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Re: Are my logs too big?
Aha, so I am not the only one with a tennis elbow following the build ... it's getting better now, hope yours is too.
As for comparing the sizes, a comment from one of your resident scientists: put something to judge the scale against in the photo, preferably a small ruler.
Other than that they look remarkably like my logs, which I split in an old fashioned way using an axe, but only to get the initial stack. This initial stack (which I put near the middle of the oven - as far as I can reach, has to be well seasoned. I try to get a selection of diameters: from half an inch kindling through inch-thick intermediate to two-inch logs. I need only a small amount of those. Once they get going I add thicker and less seasoned wood and this does not produce much smoke at all at that stage.
In this way I managed to limit sticking my head into the oven to the initial stack stage, when there is no fire. I then use long tongs to add the thicker stuff.
Also, using old fashioned bellows (bought them in a fireplace and oven shop in Sardinia last year) is really effective if the fire starts to die down or smoke too much after having been moved further to the back. PdD, this is the stage you have been mentioning, by the way, and bellows do work for me very well.
And while I am at it, please think about your poor lungs and do not stick your head in the oven, limit smoke inhalation - it is really bad for you both in the short run and in the long run. Products of dry distillation of wood (gases and aerosols produced during heating and incomplete burning of wood, a.k.a. smoke) are very carcinogenic.
And on this cheerful note ...
Regards from sunny and very autumnal Cumbria,
W.
Originally posted by Ken524
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As for comparing the sizes, a comment from one of your resident scientists: put something to judge the scale against in the photo, preferably a small ruler.
Other than that they look remarkably like my logs, which I split in an old fashioned way using an axe, but only to get the initial stack. This initial stack (which I put near the middle of the oven - as far as I can reach, has to be well seasoned. I try to get a selection of diameters: from half an inch kindling through inch-thick intermediate to two-inch logs. I need only a small amount of those. Once they get going I add thicker and less seasoned wood and this does not produce much smoke at all at that stage.
In this way I managed to limit sticking my head into the oven to the initial stack stage, when there is no fire. I then use long tongs to add the thicker stuff.
Also, using old fashioned bellows (bought them in a fireplace and oven shop in Sardinia last year) is really effective if the fire starts to die down or smoke too much after having been moved further to the back. PdD, this is the stage you have been mentioning, by the way, and bellows do work for me very well.
And while I am at it, please think about your poor lungs and do not stick your head in the oven, limit smoke inhalation - it is really bad for you both in the short run and in the long run. Products of dry distillation of wood (gases and aerosols produced during heating and incomplete burning of wood, a.k.a. smoke) are very carcinogenic.
And on this cheerful note ...
Regards from sunny and very autumnal Cumbria,
W.
I also use a $10. propane blowtorch to ignite the kindling instead of matches. Still only halfway through my first tank after 20 fires.
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