First woodstove? Here’s how to light a fire

It’s an intimidating job, being the Keeper of the Flame, especially if you’re a woodstove novice or new to winter cottaging. “People love the idea of wood heat in the cottage, but if they live in the city, they often don’t have any experience with wood burning,” says Troy Schlotzhauer, owner of Original Heat and Gas in Burk’s Falls, Ont. That’s why Schlotzhauer offers first-hand coaching for new customers, and these tips for informed ignition.

Schlotzhaurer suggests 15 to 17 per cent moisture. Split and stack your firewood with good exposure to sun and wind, and allow it to dry for at least six months, and preferably a year or more. Dry wood has telltale checks and cracks on the cut ends, but a $35 moisture tester from the hardware store will offer a more precise reading.

Schlotzhauer fires his stove by piling crumpled newspaper at the rear of the firebox, then leaning kindling against the back wall. “I always use lots of good dry kindling, because you want the fire to take off quick,” he says. As the kindling burns, he adds sticks “about the diameter of a pop can, or a little bit less.” He recommends using many smaller sticks, rather than one or two heavy logs. “With the technology in the stoves today, they burn better and more efficiently with four or five pieces that are as big around as an average man’s fist, rather than a couple of big blocks.”

An alternative fire-starting method is the “top down” burn: place three to five pieces of wood in the bottom of the stove, then lay smaller pieces (about three centimetres square) across the logs. Top with a jumble of fine kindling. Roll up six to eight sheets of newspaper, tie them in lose knots, and shove them atop the pile. Open the draft, light the paper, and either close the door or leave it open a bit. Aside from adjusting the draft (and closing the door if it’s open), you can leave the fire alone to produce a bed of coals in couple of hours.

Light the next fire from the coals of the previous burn. Remove a little ash from the front of the stove, rake the glowing coals up to the front (or wherever the air intake is—usually the front bottom of the firebox). Place at least three sticks behind the coals in the firebox. Place a smaller, dry piece of wood directly on the coals to ignite the other wood. Leave the air control wide open until the firebox is full of flame and the wood is charred, with its edges glowing red. Reduce the airflow a bit at a time, in two or three stages.

Fire the stove in “cycles”: lay a fresh load of wood in the firebox, ignite it, allow it to burn until only coals remain, and repeat. Plan your cottage day around the three to five firing cycles you’ll need for heat.

Leaving the cottage, but there are coals in the stove? “Just leave the air open, and let the stove burn itself out,” Schlotzhauer says. The ash will be safer to deal with when you return the following weekend.

When you remove ash, leave about 2.5 cm in the bottom of the stove, and store the excess in a metal container with a lid. Keep the container outside on a non-combustible surface and away from buildings. Cooled ash can be used to improve traction on icy lanes, or you can sprinkle it in a thin layer on gardens or in the bush. As a bonus, ash adds much-needed calcium to the acidic soils of the Canadian Shield.

Inspect your chimney by holding a mirror in through your cleanout port, or use a flashlight to look down from the top (when the stove is cold, of course). Creosote is a gummy, black by-product of inefficient burning, and a fire hazard. Deposits should be minimal if you’re using dry wood and burning properly, but sweep the chimney and clean stovepipes at least once a year or when 3 mm or more of creosote builds up.

Mastering your woodstove requires practice—call it the 10,000 fires rule. Since every model is a little different, read the manual. Build a woodshed or put a roof over your woodpile. Split your wood and kindling into different sizes. Learn to burn small, hot fires for spring and fall; larger, longer fires for winter. Install a probe-style flue thermometer (about $30 from a hardware store) to get a handle on efficient burning temperatures, and keep an eye on the smoke coming out of the chimney. With a modern, high-efficiency stove running at the right temperatures, smoke should be white or almost clear, never blue or grey. “When you have a flue pipe thermometer, as soon as it hits 500°F, if you go out you won’t see any more smoke, you’ll just see vapours,” Schlotzhauer says. So go ahead, practise your combination of woodstove technology and know-how to produce clean, hot fires. As Keeper of the Flame, you can help friends and family feel the burn. In a good way.