Making the perfect fire to burn in the grate and last all evening to keep the family warm during the dark cold months from November to February was a skill that many grandparent or parent possessed. However, with the arrival of cleaner and more efficient ways of heating our houses, the need for this particular skill had diminished.
Until now. Sales for both wood burning stoves and multi fuel stoves have steadily increased over the last 10 years. So, how do you make the perfect fire? First of all start by laying screwed up newspaper and waste paper on the cast iron grate. Then, you want to place kindling on top of this – this can be small, dry twigs from the garden, odd scraps of cut pine, thin wood from packing cases broken into small pieces. On top of the kindling, you need to put bigger pieces of wood, leading up to placing larger logs on the top. However, depending on the size of your stove, you may need to get the fire
well-established first before placing bigger logs on the top. Once the fire is blazing well, coal can be balanced alongside the logs. Then, it is just a matter of stoking the fire with more logs and coal as the need arises.