The point is that with increased scrutiny of our emissions by everyone and with the desire by most of us to reduce our emissions as much as possible, we are trying to get the cat engaged fast and get smoke free fast. It's not an off-track goal. It's good for all parties involved.
Highbeam, have you tried the "mini-rocket stove" technique I mentioned last week? I'll elaborate below the re-quote:
Sometimes less is more.
When starting a new fire in a cold stove, restricting the fresh air a bit can help build higher temperatures more quickly. This is true both before and after the door is latched. One thing I like about my new BK is that the door latch makes it easy to fine-tune how much air a new fire gets. It's good for the air of a new fire to be restricted a bit. Reducing the intake air reduces dilution of hot flue gasses with cooler fresh air. This makes the gasses in the chimney hotter and lighter which increases draft, fanning the flames and causing the fire to build more quickly. The same principle can apply after latching the door shut. Over-restricting the air will obviously choke the expansion of the fire so the key is to just slightly restrict the air so unlimited quantities of fresh air can't get sucked up the chimney along with the hotter smoke.
Fire temperature matters more than fire size.
The combustor doesn't know how big your fire is, it only knows what the temperature of the exhaust gasses are. For this reason I generally build a wooden "firebox" within the firebox. Everyone knows that wood is a good insulator and that small fireboxes heat more quickly than large fireboxes. So put your smaller wood pieces, the ones that you want to ignite first, in the middle-front, with the big splits on the firebox floor, north-south (and sides and or top depending upon your longer term goals). If you have a half-length big split handy, you can put it in the middle-back, before loading your smaller wood in front of it. Then finish loading the firebox around the starting area leaving a small area in the middle-top open as a "chimney" for your smaller wood pieces. By creating this firebox within the firebox you will achieve very hot temperatures, hot enough to re-burn the smoke inside the mini-firebox, which is what raises temperatures high enough to light off the combustor. It's important that top exits are restricted but that there is a small place to act as a chimney to your firebox within. This is also very gentle on the stove since it is shielded from the intense heat.
By combining the above two concepts, you can create high temperatures very quickly and without consuming a high percentage of your load in the process. This works well in both catalytic and tube stoves but has more benefit in a catalytic equipped stove. You can think of it as building a little rocket stove within your firebox.
This really works really well when done effectively. The only downside is it does require a good mix of assorted sizes and shapes. When I'm splitting wood I entertain my mind by creating the shapes of splits that I know I'll want when the time to burn the wood arrives. Shapes I want (in addition to the common triangular splits);
Very thin and flat large rectangular "plates". These I cleave off the flat side of a large triangular split.
Square and rectangular splits. These make good building blocks and can be made easily instead of triangles.
4"-6" diameter rounds that are only 4"-6" long.
6" diameter half-rounds that are only 4"-6" long.
A few extra large splits for long burns (although this is less important now that I have a BK).
Lots of "splitting duff". Some might call this "kindling" but for me it's more the stuff that creates the super hot flame immediately after light-off. So I prefer Doug-fir, Madrone, dense Pine, White Birch, Elm, good Alder, but anything will work (do avoid White Fir, Hemlock, etc). This stuff should be shorter than 8" and have a bit of "meat" to it. Also stick in a small amount of smaller bits of more traditional kindling like birch bark strips, cedar splinters or small pieces of fatwood to help initially. I split all my wood right where I stack it so I distribute the "splitting duff" throughout my stacks so I always have a nice assortment at my fingertips. They're also useful to wedge one side of an irregular split to help keep the stack straight and stable. All this small material should be very dry because it's 2" thick at most.
Build the wood "rocket stove" in your firebox as airtight as possible using a N-S orientation. This means avoiding irregular shaped wood on the sides and bottom that won't seal tightly against one another. Avoid branching knots, lumps, etc. This is where straight-grained rectangular, half-round or triangular splits come in handy. The "rocket stove" should be tight on all sides except the end facing the glass can be wide open. If the mini-firebox you created has too many leaks in it, you can block off the opening facing the glass with a round cut-off "cookie" or other such chunk. But ideally, You want all air to enter the "rocket stove" from the bottom, front, near the glass. The "chimney" can be the vertical sides of the skinny teepee shaped firebox you created combined with the gap left by a naturally slightly curved split resting against a straight split. You can also cap the "rocket stove" with two thin splits resting sideways with a 1"-2" gap in the middle. Get creative, every build is a little different even if the principles and goals are the same. If you know you will be going for an extended burn, you can protect the rear of the load from initial torching by putting a large half-length split in the back of your "rocket stove" with the splitting duff directly in front of it. I generally do this anyway to concentrate the initial blaze in the front half of the firebox. The floor of the "firebox" or the "rocket stove" can be right on the ash bed. Put a very thin split down to keep the rest of your splitting duff from sinking into the ash. You might have two large half-rounds, split face down, on either side of your "firebox' floor with an small gap between them.
Instead of waiting for the entire load to start torching, you will have a very fast miniature inferno. By slightly restricting intake air, the fire will not spread to the entire firebox initially and flue temperatures will be very high even though flue flow will be low. Other than good wood, the most important factors are having a compact airtight "firebox" stuffed with splitting duff and enough vertical that the draft from the newly ignited duff fans itself. The temperature inside the mini-firebox you created can rise high enough for the initial smoke to be re-burned before leaving your firebox and before engaging the combustor.
This is easy to build as long as you have a good selection of "building blocks" handy. And the firebug in you will enjoy watching it torch off. Don't give it too much air and make sure you have enough chunks of wood in your mini-firebox to create enough initial heat. Pack them tight leaving just enough empty space that a bit of air can get to all faces.
One more tip. The Blaze King thermostat is not designed for such a small hot fire and it won't react to it as quickly as a big hot fire. For this reason, you may want to close the thermostat half-way shortly after you latch the door (assuming your rocket stove is progressing nicely) a couple of minutes before you engage the cat. The goal is to maximize flue temps by minimizing dilution with fresh air without choking your budding fire. Then, after cat engagement, as the stove starts "tinking" and building temperature, the thermostat will react and start to reduce air supply further. I try to stay a step ahead of that and re-open the thermostat a bit as the fire gets hotter and hotter, letting the thermostat do it's thing to prevent it from running away. The result is a hot/fast start to your fire without consuming much of your load. I would not use this method with splits that are not perfect moisture content (12-17%). If your wood has more moisture, it's better to torch the entire load, driving off much moisture, before engaging the cat.
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