns out evenly. Ashes fall through the grate into an ash pan that can be emptied without undue mess. Most modelshave provision for an optional fan that blows heated air out at floor level, helping to smooth out the temperature gradient that tends to form between the floor and the ceiling in rooms heated by wood stoves.

Figure 2.20 - End view of Autocrat Model 6724 cabinet heater, showing large feed-door opening, cast sectional linings, ribbed cast-iron grate, cast-iron flue collar, ash door and ash pan.

Cabinet heaters incorporate another giant step in wood-stove effectiveness: the automatic, thermostatically controlled draft. A bimetallic spring - reacting to the temperature of the stove - automatically opens or closes the draft to maintain the desired heat output.

Some cabinet heaters are characterized by especially fine engineering and attention to detail. One of the more innovative designs was created by the Riteway Company in an effort to achieve the elusive goal of complete combustion of smoke, thus increasing the total heat output and minimizing soot build-up in the chimney. In the Riteway 2000 (Figure 2.21), the smoke is forced to pass near the zone of primary combustion before entering a special combustion flue. A stream of "secondary" air mixes with the heated gases within this flue, encouraging final combustion.

Figure 2.21 - Cross-section of the Riteway 2000 radiant heater by the Riteway Manufacturing Company.

DOWNDRAFT STOVE.

A downdraft stove may be defined as one in which the smoke must pass through the bed of coals before reaching the flue. In so doing, the smoke is exposed to extremely high temperatures and is consumed. I know of enly one wood stove on the market today that meets this definition: the DownDrafter, manufactured by the Vermont Woodstove Company.

In the DownDrafter (Figures 2.22 and 2.23), slanting grates funnel the hottest coals toward the choke points through which exhaust gases must exit. Complete combustion is indicated by a clean, bluish flame, actually visible through special viewing ports. To increase heat-transfer efficiency, the DownDrafter incorporates an isolated inner chamber through which room air is circulated by a blower. A special thermostatic control system - reacting to stacktemperature - regulates both the blower and the air supplied to the fire through the drafts. The blower operates only when excess heat is available. (Continuous operation could result in overcooling the stack gases, leading to reduced draft and an increased tendency for deposits to form in the chimney.)

Figure 2.22 (left)-The DownDrafter (patent applied for) by Vermont Woodstove Company.

Figure 2.23 - Cross-section of the DownDrafter. Wood is gradually converted to charcoal as volatile substances are driven off by the heat. Slanting grates funnel the hottest coals to two choke points. Smoke must pass through the coals in order to gain access to the stovepipe, and is heated and completely burned in the process.

Note that a downdraft stove might also be called a "coking" stove. The volatile substances are driven out of the fresh wood at the top of the firebox and pass down through the coals, where they burn completely, to provide the heat needed to continue the wood-distillation process. By the time the wood has been completely stripped of volatiles and has become charcoal, it has settled down into the zone of primary combustion to provide the fuel for coking the next charge of wood.

WOOD FURNACE

(Figure 2.24). Like other units designed for heavy-duty heating of large spaces, wood furnaces make no attempt at beauty; they just sit in the cellar and work. They take large logs, so they do not have to be tended more than a couple of times a day, and they hold a fire all night, or longer, on a singlecharge. They can be connected to the house's ductwork to provide forced-air heat, and some models are even designed to operate by gravity flow in the event the blowers are knocked out by a power failure.

Figure 2.24 - In Riteway Manufacturing Company's wood furnace, a forced draft is created in the firebox by a thermostatically controlled blower. Secondary air passes into the gas combustion flue inside the firebox. A barometric damper permits room air to flow into the by-pass air flue, where it mixes with flue gases and helps prevent creosote deposits. Return air is preheated at the heat exchanger, blown over the furnace body and heated further, then passes through the duct system of the house.

A wood furnace can be mounted beside a conventional furnace, which automatically takes over if the wood alone can't supply enough heat. Alternatively, dual-fuel units are available; they burn both wood and oil or natural gas in the same firebox. When a charge of wood burns out, oil or gas kicks in so that a steady temperature is maintained in the house.

STANDING HEATER

(Figure 2.25). At least two European firms - Styria of Austria and Jotul of Norway - produce a kind of space heater not manufactured in the United States. These heaters feature a firebox at the bottom, with loading and secondary-draft doors higher up. Some models burn coal, coke and peat as well as wood.

COLLAPSIBLE STOVE

(Figure 2.26). Lightweight, knockdown stoves are suitable for camp use or for emergency backup heating systems. The Dynapac Stovaway, for example, ispacked in a box measuring only 21 by 26 by 27 inches, and can easily be stored in a closet. If provision were made beforehand for fuel and for venting the smoke through an existing flue, fireplace or window, such a stove would be cheap insurance against a natural disaster, power blackout or fuel shortage. If such a reserve stove kept the house's plumbing from freezing only once, it would pay for itself many times over.

Figure 2.25 (above) - Standing heater by Styria of Austria, distributed by Merry Music Box.

Figure 2.26 (below) - The Camper's Companion collapsible stove by Washington Stove Works.

LAUNDRY HEATER

(Figure 2.27). This is a small cast-iron stove with an oversized top designed to accommodate a large laundry tub. In the old days these stoves were also used for heating garment-pressing irons.

GALLEY RANGE

(Figure 2.28). Wood ranges for shipboard use are equipped with removable rails and rolling bars to keep pots from shifting around or falling off the stove when the vessel rocks in the waves. In other respects they are much like conventional wood ranges, except that they are available in remarkably small sizes.

MARINE FIREPLACE

(Figure 2.29). The Richmond Ring Company offers an open-fireplace heater that combines the cheeriness of an open fire with the extreme compacthess required for shipboard use. With the cast-bronze kindler door closed, the unit becomes a circulating heater; room air enters the cavity walls at the bottom, is warmed, and flows by convection out of ports on top of the cabinet.

Figure 2.27 (above) - Model 488 Sun laundry heater formerly manufactured by King Products Division, Martin Industries, but now discontinued. Other models are available.

Figure 2.28 {above) - The Neptune galley range by Washington Stove Works.

Figure 2.29-Mode 201CH Shipmate open-fireplacr; cabin heater by Richmond Ring Company.

Figure 2.30 ( - Skippy cabin heater by Richmond Ring Company.

MARINE CABIN HEATER

(Figure 2.30). These midget stoves are handy for heating small areas, such as th? cabin on a boat. Like marine ranges, they have toprails to keep pots from falling in rough weather. The little units have so much charm that many are undoubtedly purchased for use ashore.

CABOOSE STOVE

(Figure 2.31). This is another small unit designed to burn coal, briquets or short sticks of wood.

Figure 2.31 - Low caboose stove No. 249 by Union Stove Works.

WOOD-FIRED WATER HEATER.

As far as I know, no United States manufacturer currently offers a water heater fueled by wood, but Modern Kit Sales has announced plans to introduce one.

DRUM HEATER

(Figure 2.32). This is a cylindrical sheet-steel drum lined with firebrick and fitted with cast-iron legs, feed door and stovepipe collar.

Figure 2.32 - Warm-Ever drum heater by Locke Stove Company. This is available in two lengths: 21 Vi and 30% inches, substantially smaller than a conventional oil-barrel stove. Eight sections of firebrick for lining are included with the smaller model, twelve with the larger.

BARREL STOVE KIT

(Figure 2.33). Several companies offer cast-iron or welded-steel fittings for converting an ordinary 30- or 55-gallon oil barrel or a 100-pound grease pail into a heater. These kits bridge the gap between commercial units and homemade stoves, which will be considered in detail in Part Two.

Figure 2.33 - Cast-iron fittings for converting an ordinary 55-gallon oil barrel into a wood heater (left), by Washington Stove Works. Some companies offer kits for 30-gallon drums and 100-pound grease cans. Kits are also available for converting oil drums into vertical heaters (middle), and for mounting one drum atop another as a heat exchanger (right). Those shown are welded of 16-gauge steel and are manufactured by Markade-Winnwood.

Chapter 3

About Ovens

Wood-stove ovens fall into three categories: integral ovens, stovepipe ovens and stove-top ovens. Integral ovens are built right into the body of the stove, and generally require a dual smoke way controlled by a sliding baffle or smoke flap. When a fire is being started, the baffle is placed in the open position, allowing smoke and hot gases to pass directly out the flue. Once the fire is going briskly and the draft is well established, the flap can be closed to divert the smoke around and under the oven to heat it.

Kitchen ranges always feature an integral oven, and there are many ways to incorporate one into the design of a homemade stove. In general, it is easiest to maintain a steady baking temperature in a massive stove, but, with practice, one can also turn out excellent baked goods on some very small models.

A stovepipe oven (Figures 3.1 and 3.2) is a double-walled vessel with stovepipe connections at top and bottom. The interior of the oven is heated by smoke passing through the cavity between

Figure 3.1 - Stovepipe oven by Louisville Tin & Stove Company.

the walls. Brackets fitted to the inside walls hold shelves for baking pans. Simply by leaving the door ajar, a stovepipe oven can also be used as a "stack robber" to draw extra heat from the flue gases before they escape to the atmosphere.

Figure 3.2 - Stovepipe oven, cross-section.

Stove-top ovens (Figure 3.3) are simply bottomless metal boxes that sit directly on the stove. Some commercial models have such refinements as insulated cavity walls, hinged doors with see-through glass panels, temperature gauges, and movable wire-grill shelves. Some very serviceable homemade models are nothing more than ordinary 5-gal!on cans with one side cut out.

Whether simple or elaborate, stove-top ovens are capable of turning out good breads and pastries on any stove, as long as the stove top can be made hot enough without driving everybody out of the house. In addition, they can be used on gasoline, natural gas, or even electric stoves when it is too hot to fire up the wood stove.

Figure 3.3 A commercial stove-top oven sittng on a home made oil barrel stove. On days when a baking fire would overheat a snug cabin the oven can be used on a gasoline camp stove.

Some tips on baking with integral, stovepipe and stove-top ovens - as well as for baking without an oven - are provided in Chapter 8.

Chapter 4

About Stovepipes

The most obvious function of the stovepipe is to carry smoke, water vapor and fine ash from the firebox to the atmosphere. But another function, equally important, is to create the draft, or suction, needed to keep air flowing through the firebox.

Many times I've set up our little laundry stove outdoors in the summertime, when it is too hot to have a fire in the cabin. It might seem that a stovepipe would be unnecessary out there in the open air, but without pipe, the smoke can't tell the difference between the stoke hole and the stovepipe port, and the fire burns sluggishly. As soon as a couple of sections of stovepipe are attached, however, the smoke moves up the pipe and fresh air moves into the firebox to take its place. The oxygen perks up the fire, the stovepipe heats up and draws still better, and the combustion cycle goes on and on.

A stovepipe acts like a siphon, but in reverse; it moves smoke from a lower to a higher level. Like a siphon, its effectiveness is proportional to the difference in elevation between the two ends. In practical terms, this means that a stovepipe can be made to draw more strongly by simply adding another section.

Most commercial wood stoves take pipe 5, 6 or 7 inches in diameter, but 4- and 8-inch pipes are also stock items at many hardware stores. Stovepipe is sold open so that it nests for shipment and storage. It has a special self-locking seam that snaps together at the time the pipe is to be installed (Figure 4.1), making a solid, safe unit. Some stoves come with tapered pipe that is designed to nest one section within the next. In some units, the whole set fits right inside the firebox when not in use.

Stovepipe comes in two standard finishes - galvanized and black. Galvanized pipe has a shiny, silvery surface when it is new, but if the pipe is heated past a certain point, the zinc coating alloys with the sheet-steel base and the luster is permanently lost. Black stovepipe has a shiny, blue-black color which also dulls with use; an application of stove polish from time to time will restore the sheen and keep it looking nice.

Figure 4.1 - Patented self-locking devices on stovepipe by Louisville Tin & Stove Company (left) and Ashley-Spark Distributors, Inc. (right).

Black stovepipe is less expensive than the galvanized type, but it is also made of a lighter-gauge steel which burns out more quickly. Stovepipes usually burn out first along the seam, and a pipe with reasonably sound walls often has to be discarded just because the seam no longer holds it together properly. I always buy the longer-lasting galvanized pipe. When a section starts to burn out, I replace it immediately rather than risk a house fire. The old pipe may get a few more uses the following summer when we fire up the stove outdoors, but when it becomes unsafe, I junk it without regret.

The standard length of each stovepipe section is 24 inches, but since one end is crimped to fit inside the uncrimped end of the next section, the useful length of each section is 22V2 inches. Half-sections are also available.

It may seem logical that the crimped end of a stovepipe ought to be up, so that the smoke has a smooth passage from one pipe section to the next. The problem is that, in cold weather, moisture condenses inside the pipe and t' <?n runs back down toward the stove. As soon as the black, watery condensate reaches the first joint, it runs out onto the outer surface of the next section down, creating unsightly streaks which give off an unpleasant odor the next time the stovepipe heats up. After a few weeks the pipes look really bad, and in hard cases, a crust of highly flammable residue may build up where the pipe joins the stove. Thus, an eyesore becomes a safety hazard.

It may seem equally logical that if the crimped ends of the stovepipe sections face down, the edges inside the pipe will catch the smoke and direct it into the room. But it doesn't work that way. Since the draft is a suction phenomenon, air tends to leak into the pipe instead. With the crimps down, the condensate funnels right past the junctions, toward the stove, where it eventually evaporates. The outside of the pipe remains spotless (Figure 4.2).

Figure 4.2 - Why stovepipe should be installed with the crimped end down.

In warm regions, the stovepipe may never really get cold enough for condensation to occur, but in the North Country it can be a real nuisance. Unfortunately, some stove manufacturers seem to have missed this rather important point. They designed their stovepipe collars so that the pipe has to be connected the messy way, with the crimped ends up.

I struggled with this problem for some time before figuring out how to make a simple adapter that eliminates the problem altogether (see Chapter 21). Thompson and Anderson Sheet Metal (Westbrook, Maine 04092) will make adapters to order so that any stove can be used with the stovepipe right side up.

Occasionally, it is necessary to use two different stovepipe diameters in a single installation; for example, when a stove with provision for a 7-inch pipe is used with a 6-inch chimney connection. Several types of reducing and increasing adapters are on the market (Figure 4.3), but again, many are made the wrong way - with the crimped end up. Once more, custom-made adapters are the only answer.

Stoves with the stovepipe collar at the rear require an elbow to make the connection with the vertical stovepipe. A standard one-piece 90-degree elbow is formed from a short piece of pipe by multiple crimps around the circumference, and comes in both light-gauge black and heavy-gauge galvanized finishes.

Figure 4.3 - A commercial stovepipe adapter connecting a 6-inch 90-degree elbow to a 5-inch stovepipe. Note that the crimping is toward the top of the adapter. In cold weather, this will lead to stovepipe streaking when sooty condensate drips down the inside of the pipe.

Bends of less than 90 degrees require adjustable elbows. Made up of four swiveling sections, these take any angle from 0 to 90 degrees. Since the seams burn out fairly rapidly and may drip condensate, it is unwise to use this kind of elbow in the full 90 degree position where a solid one-piece model will do.

Most wood-stove setups require a damper in the stovepipe. A damper is merely a slightly undersized, perforated cast-iron disk, mounted on a metal shaft in such a way that it forms a butterfly valve inside the pipe (Figure 4.4). One end of the shaft extends beyond the pipe into the room, and is bent to form a handle. With the damper in the open position, the flue gases have free access to the upper pipe and the atmosphere. With the damper partially or fully closed, gases can escape only through the perforations and the spaces that remain around the edges of the disk.

If two stoves are connected to a single stovepipe, the connection is made by means of a tee. This is merely a short section of standard stovepipe with a collar emerging from it at right angles.

With the addition of a counterbalanced, swiveling flap in the collar opening, a simple tee becomes a draft corrector or draft minder (Figure 4.5). This ingenious device is designed to overcome excessive draft by admitting a regulated amount of air into the stovepipe. This "spoils" the effective draft at the firebox because much of the suction provided by/the chimney is pulling air through the tee rather than through the dtove.

A draft corrector is set by adjusting the counterbalance weight so that the flap hangs open just enough to correct the draft for calm-weather operation. Then, on windy days, when a gust suddenly increases the suction on the pipe, the flap merely pivots to a more open position, admitting extra air from the room into the stovepipe.

How to Install a Damper

1. Select a damper that matches the stovepipe in size. (It will be somewhat smaller in diameter than the pipe.) Remove the disk from the shaft, noting how the two pieces are held together by the tension of a spring. (Leave the spring on the shaft.)

2. Mark two holes diametrically opposite one another on the stovepipe, about 4 or 5 inches from the upper end.

3. Punch the holes lightly. (A 2x4 or small log makes a handy anvil.)

4. Drill the holes, using a bit somewhat smaller than the diameter of the damper shaft. (If you have no drill, punch through the metal with a nail.)

5. Enlarge the holes one at a time, using the damper shaft as an awl. This will ensure the tight fit necessary to prevent smoke from leaking into the room when the damper is closed.

6. Insert the shaft through one of the holes. Place the disk inside the pipe and thread it onto the shaft. Push the shaft through the bearing holes of the disk and on out the other hole in the pipe. This will require a bit of twisting back and forth.

7. When the shaft is all the way through the pipe and the crank is lined up with the receiver cup in the damper plate, twist until the crank rests in the cup. Release the shaft. The spring will hold everything in place.

Figure 4.4 - Installing a damper.

Figure 4.5 - Barometric draft control, or draft corrector.

The suction on the firebox remains relatively steady, and the fire burns evenly. When the gust subsides, the flap swings right back to the preselected position. The little flap, creaking back and forth all day in response to every gust, keeps you informed on the progress of the storm outside.

Every wood-stove owner eventually wonders how much of the heat in the flue gases could be captured and used to heat the house. Various types of heat exchangers or "stack robbers" have been developed to meet this need. One popular type consists of a series of horizontal tubes in a boxlike container which is mounted between two joints of stovepipe (Figure 4.6).

Smoke passing around the tubes heats them, and a small fan blows the hot air out into the room. The energy retrieved from the waste heat far exceeds the energy required to operate the fan, and so the unit pays for itself over a period of time. As an added bonus, the fan helps to break up the hot-air layering that generally occurs in rooms heated by wood stoves.

Figure 4.6 - A commercial stack robber (this one by Torrid Air) can capture significant amounts of heat from flue gases. A fan blows room air through the 10 heat-exchange tubes. The little knob in the center of the array of tubes is the end of the cleaning rod. When it is pulled out, a plate inside slides forward and scrapes accumulated soot from the tubes. The soot then falls back down the stovepipe.

Another simpler type of stack robber consists of a series of shaped metal rings (Figure 4.7) that slip over the first section of stovepipe and act as radiating fins.

Figure 4.7 - An inexpensive stovepipe heat-exchange system consisting of slip-on heat fins is produced by Patented Manufacturing Company.

This covers the basic stovepipe hardware between the stove and the wall or ceiling. Many kinds of fittings are manufactured for passing stovepipes safely out of a building, and you should discuss them with your local hardware and building-supply dealers.

Chapter 5

Stove Accessories

Day-to-day operation of a wood stove requires a few simple accessories. Each setup has its own particular requirements. This is my personal list:

POKER. This tool is essential for rearranging the wood in the firebox and for raking the coals forward to the draft in those stoves where this is necessary. A poker need not be elaborate; I've gotten by for long periods with nothing more than a green stick. But, naturally, some sort of light metal rod is better. It should have a right-angle crook on the working end.

ASH HOE. A small, fireproof version of the common garden tool, the ash hoe is used to pull ashes forward when emptying the stove or when covering the draft hole in order to seal it when setting an overnight fire. It is also handy for pushing the glowing coals to the back of the stove, as one does when preparing to bake in a stovepipe oven or when setting the fire to hold overnight.

SMALL SHOVEL. This is handy for removing ashes from the firebox, and also for use as a dustpan when the sweepings are to go into the stove. The small models, designed to go with coal scuttles, and the fancier ones, sold as fireplace accessories, both work nicely.

WHISK BROOM. Hung near the stove, a whisk broom makes it easy to sweep up spilled ashes and bits of bark or wood.

TONGS. Either the ordinary kitchen variety or a special cast-iron fireplace pair of tongs is handy for stuffing papers and other refuse into the firebox for disposal, and also for rearranging the wood when the fire is low. I have often used the tongs to place dead charcoal from the previous fire on top of the kindling when I build a new one. Tongs also make it easy to remove tin cans and other metallic debris from the firebox (after incinerating rubbish), even while it is still hot.

GLOVES. I keep a heavy leather gauntlet-type welder's glove near my stove at all times for dealing with an especially hot fire. It is also useful for handling wood that is dripping sticky pitch.

TRIVET. A trivet is an indispensable part of wood-stove cookery. Anything that will keep the cooking pot from direct contact with the hot stove top will do; for example, the lid from a No. 10 can, with tabs bent down around the edges (Figure 5.1).

Figure 5.1 - A trivet is an indispensable part of wood-stove cookery. This one was made from oil-barrel metal.

DOOR PINYA. A pinya - or more stiffly, door closure pad-has a usefulness far exceeding its humble appearance. It consists of a four-ply square of aluminum foil, with or without a very thin layer of fiberglass insulation inside for added bulk. The pinya {pinyu is the local Eskimo all-purpose word corresponding to our "what-cha-ma-call-it"), serves as a cheap, replaceable, custom-made gasket for sealing off the firebox door when setting an overnight fire. Some stoves have doors that don't lend themselves to this sort of gasketing, and others are tight enough that they don't need any help. But many, many stoves can really profit from this simple device; in fact, I learned the trick from a neighbor who invented the first piny a to give himself still greater control over his airtight heater.

CLEANING TOOLS. These are necessary for removing soot from most wood stoves. Wood ranges, which have elaborate passageways for conducting the hot gases around and under the oven, are especially likely to collect soot, and are always designed with special cleaning ports to give access to the passages. The standard tool for cleaning out the narrow cavities looks like a thin, double-edged hoe.

Stovepipes also accumulate their share of residue - chiefly carbonaceous deposits derived from unburned volatile substances in the smoke. This crust can be surprisingly thick and tenacious. The only commercial stovepipe-cleaning tool I've seen is a kind of giant bottle brush, made in Austria and sold by Merry Music Box. I have always cleaned my own stovepipes with a very simple tool consisting of a folded tin-can lid nailed onto the end of a stick (Figure 5.2).

WIRE BRUSH. Handy for burnishing the stove surfaces and removing caked-on deposits.

Figure 5.2 - Stovepipe cleaning tool.

STOVE POLISH. An application of polish restores a very nice appearance, even on rusty surfaces. Some brands are available in liquid form, but I prefer the kind that comes as a paste in a tube.

STOVE PAD. It is wise to invest in some sort of nonflammable stove pad to protect the floor beneath the stove from radiated heat and from any embers which may fall from the firebox. Commercial pads - consisting of enameled metal over asbestos matting - are available in a variety of sizes. Others can easily be made from sheet metal.

ASH CAN. Some stoves also benefit from a can placed beneath the door to catch falling embers. With some models, sparks will pop right out of the draft opening, so it is well to be sure that either the stove pad or the ash can protects the ar^a where they land.

Stove pads and ash cans bring us into the realm of stove safety, which we'll consider in detail in Chapter 9.

Chapter 6

About Wood

It was my privilege, during my first winter in the Far North, to have access to an entire forest that hadn't been touched for decades. Dry spruce stood everywhere; consequently, that's all I burned. It was only later, after moving to a less favored region, that I was forced by necessity to experiment with other species of trees and with wood in other conditions (such as green, half-dry, punky, pitchy and driftwood). I soon learned that all woods are not created equal, by any means. The same principles apply to the wood types available in other areas, even if the species of trees are different.

Forests in the north are very monotonous compared to those of warmer regions. Our list of firewood species, as a result, is very short: white spruce, black spruce, paper birch, cottonwood, quaking aspen, willow and alder. But since each of these woods may be found in a variety of types (Figure 6.1), we actually do have a fair range of distinct kinds of fuel.

The great mainstay of wood-burning stoves throughout most of Alaska is white spruce. (Black spruce is so nearly identical in its firewood properties that, if there is any difference, I have missed it.)

Figure 6.1 - Three different grades of white spruce. Bottom left: dry wood. Note the cracks. Bottom right: half-dry wood, with a darker ring of sapwood just inside the bark. Top: punky wood. The spongy texture is very obvious.

Dry spruce, in the local Eskimo dialect, is called qirrupiaq - "real wood." It is easy to light, responds immediately to the draft, gives a hot fire, and leaves a good bed of coals. It is a forgiving wood; even if the fire has been neglected until only a few coals remain, a handful of kindling and a few splits of dry spruce will quickly revive it.

Half-dry spruce comes from trees that are almost, but not quite, dead. When a spruce tree is dying, the layer of sapwood under the bark gets thinner and thinner, the heartwood drier and drier. Once the growing tip of the tree dies, the branches follow, one by one. When only a few branches bear green needles, the tree is prime for cutting (Figure 6.2).

Figure 6.2 - A prime half-dry white spruce. Note the dead growing tip and the many dead branches. This tree would yield excellent firewood.

Half-dry spruce combines the advantageous properties of both green and dry wood. If it is laid on a good bed of coals and the draft is opened, it takes right off. If the draft is closed, the wood lies there for a long time, absorbing heat and drying out; the stove marks time while the wood soaks up heat. Thus, half-dry spruce can be used either for instant heat or as a holding wood.

Punky spruce is wood that has begun to decay before the tree dies. Rot begins in the center of the trunk near the bottom, then works its way upward and outward toward the bark. The punky wood is orange-colored with myriad little white spots, like some strange cheese. The fibrous texture is gone, so the wood is very easy to saw but difficult to split evenly.

Occasionally, the core of a spruce is punky, while the outer portion of the trunk is firm and heavily encrusted with pitch (especially around the knots). This pitchy wood is handy for rekindling a small fire, since the pitch melts and runs down onto the coals, where it ignites very easily. Pitchy knots are also handy when baking in a wood range, since they produce a quick, hot flame.

Green spruce has a thick layer of resinous sapwood just beneath the bark, and healthy moist wood from there through the core. It may be burned the same day the tree is cut down, but the considerable energy cost of evaporating the excess moisture will have to be paid by wood already on the fire. It is more efficient to cut and split the wood well ahead of time and let it air-dry for a year - even two - before burning it. Personally, I don't feel right about cutting healthy trees for fuel, and most of the green wood that goes into my stove comes as scrap from building projects. It is handy for holding an overnight fire or for cooling a fire quickly.

Driftwood is always welcome, since the river does the work of hauling it to camp. One spring we made camp along a high riverbank rimmed with a thick deposit of driftwood, and for a month we never had to go more than 20 steps for fuel. Driftwood comes in all types, sizes and conditions, so with a little care in selection, it is possible to find fuel that is suitable for almost any use. Small, dry sticks are fine for cooking, and larger, moister ones are handy for holding a fire. On the minus side, ocean-borne driftwood can carry corrosive salt into the stove, and driftwood from any source is likely to be contaminated with more or less saw-dulling sand and silt. Still, in some circumstances it can be a very satisfactory fuel.

Paper birch is the nearest thing we have to the excellent hardwood fuels of the eastern states. (The rest of our species rank fairly low on any list of preferred woods.) It burns hot, lasts a long time, and produces fine coals. To my mind, the smoke from burning birch is one of the most pleasant smells in the north woods. But in spite of all these fine qualities, I burn very little birch. The living trees are just too beautiful to cut down, and it is hard to find dead ones in burning condition because the bark forms a durable, watertight cylinder that encourages extremely rapid rotting. The odd chunk that comes my way usually goes into the stove at bedtime, when I set the overnight fire.

Cottonwood and aspen rank low on our list of preferred woods. When green they are exceptionally heavy and waterlogged, and when punky they burn without much heat. When properly seasoned they burn well enough, although ash production is high and coal production rather low compared to some other species.

Willows figure prominently in our firewood diet only in spring and summer, when we camp near riverbank thickets. We collect "breakwood," which is anything that can be harvested without an ax or saw (Figure 6.3). Dead willows that are still standing are usually fairly dry, and they make a reasonably good fuel. One man here uses very little else; he makes one trip a day all winter to the thicket across the river, and drags the wood back with one dog and a little sled built around an old pair of skis.

Alders in this area rarely get any thicker than a man's arm, so, as with willows, it takes quite a bit of work to collect any quantity of them. Dry alder can be used much like spruce, although it is a bit slower to start. It produces firm, hot coals, very much like those of birch. Green and half-dry alder is handy for holding fires overnight; it gives a really intense fire when the draft is opened the following morning. Unfortunately, creosote production is high, and this alone is enough to rule out its use in some installations (see Chapter 9 for a discussion of the creosote problem).

This discussion of our short firewood list shows that with very few fuel species, we still have enough variety to do whatever needs to be done with our stoves. The same is bound to be true in other areas of the country, even if the species of wood are entirely different. It pays to talk to old-timers about their preferences in woods, and to experiment to see which woods give the best results with any particular stove.

Chapter 7

Using Wood Stoves

Keeping a fire in a wood stove is like having a pet in the house with you. A fire needs your attention at regular intervals, and is in danger of either dying or running amok if your judgment slips. You have to feed it the right things at the appropriate times, and you have to carry its waste products out of the house. In return it will work for you, cooking your meals and heating your water and living space.

The kind of experience you have with your fire depends entirely upon your equipment and fuel and how you use them. Your fire may be a gentle, dependable, obedient servant, doing what you want it to do when you want it done; or it may be capricious and stubborn, misbehaving continually, a source of frequent irritation.

I'll never forget the time I watched a schoolteacher, new to the north, trying to fry meat on an oil-barrel wood stove in an Eskimo friend's house. "What's wrong with this thing?" she asked. "I just filled it." She was prodding the meat with a big fork, and I could tell by the absence of sound in the pan that the meat wasn't cooking. At the same time, she was shielding her thighs from the intensely hot sides of the stove.

I could see the bright glow of a fine bed of coals at the draft hole, and began to wonder why the frying pan wasn't heating up. So I got up, looked into the firebox and saw that she'd laid green birch on top of the coals. The birch shielded the stove top, so the coals radiated heat only to the sides of the stove.

I took the poker and slid the birch off the coals so that it would shield the sides of the stove rather than the top, and then I laid a couple of sticks of dry spruce in its place. The sides cooled right down, flames from the dry wood started heating the stove top and, shortly, the meat in the pan began to sizzle.

My friend had used the wrong wood in the wrong place at the wrong time and, naturally, the results were unsatisfactory. She simply hadn't been around wood stoves long enough to develop the feel needed to operate them properly. I began to think of all the other situations a person encounters in the course of a 24-hour period with a wood stove, and wondered if perhaps I couldn't put my own experience into words and help others learn to be more comfortable with their own woodburners. Then and there I began outlining this book. In the pages that follow I'll share every trick I know for getting maximum performance and enjoyment from a wood stove, as others have freely shared with me over the past ten years.

STARTING A FIRE.

Fire-starting requires dry wood, so it is a good idea to have a box of kindling tucked away. Everybody has his own way of laying a new fire, and here is mine. Place two splits of dry wood on either side of the firebox, say 3 or 4 inches apart. If there is any old charcoal among the ashes, arrange it so it lies between the splits. Next lay some shredded paper on the charcoal. (Newspaper is ideal; avoid glossy paper such as in magazines.) Lay the kindling on top of the paper, and place a few small splits of wood on top of the kindling. Now light the paper and close the stove door. Open the draft just enough to encourage the fire without blowing it out. Once the stove is drawing well, add as much wood as the situation calls for.

Another way to kindle a fire is to use sawdust soaked in kerosene or waste crankcase oil. Place a couple of spoonfuls of the sawdust mixture among the kindling sticks, in place of the newspaper. Light the sawdust with a match, and you'll have an instant, trouble-free start-up. I should not have to add that gasoline or other explosive substances should never be used in stoves. The danger is obvious, yet I know a man who burned down a fine log house in this way. Also, never add kerosene to anything but a cold stove, since the heat may vaporize it, forming an explosive white cloud that could flash back in your face. The same goes for crankcase oil that is heavily contaminated with gasoline.

Purists like to start fires without resorting to newspaper or petroleum products. One good way to do so is to carve a fuzz stick from a piece of kindling (Figure 7.1). Put it in the firebox in place of the paper, and light the wood shavings with a match.

GETTING A STOVE TO DRAW.

A stove draws because the warm gases produced by the fire are less dense than the cooler outside air and, consequently, tend to rise up the pipe. Once a fire is going and the stove is hot, the draft maintains itself; but occasionally a stove won't draw when it is being started up. This is especially true in the summertime, when there isn't much difference in temperature (and hence density) between inside and outside air.

Figure 7.1 - How to make a fuzz stick to use as a substitute for paper when starting a fire.

I spent three winters in a little cabin at the base of a fairly high bluff. On still, clear nights, cold, dense air from the tundra would cascade down the ravine behind the cabin and continue right on out to the river. I could always tell that a cold night was in store when the smoke curled out of the stovepipe, lay down flat, drifted horizontally across the roof, and then slid along the ground toward the riverbank.

The cold air worked on my stovepipe all night, cooling the thin smoke from the banked fire so that it had little tendency to rise. If the stove happened to go out, I'd have trouble lighting it in the morning. As soon as I opened the firebox door, cold air would rush down the pipe, into the room.

The time-honored trick for getting a stove started in such a situation is to stuff a piece of newspaper loosely into the stovepipe and then light it. The paper will burn very quickly, sending a rush of warm air up the pipe. If the kindling in the firebox is lighted just before or just after the newspaper, the momentary draft will get it going. Heat from the budding fire will keep the draft going until the fire is well established.

In the stove arrangement I was using at the time, I usually stuck the newspaper into the pipe at the draft corrector, which was the handiest place. I also could have stuffed it way back at the far end of the firebox, near the exit to the flue. On other stoves, I've had to disconnect the elbow from the stove, put the paper into the pipe, light it, and then quickly reconnect the elbow. In some cases it might be necessary to insert the paper at a joint between two stovepipe sections, or to light it and stick it into the stovepipe from the roof, burning end down.

If a stove draws poorly even when hot, there is something wrong in the system. It may be that the pipe merely needs cleaning. Or it may be that the pipe is too short, and that adding a section or two will correct the problem. Switching to a pipe of larger diameter will also increase the draft, but this will involve some modification of the fixture where the pipe passes out of the house.

REKINDLING A SMALL FIRE.

Sometimes a fire gets too low to ignite regular firewood sticks, but if even a few glowing coals remain, it can be brought back to life with a little coddling. Place the coals in the center of the firebox, and lay a split of dry wood on either side. Place some kindling on the coals, and then add a few splits of firewood - just as in laying a new fire. Then shut down the stove (close the draft); too much draft at this stage will only cause the weak coals to burn themselves out without lighting the kindling.

With the draft closed, the wood will absorb enough heat from the coals to reach its kindling temperature. Then, when air is again admitted, the fire will spring to life. (Blowing lightly on the coals at this point may help establish the live flame.) If the cabin doesn't need the v. rmth just then, leave the stove shut down. The fire will ignite by itself later on.

HEATING: LIFE CYCLE OF A FIRE.

I always think of a fire as a living thing; it seems to me to have a distinct life cycle. Let's suppose a fire is going well; it's in the prime of life, and heat output is at a maximum. In time, the wood will turn to charcoal, and the charcoal to ash. Without new fuel, the fire will die a natural death.

But by placing new wood on the fire while it is still fairly hot, we give the wheel another turn. At first, the fire cools down as the new wood absorbs heat. (With dry wood, this cooling phase may be so short as to be almost unnoticeable; with greener wood - especially if the stove is shut down tight - it may last for hours, even overnight.) Eventually the moisture is driven off, the wood reaches its kindling temperature, and the fire takes off, rejuvenated. As the fuel is consumed, heat output once more dwindles.

So wood heat is inherently uneven, rising and falling with each new charge of fuel. This unevenness - which is most noticeable in small cabins - can be counteracted by giving the fire a number of small feedings rather than a few large ones. That way the firebox always contains wood in several stages of the life cycle, and the ups and downs balance each other.

The interval between feedings may be long or short, depending on the stove, the fuel, the house and the weather. After developing a feeling for a stove, you'll know when it is time to take a look into the firebox. Sometimes you will close the door again without doing a thing; sometimes you will just stir the wood around a bit with the poker; sometimes you will draw the coals nearer to the draft and add more wood. In any case, when you've finished you'll know what the fire is doing and what you can expect of it.

Timing is always important. Dry wood is an agreeable fuel and will readily ignite, even if the fire has been neglected. But slower woods require that the stove be fed before the heat is actually needed. How long before depends on how long it takes the wood to reach its kindling temperature, which in turn depends upon its moisture and pitch content, physical size and hardness. By way of compensation, wood that is hard to get started is usually easy to control by shutting the draft; there is little risk of ruining your fire by adding such fuel before it is needed.

One good practice is to keep several types of wood on hand. When I chop wood, I try to include some dry, some half-dry and some punky wood in each batch, with some chunks split fine and others left large, even in the round. That way, I can always find just the wood I need for the firebox. If the fire is low, I'll reach for dry wood and small splits. If the fire is perking along njcely and I wish only to maintain it, I'll select larger chunks of half-dry.

MODERATING A FIRE.

Wood stoves can be shut down by closing either the draft control or the damper, or both. Shutting the draft moderates the fire by shutting off the flow of oxygen. Shutting the damper produces the same effect by preventing the smoke from escaping up the pipe, for if smoke can't get out of the firebox, new air can't get in to take its place.

Although closing either the draft or the damper has the same effect on oxygen flow, the incidental results are somewhat different. If the draft is closed while the damper remains open, the live flame may die out altogether. The smoldering wood will give off a lot of smoke, meaning that a good deal of its heat value goes up the chimney in the form of unburned volatile substances. If the draft is left open while the damper is closed, on the other hand, the live flame will remain, and combustion will be much more complete.

TAMING A STOVE THAT WONT SHUT DOWN.

If I had to choose the most irritating kind of wood stove, it would be one that continues to throw off large amounts of heat even though I have tried to shut it down. Somehow I can tolerate a cold cabin in the knowledge that the stove will take the chill off quickly, but a hot room not only sets me on edge - it seems to take forever to cool down. And I find sleeping in a hot room impossible.

One winter I lived near Fairbanks in a small cabin that was heated by a cast-iron box stove. I don't know if all box stoves are as leaky as that one was, but I'll never willingly have another. Temperatures of -30 to -40 - F dictated that I keep a fire overnight, but too often the stove would take off after only 2 or 3 hours. I'd wake up in a steamy room and see brilliant coals shining through the cracks between the various castings. The stove seemed to be leering at me, like some malevolent cast-iron pumpkin, and I hated it with a passion.

I'd jump out of bed, throw open the cabin door to let some fresh air in, lift one lid from the stove top, and pour water from the kettle onto the fire to cool it. A hissing cloud of steam and ashes would rush up at my face, making the whole cabin smell like a boiler room. Then I'd close the lid and go back to bed. Often the stove would take off a second time, and then I'd really douse it. Next morning the fire would be dead, the cabin would be cold, and I'd be cranky. On top of it all, my first chore of the day would be to kindle a new fire on a bed of soggy charcoal.

No doubt that stove would have been fine for a room five times the size of that particular cabin, or for a workshop or church that was heated only occasionally and never overnight. But it was definitely not the stove for my situation. In any case, this sort of thing is certainly not uncommon, and it pays to know how to deal with an intractable stove.

If you encounter a stove that runs on, even though both the draft and damper have been closed, there are ways to control the fire without adding to or replacing any of the equipment:

1. Use less fuel. Perhaps the problem is nothing more than unfamiliarity with a new stove or a new type of fuel. After a few fires that are too large to control, one generally develops a feel for the situation. If improper stoking of the stove is at fault, some of the hints on keeping a small fire (later in this chapter) may help. If the problem goes deeper than that, escalate. Read on.

2. Use different fuel. Sometimes switching to a slower-burning fuel will be enough to moderate a stove that tends to go out of control. For me, this means switching from dry spruce to half-dry spruce, alder or birch. In a different case, though, these woods could easily aggravate the problem. After a time-lag, they might themselves take off, producing a really intense fire that could not be cont oiled.

3. Remove fuel. Zany as it may sound, there have been times when I hive done this - usually when bread-making has fallen behind schedule and my wife, Manya, has found it necessary to bake in the evening. As soon as the bread comes out of the oven, I yank some of the wood from the firebox with a pair of tongs, place it in an empty 5-gallon can, carry it quickly outside, and dump it on the snow. (The charred wood goes back into the stove the next morning.) Then I use the remaining coals to set the fire for overnight, even if it is an hour or two until bedtime. The stove and the room both cool gradually, so that we can sleep comfortably.

4. Add fuel. A good stove, as well as an intractable one, will often run on once the fire has reached the charcoal stage, because the coals radiate surprising amounts of heat even with a minimum of oxygen. The simplest way to moderate a charcoal fire is to lay some new fuel on the coals and shut the stove down again. Naturally, a moister wood is best, since it takes longer to reach its kindling temperature. The new wood will absorb a lot of heat from the coals in the meantime - heat that otherwise would have been radiating into the room. By the time the new fuel finally takes off, the room ought to be ready for the extra heat. If it's not, the problem worsens.

5. Add water. Throwing water on a fire, from the standpoint of a wood-stove purist, is an inelegant thing to do. It's also very effective. But it is a bad sign; heavy reliance on this technique indicates that something is not right with the system and that fundamental changes are in order.

6. Seal off the coals. One of my favorite tricks for cooling a fire is to lay paper over it. News magazines and mail-order catalogs are just right, since the glossy paper produces a flaky, smothering ash that continues to seal the coals long after the paper is carbonized. (This is why magazines can foul a fire so badly when incinerated in a wood stove.)

When it's time to revive the fire, simply stir around with a poker and lift the remaining coals to the surface. They'll be half black, half red, and strangely inactive, so it sometimes takes a bit of kindling or good wood to get a hot fire going again.

Ashes can also be used to seal off the coals. A friend of mine, who grew up in the country, told me that his mother kept an overnight fire in her big wood range by putting ashes on top of a charge of wood. With a shake of the grate in the morning, the ashes sifted away from the coals and the fire was reborn.

7. Seal the draft hole. Perhaps the stove runs on because the draft fixture is leaky. With many stoves it is possible to rake ashes forward and cover the draft hole completely. In the morning the opening can be unplugged with the poker or a piece of wire. Any ashes that fall can be caught in the ash can.

8. Seal the stove. Many stoves can benefit from an application of fireplace putty or asbestos chinking to the cracks. On some units the cracks can be welded or brazed shut.

9. Use a door pinya. On many stoves the main source of air leakage is the stoke-hole door. A simple foil door closure pad, or pinya (see Chapter 5), will quite effectively seal off leaks in many types of stoves. Intense heat will destroy the foil fairly quickly, so it is good to moderate the fire in some other way before sealing off the door with the pinya.

10. Fix the door. If the stoke-hole door itself is at fault, it may be possible to remove it, heat it up, and pound it back into its original shape, thus sealing the air leaks that are causing the problem. Sometimes a stove runs on simply because it is connected to a stovepipe that provides too much draft. Wind blowing across the top of an open stovepipe or chimney, excessive stovepipe length or diameter, and strong indoor-outdoor temperature differentials can all contribute to excessive draft.

There are two approaches to this problem. One is to make structural modifications that reduce the draft - for example, installing an anti-wind stovepipe cap, or shifting to a smaller or shorter pipe. The other is to leave the piping alone, but spoil the draft by letting it pull air into the pipe directly from the room rather than through the firebox.

There are many ways to do this. Some stoves (notably wood ranges) have little cleanout doors designed to give access to the smoke passageways. Any of these can be left open to act as spoilers. My neighbor accomplishes the same thing by sliding his airtight heater forward a bit, creating a spoiler opening in the joint where the horizontal pipe from the stove joins the tee in the main stovepipe. Or the lids in the surface of a wood range can be tilted so that they remain partially open.

But to my mind the most versatile spoiler of all is a draft corrector (see Chapter 4). If the swiveling flap is held shut with a simple spring-type clothespin clamped to the rim, the corrector is effectively taken out of the system, and the full draft pulls at the firebox. With the pin shifted to the flap so that it is jammed in the wide open position, most of the draft pulls room air into the pipe; this should tame almost any stove (Figure 7.2).

It is worth noting that any air that goes up the draft corrector must be replaced by new air entering the room. Ordinarily the replacement air comes into the house through cracks around doors and windows, so the price of controlling an intractable stove may be drafts and a cold floor. With the addition of a couple of simple stovepipe fixtures, however, these problems can be eliminated. In the October, 1975 issue of Organic Gardening and Farming, Tomand Peggy Blunt described how they tamed their stove without sacrificing comfort.

Figure 7.2 - How to use a draft corrector as a spoiler in order to make the fire burn more slowly.

The Blunts were having trouble shutting down their box stove - the same kind that gave me so much trouble that winter near Fairbanks. Their solution was to installa draft corrector at the first section of stovepipe leading from the top of the stove. Then they removed the ring holding the swiveling flap, and inserted an elbow in its place. Next, they added a joint of stovepipe that ran downward to within 3 inches of the floor, and inserted the swiveling flap in the bottom of the pipe. Finally, they cut a 6 inch hole in the floor beneath the stove (Figure 7.3).

The operation of this system is exactly the same as that of a conventionally mounted draft corrector, except that the flap is manually controlled and cooler air from the floor (rather than warmer air from a higher level) is drawn into the stovepipe. To replace it, preheated air from the crawl space beneath the floor enters the room through the hole under the stove. The Blunts say that cold-air leakage around their doors and windows has stopped since they installed this simple system.

Figure 7.3 - The Blunts' draft-spoiler system. A draft corrector is installed in the first vertical section of stovepipe leading from the stove, an elbow replacing the swiveling flap. A joint of stovepipe runs to within 3 inches of the floor and the swiveling flap or a damper is inserted in the bottom of the pipe. Replacement air enters through a hole cut in the floor under the stove.

Figure 7.4 - A refinement of the draft spoiler in Figure 7.3. This system is independent of the stove damper, and no air is drawn through the room.

Figure 7.4 shows a refinement of this system that might be even more effective. The draft corrector is placed above the first section of stovepipe, rather than directly on the stove, making the operation of the air by-pass system independent of the stove damper. With the extender pipe run directly into the crawl space, no room air at all is drawn away through the bypass. Since the end of the pipe is out of reach beneath the floor, the swiveling flap is unnecessary, and a simple tee rather than a draft corrector can be used. A second damper, placed close to the junction of the pipe sections for convenience, is used to control the bypass air.

HOLDING A FIRE OVERNIGHT.

This is the acid test of a wood stove's manageability. Any old metal box will give out heat in the daytime, but it takes some thought to construct a stove that can be closed tightly enough to maintain the fire without attention for eight hours or more. Some commercial models are so well constructed that one need only add wood at bedtime and set an automatic thermostat to be assured of all-night warmth and a fine fire in the morning. Lesser stoves, with a little coddling, can be made to perform similarly.

Living in an extreme climate, I have to walk a thin line between two evils when setting an overnight fire. If I lean too far toward the cold side and apply all the tricks, the fire may actually die, even though the firebox is full of wood. In the morning both the stove and the cabin will be cold. Even worse, if I ease up too much on my fire-holding techniques, the fire may take off in the wee hours and drive us from under the covers. But with good equipment and a little experience, there's no reason not to wake up and find the fire in excellent condition, and the cabin just comfortably cool.

I've never counted how many times in our seven-month winter I need to use a match on our homemade stove, but it can't be many. I do remember that we once returned to the cabin on the 15th of March, following a long trip. I used one match that morning to start the fire, and the very same fire was still going on April 29, the morning we left for spring camp. Similarly, brochures for some of the better commercial models promise that one need "build only two or three fires a winter." It's true.

The fundamental goal of setting an overnight fire is to be able to get the fire going the next morning without rekindling. With a good stove, properly set, it's not at all unusual to get up after a night's sleep and have a dormant fire roaring again in 60 seconds (Figure 7.5). Assuming a stove is reasonably airtight, there are four steps in setting an overnight fire:

Figure 7.5 - A fire can be held overnight in any reasonably tight stove. This fire is just taking off after lying dormant for more than 8 hours. Smoke is rising and there are brilliant, hot coals under the logs on the right.The somewhat leaky door had been sealed all night with a foil closure pad.

1. Begin with the right quantity of coals. Try to regulate the evening feedings of the fire in such a way that there will be enough glowing coals at bedtime to ignite the overnight charge of wood with certainty, but not so many that the fire takes off too soon. If the coal bed happens to be too rich when you are ready to set the fire, it can be weakened by laying some catalog or magazine paper over it. If the coals are too skimpy, add kindling to the base of the overnight charge.

2. Select the right wood. Hardwoods hold a fire longer than softwoods; large chunks hold longer than small pieces; wood still "in the round" holds longer than split wood; wood that is at all green holds longer than seasoned wood; and wood freshly brought in from the cold holds longer than wood that is warm from storage indoors. The wood must be chosen to match the characteristics of the stove and the quantity and quality of the coals remaining in the firebox. The only way to learn how to choose the wood is through experience with a particular stove and local fuels.

3. Shut down tight. The draft control and the stoke-hole door must be closed, of course. Depending on the inherent airtighthess of the stove, exclude oxygen by any or all of the following means: close the damper; seal the draft opening with ashes; lay paper over the coals and wood; wrap each piece of wood in paper; seal the stoke-hole door with aluminum foil.

4. Spoil the draft. Use any of the techniques just given for taming a stove that won't shut down.

Once basic fire-setting techniques have been mastered, it is taken for granted that there will be fire in the stove 8 or 10 hours after it is set. The next refinement is to set the fire so that it not only holds till morning, but gives off the desired amount of heat through the night.

For example, when the weather is especially warm (zero or above), an overnight fire is optional in our cabin. At such times I often set the fire to go out - that is, I select wood that will not quite be ignited by the remaining coals. Heat output is minimal, and in the morning the fire is dead. But by that time the charred wood has been dried out by the residual heat of the firebox, and can be kindled by nothing more than a few pieces of paper and a match.

In cold weather (down to -30 - F), I set the fire in the normal way. The coals just maintain themselves, and heat output through the night is low. In the morning, most of the wood is still in the firebox, completely dried out and heat soaked. Ample coals remain, so the whole thing takes right off as soon as the stove is opened up.

In severe weather (-30 to -50 - F), I slack off a bit on fire-holding techniques so that heat output at night will be moderate. By morning most of the wood is gone, but there are plenty of coals at the back of the stove to get the fire going without difficulty.

In extreme weather (-50 - F or colder) I set the fire to last only about 4 hours so that heat output will be appreciable. Then, just before bedtime, I drink a couple of glasses of water. That way, I am sure to get up in the middle of the night, at which time I can refill the firebox and set the fire for another 4 hours or so.

KEEPING A SMALL FIRE.

Toward spring, as the weather moderates, I keep a smaller and smaller fire until only two sticks of wood remain in the firebox, with a few coals between them. The two pieces of wood, lying side by side, reflect heat back and forth, and so keep each other going. When one of them crumbles into coals, I replace it with afresh stick.

For an even smaller fire, I use a slow type of wood for one of the two sticks. It takes a long time for the slow stick to soak up heat and dry out, but its surface chars, and serves as a heat reflector to keep the other, drier stick burning.

Another way to keep a small fire is to push the coals up against one side of the firebox and lay a single stick of firewood against them. If the coals begin to fade, a stick or two of kindling will replenish them. To go even smaller, one can use shorter and shorter wood. For example, my present stove will take wood up to 23 inches in length, but in spring and summer I sometimes use wood only 6 to 8 inches long. By that time it's a tossup whether it's more trouble to keep the tiny fire going, or to let it die and rekindle another when needed.

INCINERATING.

Until America devises a system for reducing solid waste and recycling what's left, we might as well salvage at least the energy content by burning the combustible portions in our wood stoves. Wastepaper, cardboard, and scrap lumber can all contribute to the household heat budget while lessening the burden on the sanitation department.

One Way to Set an Overnight Fire

Different stoves require different strategies for setting fires that will last all night. Here is how I hold a fire in my homemade sheet-steel Super Yukon stove:

1. Let the fire die down in the evening so that only coals remain at bedtime.

2. Push the coals to the back of the firebox, and rake ashes forward to seal the draft.

3. Lay a split of half-dry spruce on either side of the coals. If there are too many or too few coals, use a stick of greenish or dry wood, respectively, on one side.

4. Place a smaller split of wood on top of the coals, between the two larger splits. This completes the foundation - the heart of the fire (Figure 7.6, Drawing A). If it behaves as it should, the rest of the fire will take care of itself.

5. Lay paper over the entire foundation, overlapping the various sections generously to make a good seal. Use magazine or glossy catalog paper, five to ten pages thick. Tuck the paper down around the front of the foundation, so that the wood is encased in a chamber which is open only at the rear.

6. Add another round of splits. These may be fairly low-quality, moist wood, since the slow heat of the smoldering foundation in the chamber below will dry them out by morning. If only drier wood is available, lay paper over this round too, so that it won't ignite too soon.

7. Lay a wall of paper against the front of the whole stack of wood, just inside the door.

8. Put a foil closure pad over the door opening, and close the door on it.

9. Close the damper. The fire is now set (Figure 7.6, Drawing B).

Remember, though, that the smell of burning garbage can be a real nuisance. Wet trash is especially offensive, because it smolders for a long time. Burn trash on a good hot fire so the job is done quickly and the smoke is consumed in the flames. Give a thought to the wind direction, too, if you plan to be working outside or if you have near neighbors.

10. In the morning, if all goes as it should, the papers inside the door will be charred but intact, the foundation logs will have been converted in varying degree to glowing charcoal, and the upper logs will be dried out and ready to go. Open the damper, open the door, remove the foil, punch through the papers with the poker, and stir the fire around a bit to break up the paper ash over the foundation. Clear the ashes away from the draft and open it. Shut the door. The fire will now take off.

Figure 7.6 - Two of the stages in setting an overnight fire. In Drawing A the foundation is laid. In Drawing B it is all tucked in and the damper is closed.

What To Do With Ashes

Looking at things ecologically, ashes belong on the ground. By sprinkling ashes on the soil in the forest or woodlot, we complete one of nature's great cycles. The mineral substances in the ashes are available to make new wood, and all we've really-taken out of the forest is renewable solar energy.

Here are some other uses for wood ashes:

1. Fertilizing the garden. Wood ashes contain significant amounts of several minerals essential to the healthy growth of plants. They also contain potash, which is useful for neutralizing excess acidity in some soils. It is best, however, to check the gardening books before applying wood ashes, since some plants do best in soils that are on the acid side. Garden supply houses sell inexpensive kits for determining whether soil is acid or alkaline.

Wood ashes should be stored in a dry place if they are to be used as fertilizer, because water will leach away several important minerals. To enrich the ashes even further, burn bones from the table in the stove, They will crumble to powder, adding calcium, phosphorus and other elements to the ashes.

2. Making alkali. Soap is made from fat and lye. In the old days, lye was made by trickling water through wood ashes and boiling down the resulting liquor to concentrate the alkali. For best results, use rain or snow water (which has minimal mineral content) and boil it first (to remove carbon dioxide). Do not use iron or aluminum vessels at any stage of the process, because they are affected by alkalis.

3. Melting snow. A thin layer of wood ashes on snow will encourage more rapid melting, since the dark ashes absorb sunlight. This is a handy trick for clearing the garden and allowing the sun to warm the bare earth a bit sooner in the springtime.

4. Deodorizing outhouses. A layer of ashes forms a physical barrier to odor, and the alkalinity interferes with bacterial action and the growth of fly larvae. For best results, keep a can of ashes right inside the privy and apply a small amount daily.

Chapter 8

Cooking With Wood Stoves

Irma Rombauer and Marion Becker, in their excellent book, Joy of Cooking, lament "the passing of the back of the stove," which was ideal for slowly cooking soups, stews, and many other dishes which benefit from long, gentle simmering. Those of us who still cook on wood stoves know exactly what they mean. The following tips are based on more than ten years' experience in wood-stove cookery:

FRYING.

This is a test of a good cookstove. If you can do a good job of frying without overheating the room, you either have a good cookstove or a very large room. Whenever you want to fry something with a minimum of unwanted heat, anticipate. Place good wood on the coals, and then shut down the stove so the fuel can soak up heat. Place the frying pan on the cooking surface and let it preheat. When the wood has reached its take-off point and the pan is hot, open the draft and damper and let the fire go. Shift the pan to hotter or cooler parts of the stove top, as the situation requires. (With some stoves it is possible to find the hot spots by peeking into the firebox to see where the flames are licking the stove top.)

Some cooking utensils can benefit from a coat of black stove enamel if they are going to be used on a wood stove. I remember one time when I tried to cook sourdough hotcakes in a brand-new aluminum frying pan. The hotcakes simply sat there and dried out without browning, even though the stove top turned red hot underneath the pan. I reasoned that the pan's shiny bottom was reflecting most of the heat back to the stove top rather than absorbing it. So I bought a pint of Black Silk Stove Enamel and painted the bottom of the frying pan.

The next time I used the pan, the results were perfect: golden-brown hotcakes, no red-hot stove top. The blackened pan absorbed the heat rather than reflecting it. Encouraged by this success, I painted the bottom of every vessel that ever touched the stove - the pots, pans, kettles, dishpans, wash basins and snow-melting buckets (Figure 8.1). The trick is well worth remembering. Roughen the bottom of the vessel with sandpaper before painting it, use two coats, and let it dry for 24 hours in a warm place before using. And be sure to use the stove enamel, not the polish.

Figure 8.1 - Applying a coat of stove enamel to the bottom of a water-heating can with a cotton-tipped swab. The black surface will absorb heat much more efficiently than the shiny, untreated metal.

A real virtuoso performance is required to make popcorn on a wood stove. To do this you need a really hot frying fire, for if the heat is too low, the kernels will dry out, and without moisture, they cannot develop the steam pressure required for proper popping. The result is a pan full of dried-out, unpopped "grannies." At the same time, a fire that is too hot can cause the kernels to pop prematurely, when only the outer layers are heated up properly, giving undersized, deformed kernels. But this can be allowed for by lifting the pan off the stove top slightly and shaking vigorously.

To pop corn on my first little oil-barrel stove, I'd first lay a generous handful of kindling on top of the coals, and then shut the stove down tight. While the wood was soaking up heat, I'd have the popcorn pot and the oil heating on the stove top. When the wood was ready, I'd open the draft and damper and let the fire go. The kindling would immediately take off, and soon there'd be a red spot on the top of the stove - something I always avoided under more normal conditions. I d keep the pot as close to the red spot as necessary for proper popping, and then quench the pot quickly in the wash basin, so that the bottom layers of popcorn wouldn't burn. While the pot cooled, I'd lay a charge of wood on the coals (for later), shut the stove down again, and then enjoy the popcorn.

ROASTING.

Many different styles of roasting pans are on the market - aluminum or enameled steel, heavy or light gauge, flat or round bottomed, large or small. All work well with wood stoves, either on the stove top or in the oven. Roasting recipes often call for the meat to be seared first, in order to seal in the juices. For this step, arrange a frying fire. Then moderate it to a heating fire for the long, slow roasting process. To keep the heat steady, add small amounts of firewood fairly often rather than a few big charges at longer intervals.

Proper roasting on the top of a wood stove, to my mind, requires more attention than any other type of cooking. If the pan gets too hot, the juices dry up and the meat burns. If the pan is not hot enough, the juices accumulate until the meat is steaming rather than roasting. Either way, the flavor changes markedly.

Sound is the best indication as to the correcthess of the heat. Popping and spattering indicate that the pan is too hot and the juices are drying up, while a slow bubbling indicates that the pan is too cool and juices are accumulating. Somewhere in between is the gentle, pleasing sound of a roast cooking just the way it should. I always like to do away with extraneous noise when the roaster is on, in order to tune in to the sounds of the cooking meat. That way, I can add wood, or close the damper, or shift the roaster to a different part of the stove top, and be assured that the roast will turn out just right.

SIMMERING.

This is where a wood stove really comes into its own. Even some heaters that aren't much good at most kinds of cooking can produce just the right sort of heat for simmering.

Simmering requires the right vessel. I prefer a 12-quart stock pot with a good cover. For soups, the cover may be left closed, but for stews, I like to keep the lid open slightly. I use a repair link from a chain to prop the lid open about a quarter of an inch at one side, but almost anything will do, as long as it holds the lid open far enough to prevent a build-up of water vapor.

Proper heat is also essential to simmering because, as the authors of Joy of Cooking point out, "a stew boiled is a stew spoiled." The top of a wood stove is apt to heat up and cool down as each charge of wood goes through its life cycle, and it only takes a few minutes at the boiling point to ruin a good dish. A slowly simmered pot of meat and bones, for example, will give a rich, delicious broth with lots of suspended solids to give it body. Boiling causes the solids to clump and sink to the bottom, leaving behind a clear and far less tasty broth. (You can smell a boiled broth pot as soon as you walk into the room.)

Rather than take a chance on having the broth spoiled by an unexpected surge of stove-top heat, I always place the pot on a trivet, either right at the outset or as soon as the contents have reached the cooking temperature. Whenever I feed the fire, I check the temperature of the pot by touching it lightly with the back of my fingers. A low simmer is hot enough that the skin can't be left in contact with the metal, but not so hot that it is at all uncomfortable to touch the pot briefly t; make the test. According to Rombauer and Becker, low simmering temperatures range from 130 to 135 - F, a heat level that the French refer to as "making the pot smile." I can understand why.

Sometimes a simmering temperature can be too low. Once I left a good soup to simmer all night. With the stove shut down, the pot was just warm enough for the rapid incubation of bacteria, and the soup fermented. It was a total loss.

PRESSURE COOKING.

The principle behind pressure cooking is that the boiling point of water rises with increased pressure. At sea-level atmospheric pressure water boils at 212 - F, while at 15 pounds additional pressure - the operating range of most pressure pots - the boiling point is 250 - F. The chief advantage of pressure cookery is that food cooks much faster at the higher temperatures. Stew meat, for example, will be tender after cooking only 15 minutes.

Once the food has been placed in the pressure cooker, a small amount of water is added to prevent scorching and provide steam, and the lid is fastened in place. The pot is then brought quickly to a boil. For the first few minutes the vent is left open so the steam can sweep air out of the vessel. This eliminates oxygen, preventing it from degrading the nutrients and flavor of the food. It also allows efficient transfer of heat from the bottom of the pot to the contents by superheated steam during the cooking period.

When the emerging steam seems to be pure water vapor, the regulator is set in place. The pressure within the pot immediately begins to rise, and at 15 pounds has enough force to lift the regulator off its seat so that some steam can escape. The heat is then adjusted so that the regulator puffs lightly. (Some models have pressure gauges instead of regulators, in which case the heat is adjusted to maintain the dial at the proper level.)

When full pressure is reached, the cooking period begins. Pressure is maintained for the number of minutes called for in the recipe, and then the pot is either taken off the stove and allowed to cool by itself or it is quenched quickly under cold water.

Timing is all-important in pressure cookery. The food cooks all through the period of pressure build-up, and recipe books assume that this period will be brief. If pressure build-up is slow, the cooking time at full pressure needs to be reduced correspondingly, or the food will be cooked to death.

So the challenge of wood-stove pressure cookery is to have the stove top hot enough to bring the pot to full pressure in the shortest possible time, and then to maintain that pressure throughout the cooking period. A good wood range will certainly be up to the challenge, particularly if one of the lids over the firebox is removed and the pot is set right in the opening, where the fire can touch it directly. But many other stoves will not measure up. For example, my present stove heats the cabin too much if fired up for proper pressure cookery, so I generally use the pressure pot on the gasoline camp stove. That way nothing comes out overcooked.

TOASTING.

Wood stoves turn out fine toast. Place the bread on a dry skillet, a piece of aluminum foil, or directly on the stove top. Shop around for just the right temperature, and turn the bread as often as necessary. This is also a good way to freshen up crackers and hardtack that have picked up moisture from the air and started tasting old. The stove top needn't be very hot to crisp them nicely; ideally, they shouldn't change color at all.

CHARCOAL COOKING.

When we go out fighting forest fires in the summer fire season, the Bureau of Land Management feeds us on C-rations for 6-1/2 days a week, and then flies out a batch of steaks for Sunday dinner. We wrap the meat in aluminum foil and cook it in the coals from the campfire. I remember one dark November evening when one of my Eskimo friends, nostalgic for summertime, wrapped a caribou steak in foil and set it on the coals right inside his oil-barrel wood stove. The results were excellent.

Anybody who uses a wood stove has a source of charcoal always at hand. For cooking on a hibachi (Japanese charcoal grill), one must only lift the glowing coals from the firebox with a pair of tongs - no need for kindling or charcoal starter, and no waiting. Remember, though, that charcoal produces a certain amount of carbon monoxide as it burns, so it is necessary to have adequate ventilation and to flip the coals back into the firebox as soon as the meal is cooked.

Charcoal can also be stored for later use. Dead coals from a cold stove can be stored safely in a metal container for use the next time the grill is fired up. Live coals can be placed on a piece of heavy metal (even the stove top), well separated; they will radiate so much heat away that they will soon die out. (Especially vigorous coals may require a few drops of water.) It is best to pack the charcoal away by hand, so that there will be no chance of mixing a live coal with the dead ones. A single live spot on one coal might turn the whole storage can into a hibachi.

Figure 8.2 - Wood-stove cookery: 12-quart stock pot, tea pot and heavy frying pan on the tent stove.

BAKING. The challenge of baking on a wood stove is to manipulate the draft, damper, smoke flap, size of wood, type of wood, and feeding interval to maintain the oven at a high, steady temperature throughout a prolonged baking period. Other than a small oven thermometer, wood stoves have no dials to tell you how to proceed. Nevertheless, like any other type of wood-stove cookery, baking can be done beautifully by feel alone.

Whether the baking is to be done in a built-in oven, a stovepipe oven or a stove-top oven, a bed of glowing coals will not by itself produce the hot, moving gases that are necessary for proper temperature. Baking requires fresh wood and hot, live flames to carry the heat. So lay a good fire, and preheat the oven so that it is near the desired temperature when the baking pans go in. Then give the fire small charges of wood at regular intervals throughout the baking period.

It is important to anticipate: A rising oven will continue to get hotter even after the stove has been shut down, so the draft or damper may have to be closed before the thermometer indicates that the desired temperature has been reached. Likewise, a falling oven will continue to cool for a while even after more wood has been added to the firebox, so it may be necessary to refuel even though the thermometer registers just the right temperature.

Stoves with built-in ovens are usually well insulated, so the heat goes into the oven and not into the room. Stovepipe ovens, by contrast, are usually uninsulated, so the heat which escapes through the oven's outer shell is added to the considerable heat put out by the hot baking fire in the stove itself. Some planning may be needed if the house is not to become overheated.

Here is the routine Manya uses for baking in our stovepipe oven:

1. When the dough is almost ready to bake, shove all the coals to the back of the stove, directly beneath the outlet to the stovepipe. Lay one or two splits of slow wood against the side of the firebox to shade it from the heat and to crowd the coals together.

2. Lay small, short sticks of fast dry wood on the coals. The idea is to have a small, intense fire just beneath the flue opening, so that the flames can travel directly up the pipe to the oven without heating much of the stove top.

3. Check the temperature in the oven often to keep track of how fast the oven is heating up. When the thermometer registers about 75 or 100 - F below the desired baking temperature, moderate the fire to allow for the time-lag characteristic of the heavy oven.

4. A few minutes later, when the temperature is about right, put the pans into the oven. (I say "about right" because this whole process is very approximate.)

5. Feed the fire regularly throughout the baking period. This is a good time to use up scrap cardboard, since it produces quick, hot flames but no coals. Check the temperature often, and turn the pans around if they are cooking more on one end than on the other. Shift them from the top to the bottom shelf if necessary.

6. When the baking is finished, lay some slow wood on the remaining coals and shut the stove down. Both the stove and the room can then cool to normal temperatures again.

In the days before we had the stovepipe oven, Manya baked in a little stove-top oven made from two 5-gallon cans, one inside the other (see Chapter 20). She has also used the commercial kind. Either way, there is no choice but to heat up the entire stove. One way of reducing the amount of excess heat thrown off into the room is to lay some green wood or other slow fuel against the sides of the firebox to shield them, letting most of the heat escape through the stove top. A kettle or 5-gallon can of water on the free portion of the stove top will also help, absorbing some of the excess heat during the baking period, and releasing it slowly later on. Another trick is to bake first thing in the morning, when the room is coolest and the extra heat is needed most.

Even without an oven of any kind, you don't have to go without baked goods. Most baking can be done right on the stove top, in a heavy frying pan with a good lid. Cook pan biscuits either covered or uncovered, and turn them once with a fork or spatula. For large, round, flat loaves of bread, cook the dough (covered) until it's almost done, then slide it out onto the inside of the lid and turn it back into the pan with the uncooked side down. (Use a well-seasoned pan so that the dough won't stick.) Keep cakes and other baked goods too delicate to be turned over tightly covered, use a lower heat, and cook correspondingly longer.

Some people use the old campfire trick of ' ~king in a Dutch oven right in the coals. This is an especially good method to use with top-loading airtight heaters. (Although smaller airtights are sometimes suitable for use with a stove-top oven, the larger models throw off far too much heat from the sides to be used in this way, so the Dutch-oven method is better.) With practice, one gets a feeling for the intensity of heat generated by a given bed of coals and for the time and temperature requirements of any particular dough. Our neighbor has used this method for years, and turns out some really amazing breads and cakes - showing that as long as you have fire, there's no reason not to have baked goods, too.

Chapter 9

Stove Safety

Anybody who depends on a wood stove for heat is bound to be conscious of the danger of fire, but perhaps we are more than ordinarily concerned here in the North. We have lived in isolated situations where, had a fire destroyed our one-room cabin, we could have been left outdoors in air -40 - F or colder, possibly lightly clad and barefoot, with a mile and a half to travel through deep snow to the nearest neighbor.

This sort of prospect naturally gives a person certain ideas on wood-stove safety. But in order to flesh out my own personal list of safety measures, I wrote to men of wider experience - fire-fighting professionals - for their thoughts. Mr. Gordon Brunton, Regional Fire Marshal for the State of Alaska, offered these suggestions:

STOVE LOCATION AND INSTALLATION

1. Locate the stove where it cannot block fire escape.

2. Locate the stove a safe distance from walls, furniture and other combustibles.

3. Protect wood floors under stoves with a ventilated air space, insulation and/or a non-combustible material.

4. Be sure that the stove is firmly positioned.

5. Install flues or stovepipes with non-combustible collars, and space them at least 6 inches from any combustible materials. Use straight, short runs of stovepipe. Avoid horizontal runs and multiple elbows.

6. Stack robbers are a source of trouble as they soot up easily, presenting a point for carbon stack fires.

7. Be sure that the stovepipe extends far enough above the roof to draw properly. The roof should be of fire-retardant material.

STOVE USE

1. Always have a plan for emergency escape.

2. Keep all combustibles such as clothing, curtains, boxes and firewood a safe distance from the stove.

3. Remember that green firewood, when burned, can cause corrosive deposits to form in the stove and flue. These can cause the metal to deteriorate.

4. Use extreme care in cooking on any type of stove. Grease is a flammable liquid; it should never be allowed to get too hot, and should be cleaned up if spilled around the stove. Never let a pot, pan or kettle boil dry. The food in it could burn, or the pot could melt, unbalance, and fall off the stove onto a combustible surface.

5. Keep a metal screen firmly in front of any open stoves or fireplaces to prevent sparks from falling on combustibles.

STOVE MAINTENANCE

1. Carefully examine the stove and flue periodically for signs of deterioration. Replace any defective parts or equipment.

2. When cleaning ashes from the stove, place them in a covered metal container outdoors.

3. Remember that it is cheaper to replace a worn stovepipe than the whole house.

Mr. Brunton refers to the problem of stack fires, and we should consider this insidious hazard in some detail. Burning wood gives off a wide variety of volatile organic chemicals. Some of these substances are consumed in the flames, some escape to the atmosphere with the smoke, and - here is the problem - some condense in the cooler regions of the stovepipe, along with water vapor. The condensate, a dark, watery liquid with a pungent odor, is commonly known as "creosote." (Technically, this is a misnomer; the creosotes commonly used as wood preservatives are distillates of coal tar and wood tar.)

As the creosote trickles back down the inside of the stovepipe, it reaches progressively warmer environments, and the more volatile fractions are again driven off. Complex chemical reactions among the remaining compounds yield substances which can no longer be evaporated by the heat of the flue. Over a period of time, the inside of the pipe becomes encrusted with a hard, black, tenacious layer that can easily reach a thickness of a quarter of an inch or more. Since the deposits shrink when they dry, curly flakes continually peel off and fall down the pipe to the nearest horizontal surface (elbow, oven), where they lie like a pile of tinder-dry leaves or wood chips.

Stack deposits, being organic in nature, are composed largely of carbon, and so are readily combustible. The chips may accumulate unnoticed over a period of weeks or months, and then ignite when, as it occasionally does, the stack temperature rises above its usual range. Once a stack fire gets started, it tends to perpetuate and intensify itself. Hot gases produced by the burning chips rush up the stovepipe, increasing the draft and pulling still more oxygen to the fire.

The increased draft also stimulates the main fire in the firebox, further elevating the temperature of the flue gases and the stovepipe. In some installations, the suction produced by a stack fire is so strong that the fire keeps on raging even if the draft control and the damper are completely closed. The stovepipe can glow red, igniting walls or ceiling, and a shower of sparks can rain down onto the roof.

There are several ways to avoid this danger. One is to strive for complete combustion within the firebox. If the various compounds that make up creosote are burned there, nothing but water vapor will be left to condense inside the stovepipe.

Unfortunately, some stoves are designed in such a way that complete combustion rarely occurs. Further, those that have secondary air inlets, designed to help burn the smoke, may still give off unburned volatiles when operated at low temperatures.

Another way to minimize the formation of stack deposits is to try to minimize condensation within the piping, so that the creosote-producing substances remain in the vapor state all the way to the atmosphere. It is very tempting, in the search for wood-stove efficiency, to try to squeeze every bit of waste heat from the flue gases before they escape to the atmosphere. We install stack robbers, leave oven doors ajar, and so on. Some people even advocate running the stovepipe clear across the room just below the ceiling in order to capture the most heat from the smoke.

The problem is that heat cannot be withdrawn from any part of the piping without lowering the temperature at that point and at every point beyond. Lowered temperature means increased condensation, increased carbon build-up and increased danger of stack fires. Thus, beyond a certain point, waste heat is not waste at all - it is necessary for keeping the stovepipe warm enough to minimize condensation.

According to this line of reasoning, stovepipes should be insulated, so that the gases stay hot all the way to the atmosphere. The brochures of the Riteway Company indicate that condensation becomes a problem when the stack temperature falls below 250 - F. The thermostatic control system on the Vermont Woodstove Company's DownDrafter is designed to maintain the stack temperature not lower than 300 to 400 - F.

Another approach to the creosote problem is to be conscientious in selecting fuel woods. Hardwoods produce less creosote than softwoods, and seasoned (dry) wood produces less than green wood. Burning a few small sticks of hot, dry wood with each charge of larger chunks also helps by providing flames to burn off the smoke.

But let's be practical. Many of us do not have access to the abundant hardwoods that grace the eastern states. Our stoves may not provide complete combustion, even though they are admirable in other ways. And our stovepipe systems may not lend themselves to insulation without considerable modification and cost. So no matter what we do, stack deposits are inevitable. Our focus must necessarily shift from prevention to management.

One way of managing creosote deposits is to remove them before they build up to a dangerous level. In some installations, rapping on the stovepipe with the poker will cause the chips to fall down the pipe into the firebox or cleanout trap. If this is not possible, it may be necessary to remove the pipe for cleaning.

But scraping the inside of a sooty stovepipe is not pleasant work. It is easier to burn the deposits in place. Just as forest managers purposely set their woods on fire at regular intervals to prevent the build-up of dangerous amounts of dead underbrush, it is entirely feasible to set intentional stack fires from time to time.

The people who make Riteway stoves suggest that users set stack fires once a week by placing several sheets of crumpled paper on a hot fire. If this is done on a regular basis, they suggest, there will never be enough carbon chips in the system to cause a dangerously high temperature.

The Riteway people also recommend regular use of chemical soot removers to prevent the build-up of carbon in stovepipes and chimneys. Frankly, I had always been skeptical about the value of these compounds, so I wrote to MEECO Manufacturing Inc. of Seattle, Washington, asking how their Red Devil Soot Remover worked. Their reply was most interesting, and made a believer of me.

The U.S. Bureau of Mines had done considerable research on soot removers, and had found that there was a sound scientific basis for their action. Bureau researchers had also developed test-furnace designs and methods for evaluating soot removers.

MEECO hired Dr. R.W. Moulton, Consulting Chemical Engineer, University of Washington, to do some research directed at improving its line of soot removers. He and his staff built a test furnace and evaluated nearly 150 different combinations of chemicals. They finally settled on a few compounds that were particularly effective without being prohibitively costly, and then set about testing various formulations in the test furnace and in commercial applications. In his report of October 19, 1972, to MEECO, Dr. Moult on gives this description of the operation of the chemicals:

A soot remover is a catalyst. A catalyst is defined as a substance that will speed up a chemical reaction but one which does not take part in the reaction In other words, by its mere presence alone it very significantly alters the speed of the chemical reaction, sometimes by a factor of a thousand or more times. The mechanism of soot removal is an oxidation-type chemical reaction.

When a soot remover is used in heating units one finds that the chemical is vaporized in the combustion zone and then microscopic particles of the chemical are deposited on the colder sooted areas. The presence of these particles causes the soot to undergo an oxidation process and it is converted to a very light gray, loosely adhering ash. This ash normally blows out with the smoke and the soot then is gone; the remaining surface is normally in a very clean condition.

Since receiving this information, I have been using Red Devil regularly. I sprinkle about a teaspoonful onto the hot coals first thing every morning. I notice that when the stove finally stops drawing and I have to take the back off the oven to clean out the passageways, the blockage is caused not by carbon chips (as was formerly the case) but by the ashes of many stack fires.

Fairbanks Fire Marshal James McKenzie says that stack fires account for a large proportion of the house fires caused by wood stoves in Interior Alaska, which is not surprising in view of the rather poor selection of firewood species available in the state. He gives these additional safety suggestions to flesh out Marshal Brunton's list:

1. Use a flue substantially larger than would ordinarily be called for, in order to minimize residue build-up.

2. Prevent small children from playing with the matches used to start the fire.

3. Never leave the firebox door ajar when unattended.

4. Place a strong, large-mesh screen in the flue to prevent animals from nesting. Nests cause many fires.

5. Close all dampers when you are not using the stove to prevent animals from building nests while you are gone.

To this list I would add these safety precautions from my own observation and experience with wood stoves:

1. Make certain that stovepipe sections can't separate accidentally, especially where there is an adjustable elbow or an unusual bend. A single sheet-metal screw at each pipe junction will provide positive protection.

2. Resist the temptation to dry clothes - even gloves or socks - directly over the stove. Sooner or later something will fall onto the stove top, where it can ignite and possibly fall to the floor. I feel so strongly about this that just after drafting this chapter, I removed all the nails and hooks from the rafters above my stove.

3. Make your installation fail-safe; leave nothing to chance and don't count on your own vigilance. If you can't trust a complete stranger with your stove, it's not safe.

4. Provide fencing for the stove if there are toddlers in the household. At least two children in this community carry scars from falling against hot stoves.

5. Never let young children put anything into the firebox, even trash. They may someday put something valuable into the fire, or something dangerous. They may try to open the firebox door when it is very hot, or they may play with the fire and burn themselves or the house. When our two-year-old gets too interested in the stove, I tell him, "No, Son. The stove is Daddy's. It is not a toy."

6. Never let the handle of a cooking pot extend out over the edge of the stove where a small child can reach it and spill hot food on him- or herself.

7. Have a place for the poker where a child can't play with it while it is still hot, and where nobody will step on it.

8. Invest in a good fire extinguisher of a type suitable for wood and household fires.

9. Keep a container of baking soda handy for grease fires; once the fire is out, the meat can be rinsed and put back in the pan.

10. Have a plan for getting water should a fire occur - either a special hose that will always be available, or a barrel of water standing by.

11. Have an understanding among members of the family about what to do in case of fire. In particular, designate a meeting place outside the house where everybody will assemble after fleeing a fire. Too many parents and others have died tragically by running back inside a burning house trying to find a child who had already escaped through another route but was out of sight in the darkness.

12. Provide rope ladders or other fire escapes for upstairs windows, particularly in bedrooms.

13. Consider having an inexpensive, battery-operated smoke detector to give early warning in case of fire. This device sets off an alarm when it senses a change in the ionization of the air caused by smoke.

14. Remove ashes from the firebox before they interfere with proper stove operation. I remember seeing an airtight heater so full of ashes that the red-hot coals could have rolled right out of the draft hole onto the wooden floor.

15. Don't use explosive liquids anywhere near the stove. In our area this means taking the gasoline lantern and the reservoir of the gasoline stove outdoors for filling. Some people compromise by leaving their pressure appliance fuel outdoors in the cold, and then bringing the can in to fill the lanterns. The fuel is far less volatile when cold, so the danger is reduced.

16. Be particularly careful when starting a first fire, whether at home following an absence, or in an unfamiliar installation. Manya and I worked for a time on a farm in Australia, and had the use of an old farmhouse heated by a wood stove. I made what I thought would be a quick check of the system before lighting the first fire, and ended up spending more than an hour removing an incredible amount of debris from the chimney.

17. Finally, if you live in an isolated area where a fire could leave you outdoors without adequate clothing, store a supply of old garments in an outbuilding where you'll be able to reach them quickly in an emergency. When Manya and I lived farther from the village, we always kept a big sack of warm clothes (including footgear) in our cache as a hedge against the dreaded fire that - fortunately - never happened.

Chapter 10

Getting Wood

When winter settles in and the cold sun traces a shallow arc just above the southern horizon, my spirits rise and fall with the state of my woodpile. When I have lots of wood cut, I feel wealthy. When the woodpile is slim, I feel uneasy and vulnerable. Some people need to keep a wood stove and a supply of firewood on hand only in case of emergency. Around here, wood is all we have. When it's gone, we're out of fuel.

Everybody who really depends on wood probably shares similar feelings from time to time. With other fuels, like oil or gas, a person's relationship to the very basic need of heat can be remarkably abstract, perhaps requiring nothing more than setting a thermostat and writing a monthly check. But one way or another, people who burn wood find themselves more personally involved.

In some areas, commercial woodcutters will deliver firewood by the cord, already cut and split. It is up to the buyer to inspect the wood for size, straighthess and degree of seasoning, and to decide whether it is worth the price. Wood is not a uniform fuel, like gas or oil, and no two cords are alike. After a while one may find a trustworthy supplier, and then arranging the winter's supply of fuel will be easy.

Others prefer to cut their own wood. Some fortunate individuals have their own wood lots, and hence an opportunity to be involved not only in the cutting of their firewood but also in its growth and nurture. Often a wood-lot owner has no use for the fuel, and is willing to let somebody else cull unwanted trees and keep the resulting firewood.

Public lands are another excellent source of firewood. National and state forestry agencies and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management all manage some of the acreage under their jurisdiction on a multiple-use basis, and firewood-cutting by the public is often encouraged as a means of removing highly combustible dead wood and incidental debris from logging operations.

Here in Alaska, for example, an individual is allowed to cut as much as 25 cords of dead and downed timber in the national forests each year. No permit is required, but it is still a good idea to check with the nearest Forest Service office. The personnel can often steer you to some especially good cutting.

Figure 10.1 - Real wealth. The woodpile.

Bureau of Land Management policy is not much different. Once my neighbor and I checked in at the local BLM office, studied the maps, and then went out to size up some promising locations. We ended up getting a permit granting exclusive rights to a patch of woods where a new power line crossed a highway, and we cut a winter's worth of wood for both of our families in a couple of days. The only cost, besides our labor, was in gasoline for the saw and for transporting the logs.

And then there are the odd opportunities that always seem to crop up. Once, in Australia, I had access to a huge windrow of eucalyptus that had been removed from a newly developed pasture. Another time I filled the bed of a pickup truck with short pieces of dry 2x4s at a door factory - for $5. Still another truckload of superior wood came from an orchard that was being worked over. People who have an eye out for fuel are always running into situations like these. You might say that, in terms of firewood, the price of energy independence is eternal vigilance.

For cutting wood, most people nowadays favor chain saws, which are undeniably fast and effective. Some models on the market are amazingly light in weight and easy to use; others have extra-long chain bars for oversized wood. Local saw dealers and woodcutters are good sources of information on which models are suitable for the kinds of wood and the cutting conditions in a given area.

A few of us around here are still holding out against the chain-saw revolution, relying instead on bow (Swede) saws and elbow grease. I like bow saws because, above all, they are quiet. They use no gasoline or oil, and do not smell; they are light and easy to carry; they have no moving parts to wear out; they're practically indestructible; and they're inexpensive. A good bow saw and a year's-worth of blades cost less than a single replacement chain for a power saw. True, bow saws are slower than chain saws, but that means you spend more time in the forest. They take more work, but when the winter is over they leave you with good, healthy arms.

Bow saws come in a number of standard lengths. After trying several over the years, I've settled on 42 inches for felling trees in the forest and 48 inches for bucking up the logs at home. For a man, I would suggest nothing shorter than 42 inches, and for a woman, nothing less than 36 inches. The shorter models are inefficient for anything but the smallest wor-.d.

Occasionally I've considered looki j ior another type of saw that might beat the bow saw without going to gasoline power. The search usually leads to the big two-man whipsaws that loggers used before the advent of lightweight power saws. My conclusion is that a whipsaw might be useful for working through a log that is too thick for a bow saw, but otherwise wouldn't pay. A whipsaw blade is substantially thicker than a modern bow-saw blade, so it cuts a wider kerf (groove). It takes extra energy to remove the extra wood. Perhaps this is why loggers called the saws "misery whips."

Whatever saw one uses, it is vital to keep it sharp. A dull bow saw will eventually bind, because the teeth cut a progressively narrower kerf as the blade works its way into the wood. The cutting teeth wear out faster on the forward stroke, so it is sometimes possible to coax a little extra use out of a blade by reversing it in the holder. But eventually it has to be touched up with a file.

A chain saw will continue to cut even when dull, though at the expense of gasoline, time and safety. Various jigs are sold for use in precision-sharpening chain saws at home; they clamp to the chain bar and hold the file at just the right angle. With practice, the job goes very quickly, especially if the chain is not allowed to get really dull in the first place.

I'll never forget the first time I cut wood with a professional, freshly returned to Alaska from the big timber in Washington State. His saw fairly melted through the trees, with none of the clouds of smoke, the roaring, and the shoulder-wrenching prying that I had come to think was normal with chain saws. If my friend so much as nicked a pebble, he'd stop, inspect the chain, a~^ touch it up with the file he always carried in his pocket.

Bucking logs into stove-length pieces with any degree of efficiency requires some sort of holder. Trying to do the job on the

ground is not only awkward - it's hard work. Chain saws are capable of cutting through more than one log at a time, and there are several ways to build a frame that will hold the logs in position. Long logs can easily be handled in this way if the ends are cut alternately so as to maintain balance in the frame. Likewise, bowsaw users will find that the time it takes to build a proper sawbuck will be repaid well before the first cord of wood is cut.

Next in importance to a good sawbuck is a solid chopping block.

How to Sharpen a Bow-saw Blade

Some modern bow-saw blades have teeth which have been induction hardened. Manufacturers claim these blades last from three to ten times longer than conventional blades. Unfortunately, when they go dull they can't be resharpened by ordinary means. (To find out if the teeth are induction hardened, look for the characteristic rainbow iridescence left on the tips of the teeth by the process, or simply take a file and see if the metal of the teeth is harder or softer than the file.)

To sharpen an ordinary bow-saw blade:

1. Inspect the teeth nearest the end of the blade. These will be worn the least, and will show what sharp teeth are supposed to look like.

2. Pass a file across the points of all the teeth, in a continuous stroke from one end of the blade to the other. This is called "jointing," and brings all of the teeth to the same length. Inspect the teeth. They should all have a small flat facet at the tip. If the shorter ones still lack this facet, pass the file over the whole blade once more. Continue in this way until the teeth are all faceted.

3. Now sit facing a window, or go outside, so that good light reflects off these flat spots and also off the faces on the edges of the teeth. Half of the teeth face left and the other half face right, and each tooth has a pair of faces; therefore the sharpening process takes place in four separate passes. Using a 6-inch cant saw file, make the first pass by filing the upper face on the teeth that are facing you (alternate teeth). Make the second pass by filing the other face on the same teeth. Try to file away half of the flat tip of each tooth on the first pass, and catch the other half on the second pass.Take care on the final strokes on each tooth, since these define the final, sharpened shape.

Turn the saw end for end and repeat Step 3 for the remaining alternate teeth.

Since the cutting teeth are now somewhat shorter than they were, the rakers have to be recessed. File down both tips of each raker at the same time. Continue until the facets so formed are below the tips of the newly sharpened cutting teeth by a distance about equal to the thickness of the blade. Then restore the sharp points of the rakers by filing out the notch between the two tips.

Most saw-sharpening jobs require that the teeth be "set" after filing. Setting restores the proper tilt of the teeth, alternately left and right, so that the blade cuts a groove of the proper width. But in my experience, this is unnecessary with bowsaw blades. You can go right to work.

Figure 10.2 - Sharpening a bow saw.

How To Make a Sawbuck

There are lots of different ways to make a simple sawbuck. One easy way uses only local materials and a few nails and spikes:

1. Select a log about as long as those you normally end up sawing, and 7 or 8 inches in diameter. Remove the bark. If the log has a curve, be sure to mount it so that the curve is up. This will allow the saw cut to open up, rather than pinch, when the firewood is sawed almost all the way through.

2. Drill two large holes in one end and one hole in the other for the legs. This tripod arrangement makes the sawbuck stand flat on any ground, without rocking.

3. Insert good poles for the legs. Hold each in place with one nail if necessary. Leave the legs log enough to compensate for deepening snow later on, and cross brace them securely.

4. Put three or four pairs of wooden pegs or metal spikes in the upper surface of the log, each pair forming a "V." All of the pegs on respective sides of the log should be parallel and lie in the same plane. The bottoms of the "V"s should be narrow enough to hold the smallest wood that is ordinarily cut, and the tops should be wide enough to accommodate the largest. (An occasional oversized log can be perched on top of the pegs, as long as they are strong enough.)

Figure 10.3 - Bow saw and a simple sawbuck in action at spring camp.

The one-legged end of the log will be the business end, because it won't rock when you saw. Space two of the pairs of pegs close enough together at this end so that they will be able to hold especially short wood. 5. Put a couple of nails into the log to hold the bow saw when not in use. Nail a pocket from an old pair of jeans onto the sawbuck to hold the wedge. Rest the maul and the ax in the crooks of the leg braces. That way the tools can't get lost when it snows.

Figure 10.4 - A simple three-legged sawbuck made from a firewood log, some poles, and a few nails and spikes.

Figure 10.5 - Another type of sawbuck.

How To Make a Wood Carrier

I don't know how many cords of stove wood I carried into the cabin in the crook of my arm before deciding that there had to be a better way. Finally, I designed a simple carrier that allows me to carry half again as much wood per trip, with less effort (also with greater safety - since my center of gravity is lower, and I can see better where I am going).

A wood carrier is useful in another way too. By keeping track of the number of full carrier-loads of wood that are brought inside, one can estimate how many cords of wood are burned over a period of time. (A cord of wood is an imaginary stack measuring 4 by 4 by 8 feet, or 128 cubic feet.) If L is the length of the carrier and h is the average length of the firewood sticks both expressed in feet, the number of cords carried in n trips is equal to the number of trips x (LxLx h) + 1600.

Here are the steps in making my wood carrier:

1. Get a piece of canvas or other sturdy cloth about 13V2 inches wide (after hemming). It should be long enough to reach from the floor to the bottom of the breastbone of the person who is going to use it (in my case, 56 inches; I am 6 feet 4 inches tall).

2. Obtain two sticks - 1-inch dowel rod or lxl lumber - about an inch longer than the hemmed cloth is wide.

3. Get two 15-inch lengths of rope, say 1/4 or 5/16 of an inch in diameter.

4. Drill two holes in each stick, 3 inches either side of the midpoint. They should be just large enough for the rope to pass through.

5. Lay one of the sticks across one end of the cloth and fold the cloth over it far enough so that it can be sewn to enclose the stick fairly snugly. Punch holes in the cloth where it covers the holes in the stick.

6. Tie a jam knot (figure-eight, or overhand knot) in one end of one of the ropes. Pass the other end through one of the holes in the stick and pull up tight.

7. Pass the rope through the matching hole in the cloth.

8. Pass the rope through a 43/4-inch length of V2-inch flex tubing or garden hose.

9. Pass the rope through the other hole in the cloth and thenthrough the other hole in the stick, and tie another jam knot in the end.

Figure 10.6 - Construction and loading of a wood carrier.

10. Turn under a Vfc-inch hem and sew the cloth together, enclosing the stick.

11. Repeat Steps 5 through 10 to make the other handle, and the carrier is finished.

12 To use the carrier, lay it on the ground, pile wood on one half of the cloth, and then fold the free end over the wood. Grasp both handles and pick up the load. Bounce the wood on the ground once or twice so that it will settle. Tuck a final stick or two into the carrier to finish the load, and carry the firewood into the cabin.

(Part of the face of the ax is wasted if the wood is placed directly on ground that has any amount of natural "spring.") For a chopping block, I prefer a 15-inch section cut from a large log—preferably one that is hard to split, since the ax often cleaves right through the firewood and strikes the block as well. I like to leave the top of the chopping block slightly slanted rather than perfectly level. That way, a square-cut log will still stand on end, while one that is cut on a bias can usually be rotated on the block so that the two slants cancel each other and the firewood chunk stands upright by itself.

Figure 10.7 - Manya carrying one and a half armloads of firewood in the simple canvas carrier.

Heavy-duty wood users and professional cordwood cutters use mechanical devices to split firewood. {Wood Stove Know-how, noted in the bibliography, lists a half-dozen sources of wood- splitting machines. The book's publisher also sells plans for building one at home.) Weekend woodcutters usually rely on an ordinary ax. Personally, I find it irritating when an ax gets stuck in the end of the chunk of wood that is supposed to split, as it often does, and I have invested in a splitting maul. The eight-pound head packs a real punch, and the blunt taper makes it practically impossible for the tool to get stuck in the wood.

Some of the white spruce around here grows with a spiral twist and gives us an especially hard time at the chopping block. This leads to a six-point program of steadily escalating countermeasures:

1. Try to avoid the problem in the first place by inspecting the tree before cutting it down. If the bark shows a spiral pattern, go on to another tree. If it is already down:

2. Cut the log into shorter sections than usual. (I've had to go as short as 10 inches, despite the fact that my firebox can take wood more than twice that long.) If even a short section resists splitting:

3. Chop around the edges to pry off the outer flakes first. The core splits more easily once the sapwood has been chopped off. If this doesn't work:

4. Break out the wedge. Pound it into any crack started by the maul. If the wedge just bounces back out of the crack when struck:

5. Set the wood aside until the temperature drops to -30 - F or colder. Wood is far easier to split when it is extremely cold, because it gets brittle. If even this doesn't work:

6. Take the wood to a neighbor whose stove has a bigger door, and let him burn it whole.

Chapter 11

The Personality of Wood Stoves

A while back, my neighbor was inspecting a friend's new stove, which was made with one of the popular barrel stove kits and an old 55-gallon drum. He lifted the feed door, looked at the charge of wood smoldering inside, and closed it again. He started to offer a compliment on the workmanship of the stove, not noticing that the owner was quietly backing away.

Suddenly there was a loud thump, and smoke hissed out of every crack in the stove. PFFFV. My neighbor jumped halfway out of his shoes, and then realized what had happened: Enough air had slipped into the firebox while the door was open to form an explosive mixture with the smoke. Once the mixture worked its way down to the coals, it ignited. A wry smile on the owner's lips showed that such flashbacks were completely predictable with that particular stove.

Sharing the laugh with me later, my neighbor also told of an old airtight heater he once had. He'd load it with wood for the night, shut it down and crawl into the sack. A few hours later he'd be awakened by a sharp thud, a flash of light and a loud clatter. The lid of the stove would blast open, slap the stovepipe at the far point of its travel and slam shut again. A few minutes later, just as he was falling asleep, the same thing would happen. "Finally," he said, "I learned to weight the lid down with a full kettle. It didn't stop the flashbacks, but at least the room didn't keep filling up with smoke!"

All wood stoves have such idiosyncrasies - in fact, they have their own distinct personalities, kind of like dogs. An airtight heater is as different from a wood range as a poodle is from a Russian wolfhound. It seems to me that small, homemade stoves have the most eccentric personalities, no doubt because they demand so much more involvement than larger or more elaborate commercial models.

One of my friends once said that a true stove freak wouldn't like some of the more advanced commercial stoves because "there'd be nothing to do." I imagine that a massive wood furnace - throbbing away down in the cellar, fed a meal of big logs once or twice a day, and perceptible only through the distant hum of blowers and the rush of warm air from a register - would have the least interesting personality. Looking back on various stoves I've been around at one time or another, the stronger personalities naturally stand out the most vividly.

Wood stoves are also very communicative. After using one for a while, a person is bound to develop an ability to know what the fire is doing merely by noticing the little signs that the stove gives. The pop and crackle of burning wood, the accelerating ping of expanding metal, the first musical groans of the teakettle - these are all signs that a new charge of wood is just taking off, and that the stove is heating up. Conversely, a quiethess from the firebox, an occasional ping of contracting metal and a gradual diminuendo of the teakettle's song all signal that the fire has reached the charcoal stage and will soon need more wood. In these ways and others, it is altogether possible to know what the fire is doing without even looking at it.

The stovepipe also tells a story. I often check the condition of my fire by looking at the smoke when I'm working outside. In the same way, I read the smoke signals from my neighbors' stovepipes when I go visiting, in order to know what to expect when I knock on the door.

Here are some signs and their messages:

1. Dense, steamy smoke, rising slowly (hence cool), indicates that the stove has just been lit. The folks inside are just getting up and may be neither fully awake nor fully dressed.

2. Dense, steamy smoke rising quickly (hence hot), indicates that new wood is burning briskly, with draft and damper open. The people inside are heating up a cold room, taking a bath, frying meat, heating the oven for baking, or something like that.

3. No smoke and a small amount of quickly rising steam indicate that there is a hot fire inside, but that it has reached the charcoal stage. To verify this, look across the top of the stovepipe at a distant object. Heat waves will distort the image; the hotter the fire, the greater the distortion. Somebody is undoubtedly home, because the draft and the damper are open; but the house is comfortably warm, the stove is not in use for anything in particular, and it has been awhile since anybody tended the fire.

4. No smoke and a small amount of slowly rising steam indicate that the fire is dying down and only a few coals remain. The damper may be either open or closed.

Somebody may be home, in a comfortably warm house, or everybody may have gone out for a while. In any case, the fire hasn't been fed for quite some time.

5. Wisps of dense smoke, slowly rising, indicate that the fire has been banked. The stove is cool and shut down tight. Depending on the time of day, the people are either still sleeping, away on a prolonged errand, or already in bed for the night.

6. No smoke, no steam and no heat waves: There is no fire. A rim of frost around the inside of the top of the pipe indicates that the fire has been out for days. No use in even knocking!

PART TWO:- MAKING WOOD STOVES

CREDITS

WOOD STOVES

How to Make and Use Them

Ole Wik

Photographs by Manya Wik

Anchorage, Alaska

Copyright - 1977 by Ole Wik.

AH rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission of Alaska Northwest Publishing Company.

Third printing 1979

Library of Congress cataloging in publication data: Wik, Ole, 1939-

Wood stoves.

ISBN 0-88240-083-5

Grateful acknowledgment is given to the following companies for permission to reproduce photographs and drawings: Ashley-Spark Distributors, Inc. Atlanta Stove Works, Inc. Autocra* Corporation. Blazing Showers. Colorado Tent & Awning Co. Emr ire-Detroit Steel Division, Detroit Steel Corporation. Fatsco Stoves. Fire-View - Distributors. L.W. Gay Stove Works, Inc. Greenbriar Products Inc. J0tul. Inc. Kickapoo Stove Works, Ltd. King Products Division, Martin Industries. Kristia Associates. Locke Stove Co. Louisville Tin & Stove Co. Malleable Iron Range Co. Markade-Winnwood. Merry Music Box. Patented Manufacturing Co. Portland Stove Foundry, Inc. Riteway Manufacturing Co. Shipmate Stove Division, Richmond Ring Co. Southport Stoves. Torrid Manufacturing Co., Inc. Union Stove Works, Inc. United States Stove Co. Vermont Woodstove Co. Washington Stove Works.

Design and illustrations by Jon. Hersh

Alaska Northwest Publishing Company

Box4-LLE, Anchorage, Alaska 99509

Printed in U.S.A.

For Alexander John Klistoff Sr., Master Welder