01. Starting a Wood Fire

Three things happen when wood burns: Water in the wood evaporates, the wood smokes, and the wood gradually burns down to hot coals. Freshly cut logs are about 50 percent water and don’t burn easily. Seasoned or dried wood is about 20 percent water and burns more easily because less energy (heat) is required to evaporate the water.

The goal is to light a wood fire quickly so that it produces minimum smoke and maximum combustion. For this, you need dry wood and an initial burst of heat from a match or other fire starter. There are dozens of ways to construct a wood fire. We’ll discuss only the two primary ones: the bottom-up method and the top-down method. In both methods, the dry fuel is layered from most to least combustible, and then it is lit. The fuel can be layered on a flat surface, such as the cleared ground in a pit or fire ring, on a fireplace floor, or on the floor of a grill. Preferably, it will be layered on an elevated grate. Elevating the wood allows for better airflow and faster, more complete combustion. If you don’t have a fire grate, put two or three medium-large logs on the flat surface and layer the fuel on top of this makeshift log grate.