Phil Crow wrote:

I bought a wood stove for myself for Christmas (18Wx24Hx30D, with
firebrick lining) and now it's all installed per local fire codes.

There are two screw-cap type vents on the front of it, and I burned a
small fire in it on Tuesday as a kind of test drive. Armed with that
knowledge, I decided to burn a "real" fire in it tonight. I
understand the principles of operation of the wood burning stove.
However, I'm not sure I understand the 'nuts and bolts' of wood stove
use.

Do I light the fire and leave the door cracked until the wood (not
kindling) is burning well? I had my vents open all the way and the
door closed; the fire just smoldered. I opened the door, smoke got
all over the garage, I closed it. I opened it a crack and noticed
that the draft was drafting pretty hard, so I left the door open a
crack. About 2 minutes later, with a mild, uh, whoosh, flames
appeared. I let that burn for a while, then closed the door with the
vents wide open. By the way, she was a little warm at this point.

After that, I closed one vent completely and the other about half.
When things started to cool down, I started opening things up again,
until even leaving the door cracked open wouldn't revive the flames.
At this point, I choked it down all the way, and I've been checking on
it periodically to see what's happening with the fire. I suspect that
the fire will just go out completely (or very close to it) due to lack
of oxygen.

Did I do this right? I'm a little worried about creosote, but I'm
also worried that the stove is going to, I dunno, explode or something
if I burn it *too* hot. If any of you have some insight, I'd
appreciate it.

Thanks,

-Phil Crow

Am I doing this right?

You've got a lot of good advice, some misinformation.
It sounds like you have a standard air-tight stove. Steel
or cast iron? most are steel. First get one of those cheap
oven thermometer intended to stand up. Set it on the top of
the stove next to the pipe. Another thing, look at your
single wall stove pipe and see where stuff would run if it
dripped down the pipe. If at each joint the upper pipe goes
in the bottom pipe, that is correct. If it is the other
way, get it changed because some time, stuff will drip down
and it will run out on the pipe.
The air supply (the screw caps) do different things on
different stoves. Sometimes when you have two screw caps
side by side they both do the same, just gives more air to
open both. Your stove could be different, but the bottom
screw cap is always the air.

When you start a fire crumple up several newspaper sheets
and put them in first, then add kindling, small sticks and
then bigger sticks on top of the newspaper like you would
build a log cabin. The bottom vent should be at least 1/2
open. Crumple another sheet of newspaper lay to the side or
on top of the pile, and light both. Shut the door. If
you get smoke into the room then you need to start the fire
with more newspaper to get the stove to draw immediately.

After the stove is going, go outside and look at the
chimney. Lots of smoke means that you need to open the air
control more; when burning correctly you should see very
little smoke. However, it may smoke for a bit every time
you add wood. Use any kind of wood you like, just be sure
it is dry (seasoned well).

You thermometer should run about 350 to 400. 500 is very
hot for a steel stove, so turn the air down. Depending on
the wood, stove placement, amount of wood burned, length of
stove pipe, etc., creosote build up may or may not be a
problem. Buy a brush and poles and clean the stove pipe to
avoid fires. I cleaned mine every two months when burning
our stove every day (often let it go out at night) during
six months. Some people need to clean theirs only once a
year. If you do get a chimney fire, you will hear it,
immediately close the air valves tight to cut oxygen to the
fire.

As one person pointed out, you need to keep a layer of ash
(about 1 inch thick) covering the bottom to protect the
bricks and improve the fire burn.