Light My Fire

last year I rebuilt my grandfather’s fireplace after it had collapsed from many years of use. I vaguely remember him building it with some of his old bricklaying mates back in the early 1970s. It was constructed in the traditional way, where rule of thumb generally prevailed over accurate measurements. As such, that ol’ fireplace often smoked the house out. But we loved it.

During the reconstruction, the brickie I was working with explained that the ratios of opening to flue width to smoke shelf are