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Show me your (fire) pits!

 
Nissa Gadbois
pollinator
Posts: 193
Location: Barre, MA and Silistra, Bulgaria
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We're going to be (hopefully) really zhuzhing up our Zone 1 garden area.  At the moment, we have some salvaged bricks dry stacked to make a wonky fire pit around an old tree stump.  The pit makes a lovely spot for gathering around on an evening.  It also comes in handy when we're needing to boil great big pots as with dyeing wool and such.  Also?  I like a ritual fire in the mornings when I can.

I'd like to use those bricks for something else and maybe grab some of our abundant stones and do a proper one from that.  But... I'd love to see what you all have made.  Include seating or tripods/grills, whatever.  I need some inspiration.

Thanks heaps!

{BRB, I need to go get the photo of our wonky pit from my phone...}

Wl5BpmLzRzWJkJafX9hInw.jpg
The Wonky Fire Pit
The Wonky Fire Pit

Nissa Gadbois - RenaissanceMama
Events at Renaissance Farms

 
Jane Mulberry
master pollinator
Posts: 946
Location: East of England/ Northeast Bulgaria
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Nice! A fire pit is on my project list for the Bulgarian house. We don't have a summer kitchen, but there's a long outbuilding set 15 or 20 metres back from the house (total guess on distance, I need to measure and make a map next time I am there!), which I want to convert into a summer kitchen and outdoor bathroom. A fire pit in that area would be great! There's an old stone ruin way up the back in a wild area of the property. I'm hoping I can get through the brambles to salvage some stone to use for the fire pit and some low terrace walls for the sloped garden.

I'm only 64! That's not to old to learn to be a permie, right?

 
greg mosser
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Posts: 1625
Location: the mountains of western nc
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there’s a bit of a tangle of blackberry canes piled in the way of a picture at the moment, but our main firepit is a ~20inch wide, three foot long stone lined slot designed to put a long grate across for cooking. the immediate few feet around it are stone-covered too. there are plans in the works for a permanent bench on the hillside-side of the pit, but as yet just plans.
 
D. Logan
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Posts: 1179
Location: Eastern Tennessee
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Mine is a humble beginning. I plan to do upgrades in the future so there is seating and maybe a bit of a better fire ring.

Outdoor and Ecological articles (sporadic Mondays) at http://blog.dxlogan.com/ and my main site is found at http://www.dxlogan.com/

 
Saana Jalimauchi
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Posts: 2176
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A fire pit at Wheaton Labs got a new design.. It's now smokeless!

 
Dan Fish
pollinator
Posts: 697
Location: Sierra Nevada Foothills, Zone 7b
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But without smoke how will you find the prettiest person around the fire? As in, "smoke follows beauty" hahaha.

I love white rabbits.

Fish heads fish heads roly poly fish heads

 
Juan Montes
Posts: 36
Location: Coastal NorCal
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Interested in seeing fire pits. I'm working on designing a solution to my issues, which is that I use fire, for making charcoal, I'm planning some metal casting, and outdoor cooking, fire hardening wood, etc, but I live in a place where wild fire is an issue.  It's important to me that I am able to safely and privately work with fire in the dry season, which means I want to take into account things like clearance to combustibles, screening, spark suppression and more.  I'm jealous of you all who can plop a ring of stones somewhere at anytime.
 
Anne Miller
steward
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Location: USDA Zone 8a
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Juan, the bio-char forum might have some solutions that might give you some ideas:

https://permies.com/f/190/biochar

This thread has some great examples that you of others might find of interest:

https://permies.com/t/160236/Show-biochar-system

Invasive plants are Earth's way of insisting we notice her medicines. Stephen Herrod Buhner
Everyone learns what works by learning what doesn't work. Stephen Herrod Buhner

 
Jason Learned
pollinator
Posts: 148
Location: Czech Republic; East Bohemia; Latitude 50˚ 12' 34"
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I suppose I should have posted this a few years ago, but I didn’t realize it would be permies material. I welded them out of steel and started playing with the design in 2017. This is my 8th version. I made it 2’ wide and either 8”,12”, or 16” high. They have three ports an inch wide. The taller the more heat thrown out. If I can keep the coal bed and fuel load very low in the pit it makes a very nice tornado of fire. I made this one with two cranes. Makes a very good goulash.

Sorry I’ve been away. I’ve been rebuilding the family house and it has been a lot of work.

Jason
 
Jason Learned
pollinator
Posts: 148
Location: Czech Republic; East Bohemia; Latitude 50˚ 12' 34"
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Jason Learned wrote:I suppose I should have posted this a few years ago, but I didn’t realize it would be permies material. I welded them out of steel and started playing with the design in 2017. This is my 8th version. I made it 2’ wide and either 8”,12”, or 16” high. They have three ports an inch wide. The taller the more heat thrown out. If I can keep the coal bed and fuel load very low in the pit it makes a very nice tornado of fire. I made this one with two cranes. Makes a very good goulash.

Sorry I’ve been away. I’ve been rebuilding the family house and it has been a lot of work.

Jason

a555bdea-cbcf-4b9c-ad6f-97e21ad905ca.jpeg
[Thumbnail for a555bdea-cbcf-4b9c-ad6f-97e21ad905ca.jpeg]
 
Jason Learned
pollinator
Posts: 148
Location: Czech Republic; East Bohemia; Latitude 50˚ 12' 34"
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Jason Learned wrote:

https://youtube.com/shorts/q8dkPiI9SA4?si=W-DVTPfGL3SCqXTE

Here is a short of the short one burning

 
Judy Bowman
Posts: 129
Location: Southwest Oklahoma, southern Greer County, Zone 7a
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Jason, can you elaborate on the 3 pits?  Location, shape, etc.  Thanks.

South of the Salt Fork

 
Jason Learned
pollinator
Posts: 148
Location: Czech Republic; East Bohemia; Latitude 50˚ 12' 34"
39
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Judy Bowman wrote:Jason, can you elaborate on the 3 pits?  Location, shape, etc.  Thanks.





All three now look similar to the one pictured. The one you see is 8" tall, the body is and the feet are around 3". They have the rings around the top and bottom that hold the three panels in their position. Older ones were cut and welded, but didn't look as nice. The next one is 12" high and the fire doesn't reach as high above the top of the pit, but it produces more heat and less smoke than the shortest. The 16" produces the most heat with almost no smoke, but the fire stays below the rim for most of the time. It will do a tornado sometimes and it is quite pretty. The fire in all of these tends to dance around counter clockwise around and around. It makes for a really pretty fire. So even the tall one has a pretty flame you can enjoy. You have to sit quite far away from the fire pit as it gets really hot. the sides are like radiators. However, a friend of mine has the 8" and his friends sat around in T-shirts in the snow-- so I guess it can kick out a fair amount of heat too, but the 16" just sends out more. I sit about 8-10' away.
All of them need a good load of wood to keep the fire going hot enough to keep the smoke from forming so it is not rocket stove efficient, but I was going for pretty and having clothes that stay clean smelling.
c53949fe-5be8-4d5b-8e61-b876ecb65d20.jpg
This was version 3 I think
This was version 3 I think
 
Jason Learned
pollinator
Posts: 148
Location: Czech Republic; East Bohemia; Latitude 50˚ 12' 34"
39
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Judy Bowman wrote:Jason, can you elaborate on the 3 pits?  Location, shape, etc.  Thanks.



As far as location, they are in Holland, Bohemia, and Hungary. Some go camping and others are in back yards. Many are used for Barbeque.
 
Jason Learned
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Posts: 148
Location: Czech Republic; East Bohemia; Latitude 50˚ 12' 34"
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Jason Learned wrote:

Judy Bowman wrote:Jason, can you elaborate on the 3 pits?  Location, shape, etc.  Thanks.



As far as location, they are in Holland, Bohemia, and Hungary. Some go camping and others are in back yards. Many are used for Barbeque.



IMG_7615.jpg
version 2 and 3 used for testing port widths, there was a third one for the test. One inch seemed to work best.
version 2 and 3 used for testing port widths, there was a third one for the test. One inch seemed to work best.
 
Jason Learned
pollinator
Posts: 148
Location: Czech Republic; East Bohemia; Latitude 50˚ 12' 34"
39
10
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Judy Bowman wrote:Jason, can you elaborate on the 3 pits?  Location, shape, etc.  Thanks.



The feet of 9 I put in to make it look floating. Bad decision I’ll go back the other way if I make more.
b0e692ee-09ca-4e16-9896-bb3a556a04da.jpeg
These are version 9
These are version 9
 
Ben Brownell
Posts: 5
Location: Klamath-Siskiyou CA
2
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I've had a lot of fun playing with rudimentary yet (multi)functional and aesthetic burn pits at my location. Of about a dozen so far, here's a couple favorites - one more for ambience and social services, the other for outdoor cooking, with wide flat bottom and flagstone rim:

BM-fire-pit.jpg
[Thumbnail for BM-fire-pit.jpg]
upper-cookfire-spring.jpg
[Thumbnail for upper-cookfire-spring.jpg]
 
Ben Brownell
Posts: 5
Location: Klamath-Siskiyou CA
2
posted 2 weeks ago
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One more here that’s nicely recessed into a larger pit and berm, plus another angle on the first one above that shows its step-down “keyhole” rim for easier access and use:
IMG_7829.jpeg
[Thumbnail for IMG_7829.jpeg]
IMG_7731.jpeg
[Thumbnail for IMG_7731.jpeg]
 
Tim Luden
Posts: 44
Location: Missouri
3
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One of mine, closest to my back deck in the ‘Show-Me State!” 12’ diameter, shored it up with extra ash and retaining blocks after being buck naked with a garden hose in the wee hours putting out a grass fire!
IMG_2775.jpeg
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IMG_2776.jpeg
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Something must be done about this. Let's start by reading this tiny ad:
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