After spending most of my life building fires with all of the tinder and kindling on the bottom. About five years ago I learned that building with the quick igniting material on top is far superior to the way I was taught.

The flue gets heated with very little smoke and establishes the draw. It’s easier to arrange and light.

Curious to hear from those that have tried it. Pros-cons from your experience?

I am far from a purist and prefer the gasoline and matches approach.

Been there, done that…

Lighting the fire is both my household duty and my camp *girl name* obligation. Comes with the early to rise part *wink*….

0nly fires Ive make that way were Council fires

top down

Dunno about what a Council Fire is.

I will type that into my search bar.

Thank you 330,

Love
Mike

Well, I found it.

https://www.scouting.org/cub-scout-adventures/council-fire/

Thank you Scott.

I seen this redneck hack in a house once , don't know if it is brilliant or just stupid , but I bet it works , don't know how safe it is or if meets any NFPA standards......lol

Not quite sure what that is. An air feed to maybe an outdoor boiler? Could you give me the lowdown?

Here is my top down fire for the night.

That is a cobbled together hair dryer fed into the ash clean out door on the backside of a conventional brick and mortar fireplace.
The idea is , I guess , to send hot air up the flue when starting your fire to get a nice draft going of hot air.

I just pack the stove with kindling, throw a Dixie cup of diesel in there and light it and leave the door cracked until I hear enough crackling that I trust it to shut the door

Happens to Not be what I meant

This only supersized

Yep, would build those for night time campfires at long term camp. Would use 4 foot birch logs (6-10 inch diameter), stacked crisscross, about 6 layers deep. All the gaps between the logs would be packed with the small branches and twigs. Built a little tipi fire on top and it would burn down all night, About 2 hours or so of good flame light.

That is my exact method also,,,works like a charm.

I started doing the Top-Down method last year after many, many years of the traditional method. Light it and forget about it until another log is needed. I won’t go back !

My stove is a top loader with two air vents on top. I stack wood under one air vent and light from top. Usually just with newspaper, no kindling required. Air is sucked down through vent, over fire then out. Works real good. Even taught the wife how to do it. lol

I love heating my home and my camp with wood stoves. I hate building/rebuilding fires though. At home I tend to light a fire in late-October and keep the same fire going until mid-March.

Even if it gets to warm outside for a fire, I'll just damp it down and open some windows.

I've never tried the top down method or the diesel fuel method. My wood stoves are in my living rooms so the diesel method is out. I may have to give the top down method a try.

At camp we rebuild the fire before we leave. That way he next person up just has to throw a match in. It's a pretty big deal if the fire doesn't light up with one match. Whoever rebuilt it would be in for a lot of ridicule.

For those that burn a pickup load a season maybe.
For those that heat with wood, reloading the stove may
take some serious youtubing lol.