The Art of Manliness - #263： The Philosophy and Practice of Building a Fire the Scandinavian Way

00:00:00.000 brett mckay here and welcome to another edition of the art of manliness podcast well there's

00:00:18.000 nothing like the warmth and comfort of a glowing fire especially this time of year

00:00:22.520 what is it about making and warming ourselves with a wood-burning flame that's so satisfying

00:00:27.980 and how can we better master the art of fire making well my guest today has published a book

00:00:33.720 that's become a cult classic in scandinavia and it's all about wood and fire his name is lars

00:00:39.080 mitting and his book is norwegian wood chopping stacking and drying wood the scandinavian way

00:00:44.520 and today on the show lars and i discuss the pleasures of preparing wood for fire and why

00:00:49.300 firewood is an important part of a man's identity in scandinavian countries and then we get to the

00:00:54.500 practicalities of making just a warm fire we talk about the best kind of wood for fires how to fell

00:01:02.020 trees for firewood how to season your wood for optimal fire building and the best time to split

00:01:07.400 wood and then we talk about how to build a fire the scandinavian way that will just burn clean

00:01:13.460 and hot for you this show is both philosophical and practical and it will leave you wanting to build

00:01:18.540 the best fireplace fire of your life when you're done listening after the show's over check out the

00:01:23.500 show notes at aom.is slash wood where you can find links to resources where you can delve deeper

00:01:27.880 in this topic as well as learn how to build a scandinavian fire

00:01:31.020 so you're the author of a book that i really enjoyed reading it's a norwegian wood uh it's all about

00:01:44.560 firewood and the importance of firewood in scandinavian culture and i remember hearing on an interview did

00:01:50.220 somewhere else that this was a book that almost didn't get published but it's become this big

00:01:55.580 bestseller in scandinavia why do you think a book about firewood uh something so simple has resonated

00:02:03.740 with so many people well i think the key to it is that it essentially is very simple and when something is

00:02:11.820 uh simple uh it generally has a huge appeal but it but it's hard to to observe what is really simple

00:02:24.300 it's often the the things that strike you as something well very simple or down to earth is

00:02:32.060 often the things that go unnoticed so uh if you look into this in essence fire is mankind's oldest energy

00:02:40.780 and something that has been a great part of all cultures around the world so uh that is one part

00:02:49.460 of the answer really that it uh deep inside it affects us all and i mean i guess it's particularly

00:02:55.560 important for individuals living in scandinavia because it's bitterly cold there we were just

00:03:00.860 talking on air that it's some negative 37 degrees celsius where you're at um yeah and so like firewood

00:03:08.780 is i mean that's how you all keep yourselves warm well that's a question like why is scandinavia still

00:03:14.060 reliant on firewood despite advances in heating sources like electricity or natural gas we all rely

00:03:21.260 heavily on electricity and i think it's fair to say that the uh most of the houses uh use a electric

00:03:32.460 oven for uh for uh a lot of the heating but in the cold periods nothing beats the uh firewood stove because

00:03:43.980 it it really is not only the uh say the sense of of hot air that's to it it's so much more that goes into

00:03:54.780 the experience of heating with wood that it stimulates a lot of other senses as well

00:04:01.500 and just to mention a few it's the it's a simple fact that you can survive and heat your house with

00:04:11.100 something organic that you have collected yourself and where that carries the marks of your own labor and

00:04:17.900 it's a deeply deeply well a deep sense of well-being connected to that i'd say so that's one of the

00:04:29.180 explanations another one is also that it's a renewable green energy it has its sights on pollution which we

00:04:38.940 will come to i guess but uh it's probably the simplest form of energy there is and uh also a

00:04:48.300 great renewable source right trees can grow again well i thought this was interesting you talked in

00:04:54.540 the book about the um how much pollution would burning because i remember hearing growing up well

00:05:00.300 the reason why people don't really burn uh fires in fireplace anymore because it gave off too much

00:05:06.140 pollution there's too much soot um so we have these cleaner sources of energy but you argue that

00:05:11.020 no wood burning is actually not as it's it's pretty clean yes and and it can it can be surprisingly clean

00:05:18.140 and it can also be surprisingly dirty it all depends on the stove you have and also the methods that that

00:05:27.100 you use and uh one of the great things i think as a norwegian uh is that we we have had a lot of scientific research

00:05:38.780 on how to make stoves that burn as cleanly as possible so i think we are in a good position to um

00:05:49.500 um to develop such a technology because we have we are we have um sorry we have a population that that

00:06:01.660 spends a lot of money in into their houses nearly all norwegians own their own houses uh and we are

00:06:10.460 quite interested in uh everything high tech and at the same time we live in a cold country and we have a

00:06:17.740 lot of a lot of forests so that are the key elements to it but the um the book describes a lot of methods to

00:06:28.220 to burn firewood so that there is no smoke visible at all from the chimney and that is really the uh

00:06:38.620 the target here to burn so cleanly that you cannot see any smoke or any um awful smell

00:06:46.700 from it and uh and that is completely possible and we'll get to those methods uh in a bit here

00:06:53.980 because it's it's very interesting uh even if you for us in america if you don't have a stove

00:06:58.860 some of the tips here uh can help you build a great fireplace fire um but you also talk about the

00:07:05.340 philosophy of firewood scandinavians get very self philosophical about their firewood um for example

00:07:12.540 there's a bit where you talk about um how scandinavian women sort of a traditional uh ideas for

00:07:19.740 scandinavian women to judge a man on the quality of a husband he'll be by looking at his wood pile yeah

00:07:27.740 that is also actually a a thing that i've that i've seen in in the state of maine nearly all nearly

00:07:37.420 exactly the same observations uh but yes there is a lot of lore connected and folklore

00:07:47.260 connected to this and a lot of it is obviously of uh on on how your wood pile looks like and and it's

00:07:56.860 quite easy to uh to discern the lazy and the ambitious man just by looking at a wood pile

00:08:08.060 uh you will often see say the more um the type who likes to show off will like to build a very tall

00:08:17.500 pile which is clearly visible from the road uh but all too often he may become well the pile will simply

00:08:27.660 fall down because he's become foolhardy and built too tall and on the other hand you have the the piles that

00:08:38.380 tells the tale of someone who is either lazy or just cannot uh well follow up on his own ambitions

00:08:47.660 so you see piles with the moldy wood in which has been on the ground too long and uh quite imperfect

00:08:57.100 uh stacks there so so that type is easy to uh to recognize but you also have the completely obsessed

00:09:07.500 pipe which is uh someone i would uh warn strongly against as a husband which has this very pedantic piles

00:09:16.380 with uh looks almost like you've used uh well strict mathematics to um to get the the pile as perfect as

00:09:27.660 possible that that's probably a sign of someone with a little too little connection to the real world

00:09:34.860 right right and you also highlight this um this phenomenon in in scandinavian countries of uh for men

00:09:44.060 to go through what they call a wood age yeah that's right that's a quite uh quite common description

00:09:50.780 here actually uh usually about elder people men around 70 years when they when they come into the wood age

00:10:00.540 the um and but but in my book i describe the first wood age and the second one and um to the first wood age

00:10:11.420 actually starts in around 35 to 40 years which is when generally most of us have a family and children so i i think it

00:10:23.020 just that having children sort of stimulates the um the urge to uh to go on and bring heat to your family

00:10:34.140 which is when you look at it a very very central element of the of the firewood culture here

00:10:41.580 and that has to do with you know the the man's position in the family and you may fail at a lot of

00:10:50.060 things in life but the pleasure you have in seeing your family and children getting warm on something

00:10:57.900 you've done yourself that that is deeply satisfying but the when speaking of the of the coming of the

00:11:05.260 second wood age when you become an old man it's more connected to the feeling that you don't have any

00:11:15.340 proper visible work to do anymore and a lot of older men wants to have well to be of use for their family but

00:11:27.260 there are a few areas where they really can do something that is to use for the others every day

00:11:35.980 but but firewood is such a thing and a lot of older men who chops wood not just for themselves but also

00:11:44.940 for um well the greater part of the family wait and i thought it was very touching how you began

00:11:52.220 the book you talk about an elderly neighbor of yours that sort of kick-started this whole exploration of

00:11:57.980 firewood who he was in really bad shape um had health problems but when springtime came and it was time

00:12:06.140 to split and stack wood he got out there and he started doing it uh even though it was very hard

00:12:11.900 laborious work but he he felt like he had to do it to provide wood for his wife yeah and the um and

00:12:19.020 there are there are other mechanisms to him to do that story as well he he's my well he used to be my

00:12:25.900 neighbor here and and one of the things was that i think he sort of told his body that we will endure

00:12:33.340 another year he was quite sick and the easy thing for him would just be to lay down and

00:12:40.860 well let the disease take him but but he didn't he went out and he through that work which essentially

00:12:48.140 was a preparation for winter i think he simply told his body that we're gonna go on we're gonna

00:12:54.700 gonna make it one more winter and the um at the end of the book uh he essentially lays his building

00:13:05.340 his last wood pile and he understands also that this wood pile will survive me but my the memory of my

00:13:15.260 labor will still be in it so the last scene of the book is uh of his widow when she hits throughout the

00:13:23.580 winter on uh on the wood that he made yeah that was a really really touching uh story uh made me tear

00:13:31.180 up when i was reading it yeah yeah you know it touches so so many so so many of this iron age uh

00:13:42.780 reflexes in us this just being connected to fire which is the age age old element it i think it stirs a

00:13:51.020 lot of strings in us and one of them you know i have uh i have two daughters they're 14 years old and

00:14:00.780 i uh there's a sort of sorrow to my life as a man that i am well you know with teenage girl as a man i

00:14:10.300 i feel i feel i become less relevant in a lot of their daily business uh but i know that a few things

00:14:22.220 that i managed to hand down is something that they will do when they grow up and teach their own children

00:14:28.620 for example building a campfire outdoors and um i believe there can can be well no more

00:14:37.980 more basic thing and nothing more connected to you know survival and life itself than handing down the

00:14:47.740 knowledge on how to build a fire so one of my wishes is that they will hand it down to them their

00:14:53.580 children and say that well my dad my dad told me this i love that um so let's get into the uh the

00:15:02.780 specifics of fire building because there's a lot of practical knowledge uh that you put in the book

00:15:08.060 so let's start with in that the whole goal is to get that very clean burning fire that has little or

00:15:14.620 no smoke so let's start with the wood itself are certain trees better for firewood than others or do

00:15:21.020 certain trees provide more smoke and soot the book goes into great lengths in uh looking at the properties

00:15:30.220 of various woods but the odd thing is that nearly any tree in the world will in the world will burn

00:15:39.500 and nearly anything any tree will give a satisfying fire but the big difference is sorry sorry the big

00:15:49.340 difference is uh the density of the wood and in most cultures especially in cold countries and like in say

00:15:58.220 northern parts of the u.s and uh and canada and also in norway all the hardwoods has been favored

00:16:07.660 because it's uh the philosophy of the uh well of the really cold old past with drafty houses and

00:16:18.860 very strong winters and for that purpose nothing can beat

00:16:23.660 uh very dense wood like uh hickory like uh oak and beech um but the uh in in a modern situation

00:16:35.980 very often these uh these very dense hardwoods simply burn too hot to be used in a well insulated house

00:16:47.180 so one of the things that i like with the um with that part of the book is that it describes how you

00:16:55.980 can use what many would consider inferior uh wood like aspen or spruce which is quite dense and which has

00:17:07.820 among many been regarded as quite quite poor firewood but it is in fact perfect to use

00:17:15.740 lighter woods for the the periods of the year when it's not so cold like late autumn or early early

00:17:24.700 spring and also most fires will benefit from being burnt with the two different types of wood in the

00:17:34.220 stove at the same time because they have different combustion characteristics so you may burn one log of

00:17:42.620 oak together with two logs of aspen and as a result have a very clean and intense fire without the

00:17:52.060 house getting too hot and so uh let's talk about uh you know the the whole process you talk about

00:17:57.740 because like in in in scandinavian countries people buy wood pellets some people buy their own firewood

00:18:03.260 but a lot of people just cut their own trees down or fell a tree i've i've in vermont i've had some

00:18:10.140 family there and i've had the opportunity to fell trees for for wood maple trees really fun to do

00:18:16.780 yeah what i thought was really interesting was you talk about the best time to fell a tree we

00:18:22.940 fell these trees in summer time you argue that's not the best time to fellow when is the best time to

00:18:29.100 fell trees for firewood well we are quite strict on that here in norway that we

00:18:34.700 we we if it's possible we like to do it in in late winter or very early spring

00:18:46.380 simply because the for leaf the trees are naked at the time and the snowy ground is perfect and clean

00:18:55.260 to work on and also frozen ground makes it easier both to hold the wood on the ground and and also to

00:19:06.060 to split it because all surfaces are very hard and clean but but the key factor to this is that the um

00:19:16.220 the drying time of the wood is well for most of the inner part of the northern hemisphere the driest months

00:19:26.300 are in in spring so if you are ready with the wood in when the snow is melting you have the whole period

00:19:36.460 of spring summer and autumn uh for it to dry so the the custom here is in norway is to cut down the wood

00:19:47.020 and give it one season to to dry and then use it the next winter in in many cultures this is considered

00:19:57.980 way too short and uh a lot of cultures especially those in favor oak uh say that it will need at least

00:20:08.780 two but uh three and four years of seasoning will will be good but the but you will often be quite

00:20:18.700 amazed really on how quickly firewood will will dry if it's if you give it proper drying conditions

00:20:25.740 so i think yeah i think the the key to meant to to a lot of these tales of firewood needing two or

00:20:33.740 three years to to dry is simply that they've um they come from a worst case scenario where uh people

00:20:41.900 haven't been haven't given firewood uh so the um the proper conditions to dry yeah and that was a

00:20:50.380 uh really interesting point you brought home too is that uh if even if like the wood isn't dry in two

00:20:55.900 or three years it's probably not going to get dry like it has to dry pretty quickly in order for the

00:21:01.820 wood to actually be dry yeah that that makes for the best quality and uh it shouldn't be confused with

00:21:07.980 the drying process for building materials uh building materials where the aim is to dry quite slowly so

00:21:15.740 that it doesn't crack i think firewood becomes is is the best when it has been drying as quickly as

00:21:24.460 possible and and the key element to that is to um is to place it at a place with um very very good

00:21:35.420 ventilation ideally if you can give it both sun and wind you will have very good conditions for it but if

00:21:44.860 you have to choose between them always choose wind because it uh it wind and good ventilation will

00:21:53.980 dry the surface uh of the wood and um and speed up the process greatly and do people uh as soon as

00:22:02.060 they typically in scandinavia nor norway do they do they split the logs as soon as they fell the tree

00:22:09.100 or do they yeah that's quite a difference also between many other countries if you go

00:22:15.180 further south in europe like in the like in in france uh netherlands you will often see that they

00:22:23.100 just cut the logs and then wait with the splitting until the fire is to be used but the tradition here

00:22:30.780 is very clear to split it as quickly as possible simply because it dries much better then and it's ready

00:22:39.100 for use so the um and the other part of that is that if you can split the wood while it's really cold

00:22:47.980 it splits much easier if you many people experience that it's uh dead hard work to to split the

00:22:57.900 wood with an axe and and the book goes in great lengths of describing well techniques to make it easier

00:23:04.460 but but but but the one thing to observe is that if if you cut down a tree and you leave it in

00:23:14.620 for one or two months in spring or summer it will become much much harder to split simply because the

00:23:24.780 the fibers inside they they create a sort of a velcro effect that adheres the fibers much stronger to

00:23:34.620 each other so if you cut it and split it when it's fresh and if you can while it's really cold it will

00:23:44.220 split with just one third of the effort that you need with uh if you wait until summer that's great

00:23:52.540 advice i've always split wood like in the summer and it is dead hard work yeah if it's if it's fresh

00:23:58.940 then you have a chance but if it's been drying just one or two months it's a whole different uh

00:24:03.820 wholly different game yeah and we'll talk a little bit more about splitting wood here in a bit but

00:24:08.700 so let's say uh someone who's listening they're not going to um chop down their own trees or split

00:24:14.940 their own wood but they're going to go buy firewood the only thing i've always had trouble with when

00:24:19.900 buying firewood is like the wood says it's seasoned yeah but then you put it in the fireplace and it's

00:24:25.900 just like it's just smoke it's all yeah so how can you tell when you're buying firewood that firewood

00:24:31.180 is actually is actually dry and seasoned the best method it's it's a bit scientific and boring really but

00:24:37.340 that is to take one of the logs from if you buy it in a pile take one of the logs in the middle

00:24:45.740 and bring a axe and split it in two and then use a humidity meter one of the digital types

00:24:53.900 they don't they don't cost more than about 10 to 20 dollars i think but that will give you a very

00:25:02.140 clear idea of it but but you need to split the wood first because the moisture can be trapped in

00:25:10.780 inside the log so so that's that's one trick and it gives you a very good figure of how it is but you

00:25:18.060 will also uh with some experience you can beat two logs um uh together and if it's if it's not not dry

00:25:29.660 the sound will be more muffled and undead while two completely dry logs will give a very thin hard tone

00:25:41.660 which is quite easy to discern uh but but the fun trick which i really enjoy is to use dishwasher liquid

00:25:50.860 and this doesn't work on all types of wood but it works brilliantly on leaf trees like birch

00:26:00.300 and the trick is to uh to put some dishwash this dishwasher washer liquid too many s's here for a

00:26:08.140 norwegian but on one end and and blow through the other and and this may sound like it's a complete

00:26:17.020 fairy tale but it's actually possible to blow through the whole log and so that bubbles appear in the

00:26:24.780 other end but that doesn't happen if the wood is fresh if it's completely dry then it will work

00:26:35.260 because the all the cells through the wood has been opened up so that's one of the

00:26:41.980 uh well great party tricks that i like to uh advise anyone interested in this try the dishwasher

00:26:50.460 trick i'm gonna try the next time i buy firewood and the guy tells me it's been oh it's been seasoned

00:26:55.660 for two years and i'm like yeah and the other tip too you you advise in the book is like don't buy dirty

00:27:01.660 wood like covered in mud or dirt no we started uh we touched that subject um a while ago but the

00:27:11.340 but the the the thing is that if wood has been left on the ground and um and started to uh to

00:27:24.380 well well not been giving given proper uh drying conditions it it may start to form a type of mold and

00:27:33.980 bacteria inside and when it's dirty it's a it's a quite clear sign that it's been lying on the ground

00:27:43.260 for some time and for some types of wood especially birch you may experience a very strange phenomenon

00:27:52.700 that um that it never dries at all and what has happened then is that the wood has started to

00:28:00.620 uh well mold back when bacteria has started to grow and eat the tree from the inside and that process

00:28:10.620 actually produces moisture so it will never be dry no matter how long time you you give it and the um

00:28:20.380 the native norwegians the the sami people they actually have a word for that

00:28:25.500 uh um phenomenon and it's called the shashalo which means dry wood that will never be dry

00:28:36.060 all right so and to them to to the native people of the north they know if there are some experts here

00:28:42.700 they are the real one they know how to uh well make a campfire in the strongest of winds and the most

00:28:52.460 fiercest conditions so i've picked up one or two tricks from them yes um so let's talk about splitting

00:29:00.380 wood we talked it's dead hard work you should probably do it in the winter time early spring

00:29:04.780 where it's easier to split yeah but even though it's dead hard work like people really enjoy splitting wood

00:29:12.780 uh yeah no matter i mean it's just i mean what do you think it is about the the task that

00:29:18.220 that makes it so enjoyable even though it's physically laborious yeah it's i think because

00:29:23.980 it's if there is one really magic moment in this work it's the part when the axe hits the wood and

00:29:31.900 it's being split which takes about one tenth of a second but that is the the moment where it goes from

00:29:43.100 having been a part of the tree to becoming a log of firewood if you understand what i mean the in

00:29:51.020 that split second it's uh it's a twofold joke there the split second but the but in that moment it goes

00:30:00.380 from just being a well round trunk and it becomes firewood so and somehow it's um it's like working on

00:30:11.740 an assembly line but it's different all the time so and so it's um you know it's monotonous work but

00:30:20.540 it never gets boring somehow so and and you feel the effect of of your work and you see the result of

00:30:28.780 it uh it grows minute by minute and the um i think well that's a great satisfaction that's also a

00:30:39.980 quite a contrast to to many other things of a of a modern life because in so many aspects of of a

00:30:48.860 working life you can always improve on things i mean if you work in a in a office or if you work with

00:30:57.180 something creative you you can always do things better and you can respond to emails late at night

00:31:04.620 and you can always you know go on with the struggle to make things better and better but with this

00:31:10.460 simple process it's it's done it cannot be improved you split it and then it's perfect even if it's not

00:31:16.940 perfect it gives this enormous sense of peace of mind that you you cannot improve it it's done it's

00:31:25.820 perfect and when you do this work all the frustrations from the day go into the firewood and you know that

00:31:34.460 they will go later into the stove and the wonderful thing is to burn those logs who's been really

00:31:41.660 troublesome and simply wouldn't split they too must give in when you throw them in the stove do you

00:31:49.660 really remember those troublesome logs oh yeah i recognize them yes yes i when i work my way say in

00:31:57.180 reverse i i sort of go fold back month for month the the labor i had the previous winter and and i

00:32:06.220 recognize those those logs that just wouldn't split and the the strange ones or perhaps the one from a

00:32:15.340 quite rare sort of tree these days i'm actually burning a um a tree that i had to cut down from

00:32:25.500 a neighbor of mine an elderly woman who had a big apple tree and it's uh it's it's fun really because it

00:32:34.140 reminds us of the situation when we did that work and it's uh very very good firewood so it's almost

00:32:43.660 like when you look at the wood part it's almost like you're looking at some geological geologic

00:32:50.300 layers of your own uh of your own labor yeah yeah well too romantically into it but it reminds you of the

00:33:00.220 work you put down yeah i can totally see that i can totally get that yeah um so let's talk we

00:33:07.020 talked about stacking wood um ideally you want it you want wind and sun but if you're going to choose

00:33:12.060 one choose wind yeah um so let's talk about building a fire we've cut our tree we've split the wood we've

00:33:20.300 dried it what's the ideal way to build a fire that will get that will just burn hot and clean and won't

00:33:27.820 fill your house up with smoke the the essence to it is to make sure that you have as dry firewood as

00:33:35.340 absolutely possible and many people say that firewood shouldn't be too dry and that it has a

00:33:43.180 optimum humidity um that it should have some humidity but i've i've never found any proof uh that that

00:33:54.220 is of any benefit so so my advice through a lot of research is to have it as dry as complete as

00:34:01.340 possible and the interesting key element to building a fire is to know that exactly what is burning and

00:34:13.740 it may surprise some to know that smoke is not some exhaust like you have from a from a car

00:34:21.100 uh the smoke itself is the uh is the energy that we want to burn uh so when you see smoke you actually

00:34:32.540 see come uh some gases that that you want to burn and when if if smoke comes from a house it's about

00:34:41.020 it's wasted energy is it's about the same as petrol leaking from from a car

00:34:46.140 uh so the key thing to observe is to um is to to know how the um how the the firewood behaves and the

00:34:57.900 first uh step when burning wood is the um is the gas stage where the uh where the heat uh brings out

00:35:06.460 all the gases from from the log and when you see a flame what you see is actually smoke burning

00:35:14.460 uh and when the log is uh has run out of gas it goes into the uh into the uh the the ember stage

00:35:26.700 where the embers are glowing and that is the remaining part of the log the carbon

00:35:33.660 so to to make so to make a successful fire you should know the the basics of this combustion

00:35:43.020 process and i describe it in detail in the book but the and the other thing is uh to many people's

00:35:50.620 surprise is that the optimum way of burning a fire is when starting a fire is to burn it from the top and

00:35:59.020 down and that i i think that's probably contrary to uh what what you've learned perhaps right yeah i was

00:36:08.300 taught you know you start off with the kindling and the tender and then you add the fuel logs afterwards

00:36:13.820 but you're saying you want to put yeah and the there are two good reasons for that because we uh

00:36:21.500 the generation before us and all of those earlier on they you they were used to either open fireplaces or

00:36:32.140 closed box stoves but for the modern clean burn stove and or it's uh and also for outdoor fires it's actually

00:36:43.740 better to start the the fire by building a base of logs in the in the bottom of the stove or in the on the

00:36:52.220 ground if you're outdoors and then make a small fire on top of that because the uh what happens is that

00:37:04.940 smoke or gas will come out from the logs underneath and they will obviously go up into the air but by

00:37:13.980 having uh having uh having the fire on top of the logs the smoke that goes out will uh will catch fire

00:37:22.300 so instead of releasing pollution you just burn the pollution and turn it into eat and

00:37:29.740 it's described a method in the book which has been i'm proud to say that it's

00:37:36.060 uh been met with really great enthusiasm both by outdoor people and uh also people who had trouble

00:37:45.340 lighting a fire with with uh uh difficult stoves yeah so so that's really one of the

00:37:53.340 great things i i like with the book that it will forward that method yeah

00:37:58.300 Lars this has been a great conversation uh is there some place people can go to learn more about your work

00:38:03.820 you know the book has after the publication it's been especially in europe it became

00:38:10.060 quite a lot of a phenomena really i've described a bit of it on uh on my website uh which is in

00:38:17.900 norwegian so people has to work their way through it but the um no the nearly all i know and what i've

00:38:28.780 learned after the publication is actually uh gathered in in the u.s edition of the book which was uh

00:38:37.820 because after the norwegian publication i had a lot of feedback and uh positive reactions from readers

00:38:46.860 and i made for the u.s edition i made a revised and expanded editions where i

00:38:52.700 integrated all the new knowledge that i had so uh basically all i know is is in the book

00:39:01.420 there's meeting things for your time it's been a pleasure all right thank you thank you

00:39:05.660 my guess is lars mitting his book is norwegian wood chopping stacking and drying wood the scandinavian way

00:39:11.500 it's available on amazon.com go check it out it's really good read a lot of philosophical tidbits about

00:39:17.340 the wonders and pleasures of fire but also a lot of jam-packed with practical information on how to

00:39:21.900 build better fires to warm yourself uh also check out our show notes at aom.is slash wood where you

00:39:27.900 find links to resources to delve deeper into this topic

00:39:41.020 well that wraps up another edition of the art of manliness podcast for more manly tips and advice

00:39:45.260 make sure to check out the art of manliness website at artofmanliness.com our show is edited

00:39:48.940 by creative audio lab here in tulsa oklahoma if you have any audio editing needs or audio production

00:39:52.780 needs check them out at creativeaudiolab.com we appreciate your reviews on itunes or stitcher

00:39:57.820 really helps us out a lot so if you could just take a minute please go do that as always thank you

00:40:01.900 for your continued support and until next time this is brett mckay telling you to stay manly

00:40:15.260 too

00:40:16.300 VA so

00:40:17.900 pa

00:40:21.180 now

00:40:21.820 so

00:40:23.820 this is

00:40:25.920 great

00:40:31.580 the

00:40:33.820 using

The Art of Manliness - July 31, 2025

#263： The Philosophy and Practice of Building a Fire the Scandinavian Way

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