HUN Chapter 20: Red Brick Small Stove

Today marked Lin Yu'an's twenty-fourth day in the Chilko Lake wilderness.

After several days of busy work, that compact and practical ground updraft kiln had successfully fired the clay brick mold and several kiln top sealing plates.

Lin Yu'an didn't rest, immediately throwing himself into the work of mass-producing clay brick blanks. Using that ceramic mold, he pressed out uniformly sized mud bricks one after another.

Soon, the open area beside the shelter was neatly arranged with over a hundred moist, dark brown mud bricks.

To prevent rain damage, Lin Yu'an had already used waterproof tarp to build a simple rain shelter, ensuring these mud bricks could slowly air dry in a dry environment.

The air drying process lasted two days.

During this period, Lin Yu'an occasionally turned the mud bricks to ensure each side could evenly contact air, avoiding cracks or deformation due to uneven drying.

When the mud bricks' color gradually changed from dark brown to light brown, formal clay brick firing could begin.

He carefully loaded the first batch of about twenty of the most intact mud bricks from the kiln top into the earthen kiln, following previous firing experience by stacking them in alternating layers, ensuring hot air could circulate evenly.

The subsequent firing process was already familiar territory for Lin Yu'an.

Small fire preheating to "bake the kiln," slowly evaporating residual moisture in the brick blanks, then high fire entering the high-temperature calcining stage. The kiln's internal flames changed from dark red to bright orange-yellow. When the heat was just right, he stopped adding firewood, used clay plates and wet mud to seal the kiln top and wood-feeding opening, and performed "smothering kiln" for natural cooling.

Since the earthen kiln wasn't large and the number of bricks fired at once was limited, Lin Yu'an wasn't impatient. During these two days, he had caught two more fish and shot a grouse, replenishing his food supply.

The firing process lasted three days. Three consecutive kiln loads of sixty-two clay bricks successfully emerged! The reddish-brown brick blocks were hard in texture with clear ringing sounds when tapped. Although they bore the rough traces of handcrafting, they completely met his expectations.

"We now have over sixty clay bricks! I think we can start building the stove's main structure!"

Lin Yu'an carefully transported the fired clay bricks into the stone shelter.

After carefully planning the stove's location, he chose the spot right next to the stone wall where he had reserved a smoke vent hole.

This was the ideal location. When initially building the shelter, he had planned for reserving this smoke vent hole. Placing the stove here was very close to the smoke outlet, convenient for flue construction and maximizing the use of corner space.

Lin Yu'an didn't lay bricks directly on the dirt floor, but first used several irregularly shaped clay bricks to dry-lay a solid foundation.

This foundation could effectively improve ventilation and slightly elevate the stove's combustion chamber.

Then he began formally laying clay bricks. Without cement, he could only use clay mixed with collected wood ash, adding water to create an adhesive mud slurry.

He used a homemade wooden hammer to gently tap the top and sides of the bricks, ensuring each brick evenly contacted the mud slurry and remained stable.

The combustion chamber's internal space was designed as a rectangular solid about forty centimeters wide, thirty centimeters deep, and thirty-five centimeters high.

At the front bottom of the combustion chamber, he reserved a wood-feeding and air intake opening about fifteen centimeters high and twenty centimeters wide.

When the combustion chamber's four walls were built to the predetermined height, Lin Yu'an began handling the stove's most core cooking part, the stovetop and stove opening.

Lin Yu'an measured the dimensions and decided to fire a square clay plate with a circular hollow in the center to place on top of the stove, leaving an opening that could steadily hold cookware.

After another day of firing, he successfully fired the stove cover! It sat fairly stably on top of the brick stove.

Lin Yu'an picked up the stainless steel pot and carefully placed it on the hollowed stove cover. The cookware fit snugly within, the pot rim tightly matching the stove opening's edge!

"Absolutely perfect! Heating and cooking will be much more convenient from now on, and thermal efficiency will be much higher!"

After completing the stovetop and stove opening, next came the flue system, which was crucial to the entire stove system and relatively complex.

Lin Yu'an looked seriously at the camera and said, "The exhaust system is the soul of the stove. If smoke doesn't vent properly, the entire stone house will become a smokehouse."

"Not only would it be uncomfortable to live in, but over time, there could be carbon monoxide poisoning, which is no joke! I don't want to withdraw from the competition for this reason."

He turned around and pointed to the wall area above the combustion chamber at the back of the stove.

"I plan to install the flue here, extending upward close to the combustion chamber's rear wall. This way it can effectively collect combustion-generated smoke while being structurally stable."

Lin Yu'an again took clay bricks and the already mixed clay-wood ash slurry, planning to build a square flue.

Above the stone wall near the corner, he had specially reserved that hole. Normally, to keep warm and prevent small animals from entering, he blocked it with several appropriately sized stones.

Lin Yu'an walked to the wall and moved away those temporarily blocking stones, revealing the hole that penetrated the stone wall inside and out.

"This reserved hole can now come in very handy."

He continued building the flue upward, gradually approaching the reserved hole in the stone wall. When the flue's height was level with the hole's bottom edge, he began the most critical connection work.

Since the hole in the stone wall and the flue couldn't perfectly match, some transition and filling were needed here.

He took some fired clay bricks, broke them into fragments with the logging axe, mixed them with small stones and plenty of wet clay slurry, carefully filling the gaps between the flue's outer wall and the stone wall hole's edges.

He repeatedly applied and pressed until all gaps were filled with clay slurry. The clay brick flue successfully passed through the stone wall!

To further enhance smoke exhaust effectiveness and prevent rainwater backflow and wind direction effects on smoke exhaust, Lin Yu'an decided to add a simple outdoor chimney on the stone wall's exterior side, using clay bricks to extend the flue upward a short distance.

He climbed out of the shelter and came to the stone wall's exterior. To save clay bricks, he used remaining stones to build a foundation up to the flue opening that emerged from the wall.

Only then did he begin using clay bricks on the stone foundation to continue building upward about thirty centimeters high chimney.

At the very top of the chimney, he used two flat clay pieces to form an inverted "V" shaped small roof.

Lin Yu'an returned inside the stone house and carefully inspected every connection point of the flue, ensuring there were no obvious leaks. He patted the solid flue wall, feeling a weight lift from his heart.

"Alright, the flue is also complete! We can test the clay brick stove!"

First he brought in a small bundle of dry kindling and some flammable dry grass and birch bark from outside, placed them in the stove's bottom combustion chamber, and arranged several thin pieces of firewood on top.

"For the first fire, we'll use small flames to see how the flue's smoke exhaust works."

Soon a small cluster of flames danced in the combustion chamber, igniting the birch bark and gradually igniting the firewood above.

Lin Yu'an didn't immediately close the wood-feeding opening, but crouched in front of the stove, carefully observing the flame's combustion state and the smoke's direction.

Initially, since both the firebox and flue contained cold air, some smoke escaped from gaps in the wood-feeding opening and stove opening.

But as the temperature inside the firebox gradually rose, hot air began rising, and the draft in the flue slowly manifested.

He took the camera and walked outside the stone house, looking up at the simple clay brick chimney extending from the wall. Sure enough, wisps of grayish-white smoke were slowly emerging from the chimney top, then being dispersed by the breeze.

"Look, the smoke is starting to go up through the flue!"

"The exhaust system is working normally!"

Lin Yu'an nodded with satisfaction and returned inside the stone house. By now, the smoke smell inside had basically dissipated, with most smoke gases being effectively expelled outdoors, though there were still small areas with smoke leaks.

He began repairs by filling more slurry and adding more firewood to the combustion chamber. The fire grew stronger! The smoke leaks were also within acceptable range. Tomorrow he would perform systematic mud patching repairs.

By now, evening had fallen. Lin Yu'an simply ate some smoked dried fish. Although tired from a busy day, looking at this clay brick stove before him, his heart was filled with accomplishment and anticipation!

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