A Stove in the Forest

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Now I simply remove the grate which sits over the air vent. Then I take a garden hoe and pull the ashes forward in the firebox, allowing them to drop down through the air vent into a space at the base of the stove. This way, by ducking my head a little, I can remove the ashes under the house and outside without messing up the inside of the house. This design also has the advantage of using the same rear opening as the outside air intake.

Laying the Bricks

At some point my family began to realize I was serious about placing a huge (32" X 76" X 7 1/2' high) pile of bricks right in the middle of the house and that it would be the most prominent thing in our living-dining kitchen. My son Jeff is a perfectionist and quite concerned about how things are going to look. He really didn't think the old man would be patient and careful enough to make sure this object was a thing of beauty, not an eyesore. I showed him how to mix mortar and how to lay a brick. (I wound up mixing most of the mortar myself anyway.) He studied the book carefully, and although up to that time he had never laid a single brick or seen it done, he announced that he would build the stove.

The addition of a second layer gave us an opportunity to make a few mistakes that did not show. Using an old skill saw with a brick saw blade, I cut the bricks that had to be cut. I also mounted the door and cleanouts. We did the inside with soft garden brick (cheaper and easier to cut). The firebox and flue portions, which would get a lot of heat, we lined with firebrick. For the outside shell, we used a hard brick (expensive and much harder to cut). The stove stands in the middle of the room, seven and a half feet high with another seven feet of brick chimney on top. After we got through the ceiling, we saw no reason to go to all the work to build clear through the roof with brick, so we installed a metal chimney, which can hardly be seen outside anyway. I may be prejudiced, but I don't believe a professional would have done a better job.

Burning

To keep the house warm, we only have to burn it one to two hours in the morning. Then when there are still a lot of hot coals, we shut down both the damper and the air intake. This traps the hot air in the stove, and it stays hot for about 24 hours and warm for 48 hours. Maximum surface heat comes about 30 minutes after shutting down the stove, so short that very hot burns are the most efficient. When you have reached the maximum heat, additional burning mostly puts heat up the chimney. In the very coldest winter weather, room temperature overnight drops by about three to four degrees. (In very cold weather we usually do an evening burn also.) You do have to be careful not to let the fire go out without shutting it down. If you forget, the cold air continues to circulate through the stove, and you lose much of your heat.

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