Nothing new in that , really. Any fireplace or stove lights better with
air, which gets the chimney drawing, is self-banking with an ash bed.

Now, what're you after? Ambiance favors an open grate and the crackling
fire, efficiency a banked fire (once the chimney's warm), which is why we
have "airtight" stoves.

You can create a "grate" of wood to help light, and burn on the hearth, or
you can buy a minimum-gap grate which will hold created ash to bank the
fire, and scoop the ash out from underneath for lighting.

"Kenneth" wrote in message
...


I will continue to experiment, but for now, despite my original
intuition, I believe that there are significant advantages to burning
in a Rumford fireplace with no grate at all.