Charles Nijman

Many people experience problems with the fireplace draft of the open fireplace, even when the fireplace is newly constructed. Here you can find a number of tips in order to reduce the fireplace smoke in a smoky fireplace, starting with the least drastic measures and ending with the most drastic measures.

A fireback is a cast iron plate, often beautifully decorated, that you place against the back wall of a fireplace or against the back wall behind a wood-burning stove. Fireplace firebacks are also used as a backsplash in the kitchen and sometimes placed against the sides of the fireplace. People also choose to wall-mount the fireback as a work of art.

A fireplace screen is necessary to protect people, animals and the house from the sparks coming off the fire. And you want to find the perfect fireplace screen. After all, you don't want to mar the beauty of your fireplace with the fireplace screen placed in front of the fire. And unfortunately, many new fireplace screens produced today are not particularly beautiful and are of poor quality. Ideally, a fireplace screen enhances the charm of the fireplace. We have found the perfect fireplace screen for you, namely in the form of the traditional decorative French fireplace screen.

It is a common problem: the wall behind the wood stove becomes too hot, which can damage the wall or even burn it. The solution of replacing the back wall with a heat-resistant material, such as heat-resistant stones or a wood stove heat shield, is often cumbersome and not always beautiful. An age-old solution is much easier, more beautiful and also easy to remove, namely placing a cast iron fireback against the back wall as a heat shield for the wood stove.

How to attach a fireback to the back wall of the open fireplace? It is undesirable for a fireback to be able to fall over. First for the safety of you and your housemates, and cast iron can also break if it falls. It is therefore advisable to secure a fireback against falling with a few attachment brackets.

The most important function of a fireplace screen is increasing safety. We explain here the considerations for the decision making on the size of your fire screen.

It is possible to light a fire on the floor of the fireplace. For thousands of years, though, fires have been lit off the ground with the help of andirons and later also with a fire basket. What is the purpose of this? First, a brief history of the andiron and the fireplace basket. The first fireplace andirons were found with the Romans thousands of years ago. They usually consisted of a single rod or block with one or two elevations. This resulted in better air circulation to the wood, and the fire remained in its place. Since the 16th century, andirons for fireplaces have been used in pairs, which greatly improved their function.

Which size of fireback fits in my open fireplace? In the search for a fireback, it is very important that the size of the fireback is appropriate. How big a fireback should be depends on a number of things described in this blog.

Ash pans can be found in fireplaces in a number of countries in houses from the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. Ash pans are often part of a fully built-in fireplace. You also see fire baskets with a matching ash pan. Use is also made of loose ash pans under a fire basket.

Roasting jacks were used in the kitchen to facilitate grilling meat or other dishes on a spit in an open fire by rotating (or turning) the spit. The simplest rotating spit has been used since the first century BC. This is a turnspit in which the spit was turned by hand by means of a lever.

The doofpot is a typical Dutch example of frugality. It consists of a pot with a lid that can be sealed as airtight as possible. The pot often stands on small legs. The burning or smoldering pieces of wood were put into this when the inhabitants left the fire. The lack of air caused the wood to extinguish and char. The doofpot was also used to extinguish peat or coal, both fuel for use in a stove.

How to use a fireback so that it works and doesn't crack due to thermoshock.