How to Create a Draw in a Wood Stove
- 1). Open the damper and the air vents to the wood stove.
- 2). Wad up a single sheet of newspaper and place it inside the firebox. Crumple up more newspaper, a single sheet at a time, and add it to the firebox to make a pile. Add torn up pieces of cardboard if you desire.
- 3). Insert long, slender (1/2-inch-thick or smaller) kindling cut from cedar, pine or Douglas fir, into the firebox and arrange the base of each kindling piece to stand on the outside of the newspaper, creating a “teepee” of kindling around the newspaper, with each piece of kindling meeting the others at the top. This formation allows for plenty of air to help create the fire and heat needed to create draw up the stovepipe and out the chimney.
- 4). Use a long stick match or a fireplace lighter to light the newspaper in three or more places. Add more fuel to the fire after the kindling teepee has started to burn. The idea is to keep feeding the fire, warming the firebox and creating a draw of air from the front to the back of the wood stove. Add broken dry branches of wood to feed the fire.
- 5). Add successively larger pieces of wood until you have a good fire going.
- 6). Adjust the damper and air vent accordingly to reduce the size of the fire and make it burn longer. If you have an airtight wood stove, allow the fire to burn to a heavy coal base of about 3 to 4 inches in height and place a large log on the burning coal bed.
