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The Wood Fire Handbook: The complete guide to a perfect fire
This text covers everything you need to know about creating the perfect wood fire, indoors and out, including topics like how to choose the best woods to burn, how to split logs, how to store and season firewood, creating the perfect woodstore and how to lay and tend a fire.
224 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
December 31, 2022
This is a well-thought-out book about everything you need to know not just about building the perfect fire, but how to split logs and store your wood, and everything else to help guide you to becoming all-knowing on how to keep yourself warm and cosy, and your wood burning as it should in your wood stove, fireplace or campfire.
It's an easy read too because it's straight to the point and with short chapters.
It's also got plenty of photographs and illustrations to direct you and teach you different methods of fire building etc.
Probably the best book of it's kind.
It's an easy read too because it's straight to the point and with short chapters.
It's also got plenty of photographs and illustrations to direct you and teach you different methods of fire building etc.
Probably the best book of it's kind.
January 3, 2018
This one was dropped by Santa next to the fireplace. The title practically says it all. This is a comprehensive little book on how to heat a house, all year round, with wood fire only, be it in an open hearth or a stove. It covers everything you need to know if you wish to go all hipster lifestyle: from the environment benefits of wood fires, to the types of trees that are good or the ones that are not so suitable as fire fuel —I loved the fact that the author gives some detail on the smoke smell of each variety. The book also explains how to harvest, store, season and split logs. The main topic, however —that is how to lay, light and tend a wood fire—, is left for the last part.
This is not a survival guide, so don’t expect to find techniques on how to light a fire like a caveman. It’s also been written by an English woodsman, who is very knowledgeable when it comes to northern European trees, but omits, for instance, the Mediterranean varieties (say, the almond tree, the evergreen oak, or the olive tree). Regardless, the pictures included in this book are beautiful, and Vincent Thurkettle is apparently passionate about his subject and manages to infuse his writing with many personal stories and even with a pinch of poetry, which reminded me of some of Bachelard’s comments in La Psychanalyse du feu and La Flamme d’une chandelle.
This is not a survival guide, so don’t expect to find techniques on how to light a fire like a caveman. It’s also been written by an English woodsman, who is very knowledgeable when it comes to northern European trees, but omits, for instance, the Mediterranean varieties (say, the almond tree, the evergreen oak, or the olive tree). Regardless, the pictures included in this book are beautiful, and Vincent Thurkettle is apparently passionate about his subject and manages to infuse his writing with many personal stories and even with a pinch of poetry, which reminded me of some of Bachelard’s comments in La Psychanalyse du feu and La Flamme d’une chandelle.
December 29, 2020
Overall: A fun, coffee table overview of wood fires that delves too far into unbridled enthusiasm with too little attention to detail and insufficient evidence for a “complete guide.”
Pros:
1) Books written by someone who is truly passionate about a subject are usually a joy and this book is no exception. Mr. Thurkettle’s prose is both boyishly giddish and professionally reverent about the subjects he covers.
2) the second edition is beautifully laid out and would look good as a coffee table book
3) It gives a nice overview of many different aspects of wood fires.
4) it’s quick and easy to read
Cons:
1) Despite claiming it is a “complete guide” it’s anything but. Sections are brief with insufficient detail.
2) Claims are often backed only by assertion or anecdote. The fact that one method works for a friend of his is given to demonstrate that something works. For something billing itself as a serious handbook for modern wood fires this feels dubiously casual. If wood fires are to have a role other than as an occasional treat this kind of work needs to have a lot more evidence for best practices backed by science.
3) This lack of scientific rigor is especially problematic when it comes to claims about public health and the environment. He claims multiple times that wood fires can be “smoke free” and more healthy and environmentally friendly than other sources of energy. Something that, with perhaps the exception of the CO2 cycle, is not shared by climate scientists and public health experts.
Pros:
1) Books written by someone who is truly passionate about a subject are usually a joy and this book is no exception. Mr. Thurkettle’s prose is both boyishly giddish and professionally reverent about the subjects he covers.
2) the second edition is beautifully laid out and would look good as a coffee table book
3) It gives a nice overview of many different aspects of wood fires.
4) it’s quick and easy to read
Cons:
1) Despite claiming it is a “complete guide” it’s anything but. Sections are brief with insufficient detail.
2) Claims are often backed only by assertion or anecdote. The fact that one method works for a friend of his is given to demonstrate that something works. For something billing itself as a serious handbook for modern wood fires this feels dubiously casual. If wood fires are to have a role other than as an occasional treat this kind of work needs to have a lot more evidence for best practices backed by science.
3) This lack of scientific rigor is especially problematic when it comes to claims about public health and the environment. He claims multiple times that wood fires can be “smoke free” and more healthy and environmentally friendly than other sources of energy. Something that, with perhaps the exception of the CO2 cycle, is not shared by climate scientists and public health experts.
September 18, 2020
I really enjoyed Peter Wohlleben, The Hidden Life of Trees, and Eric Sloane's, A Reverence for Wood. I also have been reading on the Danish concept of Hygge which focus on contentment found in simple pleasure like wood fires. The Wood Fire Handbook was marketed to be similar to those books - a call to learn the old skills of a wood fire. However, it is not that. It is a beautifully laid out book on home heating via wood logs. Not what I wanted nor very helpful as the decisions are vastly different based on where you live. Nor does the author bring much of his personal experience as a forester into the work. Disappointed.
March 24, 2017
Quick read. Bit of a coffee table book. Didn't teach me anything I don't already know. I could name several books with better info on the subject. Nicely presented though. One for the hipsters.
August 2, 2019
The best way to learn anything is to find a crazy, obsessive old person and follow them around for a month or six. As an urban mom, I don't really have the opportunity to do this much, but Thurkettle is that person on the subject of wood fires, and he has kindly bound himself between two attractive covers and made himself available in bookstores everywhere.
My experience with wood fires is limited to campfires a couple of times a year while growing up, and those can be very forgiving. When I bought a house with a fireplace, I knew I had lots to learn, but couldn't find the info I needed anywhere. I know the internet is supposed to have everything, but it tends to be superficial and brief, more about clicks than actually teaching. Web articles prefer to lay out rules (use hardwood logs) with superficial explanations (they season faster) which can get you up and running, but won't help you understand what you're doing enough to ever deviate.
Thurkettle dives deeper, ranking his favorite firewood trees, describing why some trees season faster than others on the cellular level, and explaining that, in fact, you can burn pine indoors without creating a smoky, spitting fire, but you'll have to give it significantly longer to dry out.
In a few chapters, Thurkettle explained to me everything I was doing wrong (and it was literally everything). I went out to my woodpile and stripped the bark off the rounds I had, and found that, indeed, under the bark they were as wet as the day they were cut. And that's only the start of his journey through wood-pile methodology, the importance of ash in the fireplace, the glorification of the one-match fire, and a decent (if doomed) attempt to teach wood-chopping via text. (He did inspire me to briefly do a web search for woodchopping classes. There are none in Philadelphia.)
There are shortcomings to this book. It is a difficult slog. Even if you are an eager student, the chapters are a difficult read. This book straddles the line between self-depracating memoir and dry instruction manual, and doesn't quite rise to the level of either. There isn't enough narrative to make it a fun read straight through. And there aren't nearly enough diagrams or illustrations to make it fully instructive. Especially in the woodpile chapter, Thurkettle describes techniques that exist, waving his hand vaguely toward the world, but doesn't investigate them or illustrate them for you. In some cases, the "crazy obsessive old guy" persona gets in the way. His objection to trying one method because "double handling" feels almost self-righteous.
This is a great book, and probably worth owning as a reference manual if you have aspirations to wood-fire expertise. But it does feel like it falls short in both readability and (occasionally) thoroughness.
My experience with wood fires is limited to campfires a couple of times a year while growing up, and those can be very forgiving. When I bought a house with a fireplace, I knew I had lots to learn, but couldn't find the info I needed anywhere. I know the internet is supposed to have everything, but it tends to be superficial and brief, more about clicks than actually teaching. Web articles prefer to lay out rules (use hardwood logs) with superficial explanations (they season faster) which can get you up and running, but won't help you understand what you're doing enough to ever deviate.
Thurkettle dives deeper, ranking his favorite firewood trees, describing why some trees season faster than others on the cellular level, and explaining that, in fact, you can burn pine indoors without creating a smoky, spitting fire, but you'll have to give it significantly longer to dry out.
In a few chapters, Thurkettle explained to me everything I was doing wrong (and it was literally everything). I went out to my woodpile and stripped the bark off the rounds I had, and found that, indeed, under the bark they were as wet as the day they were cut. And that's only the start of his journey through wood-pile methodology, the importance of ash in the fireplace, the glorification of the one-match fire, and a decent (if doomed) attempt to teach wood-chopping via text. (He did inspire me to briefly do a web search for woodchopping classes. There are none in Philadelphia.)
There are shortcomings to this book. It is a difficult slog. Even if you are an eager student, the chapters are a difficult read. This book straddles the line between self-depracating memoir and dry instruction manual, and doesn't quite rise to the level of either. There isn't enough narrative to make it a fun read straight through. And there aren't nearly enough diagrams or illustrations to make it fully instructive. Especially in the woodpile chapter, Thurkettle describes techniques that exist, waving his hand vaguely toward the world, but doesn't investigate them or illustrate them for you. In some cases, the "crazy obsessive old guy" persona gets in the way. His objection to trying one method because "double handling" feels almost self-righteous.
This is a great book, and probably worth owning as a reference manual if you have aspirations to wood-fire expertise. But it does feel like it falls short in both readability and (occasionally) thoroughness.
December 30, 2022
This was a fun book that elicited many comforting feelings. I enjoyed and learned a fair bit from it, and thought it was beautifully laid out— quite pleasing to the eyes. I do not yet use fire as a means of heating my home, but my father-in-law, who has for several decades, read this book and left having learned some new tricks. All around, this book made for an easy, informative, and enjoyable read.
June 21, 2018
Love this book to dip in and out of not as a novel. It has some interesting info and I'm glad I bought it.
September 23, 2022
If you love wood this is the book for you.
November 23, 2023
Useful, beautiful photography, well-written.
December 24, 2024
Really good. Essential reading for anyone heating their home with wood, or interested in the subject.
Dry wood = a safe and warm fire. Drying it isn't as easy as you think.
Dry wood = a safe and warm fire. Drying it isn't as easy as you think.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews