A call for help from all you stickburners!

Just keep a good clean fire going and you'll be fine...meaning a small hot fire with good airflow.

The better the fire the smaller smoke particles and that's what you're looking for.

I keep a small hot fire and I put the next wood I am going to add on the top of the firebox. Doing that raises the temp of the wood so that it starts burning quicker and minimizes the white smoke.

I start with 2 lbs of lump charcoal and 2 oak Splits hit it with the weed burner with the door open oven and fire box, stack wide open once I see the Splits burning and the smoke thin I close the oven door and let it burn a good hour to establish a good coal bed and let the pit come up to temp and settle in then I add an Oak split once it is giving off no visible or TBS I set my intake damper to where it will maintain the desired pit temp of 275-325 deg ( I like to cook at 300) I add a split when the temp dips to 275 about every 45 min to an hour until the cook is done.

Make sure the exhaust stays all the way open, manage fire from the intakes.

i start with a bed of coals and 2 or 3 splits.when it burns down and i get clean smoke i add the meat. then 2 splits every 40-50 mins.all my dampers are wide open.special thanks to fnbish for showing me the way.

All good advice. Use good dry wood not green or wet wood. splits should not bee too big for the fire size.

No smoldering fire

This may help you solve your issues with wood burning fires.

[ame]http://youtu.be/1U6_gpg8ry0[/ame]

Well it's been pretty well answered above but if you want a little more detail then here ya go, this is my fire starting method which I keep on file for times exactly like this. It can be tweaked to fit pretty much any size cooker.:-D
STARTING A FIRE IN AN OFFSET
The best way to run your offset is to build a good, hot wood fire and to develop a thick bed of coals to thoroughly heat the pit. With this method it takes a little time initially to get the pit ready for cooking but it will be well worth it as the cook will be a LOT easier for the pit master. It's important to note that you should leave the exhaust damper wide open and adjust the temps with your intake damper. Here's my fire building method...
Open the doors and all of the dampers to the pit. Start with an 8 to 10 lb bag of LUMP charcoal, filling a chimney with about half to light and pour the rest into the firebox. When your chimney is thoroughly lit, pour the lit coals on to the mound of unlit coals in the firebox, put a couple of wood splits on top and allow them to burn down to begin generating more coals. When the wood splits have fully ignited and are ashed over, shut the doors and leave the dampers fully open to allow plenty of draft as the pit heats up.
Once the temp climbs to about 25 degrees or so above where you want to cook at, begin adjusting down on the intake damper until you have dialed in your cooking temp and then once the first two splits have sufficiently burned down to coals add another wood split to begin a routine of a split every 45 minutes to an hour. This way you are constantly adding to the coal bed and your temps are staying pretty much consistent. As long as you add your splits when they are needed your pit will practically run itself and though there will be SOME fluctuation in temps when opening the firebox door and when the newly added split catches on, the pit will recover very quickly, you'll be cooking in a ZONE.
If you want to cook at 275 for instance, work to maintain a zone of 50 degrees and maintain the temp in an area between 250 and 300. The temp will fall to between 250 and 275 when the pit is ready for another split and then the temp will rise to between 275 and 300 as the split ignites but eventually the temp will settle in to the 275 that you have the intake damper set for. Again, as long as you're adding your splits regularly your pit will pretty much be on auto pilot and you'll never have to worry about losing your temps or dirty smoke.:wink:
P.S. Again, it's important to make all temp adjustments with your INTAKE damper only, the exhaust should remain wide open throughout the cook.:-D

Here's a post I did that has a video to how I light my stickburner. Using a weed burner I'm ready to cook in just a couple of minutes with a clean burning fire. It's all about getting that initial base of coals going and of course keeping the airflow steady.

http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=203089

Your equipment determines what fuel to use and how you manage your fire. Most of the advice given above pertains to a good quality offset made of heavy gauge steel. What are you using?

Don't let people tell you not to use green wood, and don't let them tell you it has to be seasoned 3 or 4 years first, I toss that crap over the hillside.
Dave

What kind of smoker you are using would help us help you. But all the advice above is good. The key is a clean fire with "burning wood" not smoldering wood. I have used wood chips with the snake method on my OTG and it was fine. I have used chunks also. I start out with coals in my cheap offset and then go to all wood. As has been said, I preheat the wood on top of the fire box. I haven't counted but probably use about 8 small splits in a 6 hour cook at 250-275. More for higher temp

If it's a side-loading firebox, use the door as an additional vent when adding wood or at sight of dirty smoke. Open it wide until wood takes off in flames, and close to the point where it burns hot and doesn't smolder.

First of all, what kind of pit are you using? That affects the answer. I start my fire with a couple of chimneys of charcoal followed by a couple of logs. While that's going and the pit is coming up to temp, I load the top of the firebox with a single layer of logs to get them preheating. After that I Always feed the pit preheated logs. They should burst into flame as soon as you put them on the fire. Since they flame immediately there is no smoldering and no white smoke. You also have to get a good draft going. A small fire with a good bed of coals is the best.. I generally make faint blue wispy smoke and I use all wood.

This is a picture of smoke from my stickburner, when it looks like this, you're in for good eats. It's all about a clean burning fire. The right air in and the right draft.

Just my $0.02. Get your coal bed started like others have suggested. Then, USE GOOD WOOD! I use kiln dried hickory or pecan that is down to <14% moisture. You can get the same quality with air dried, my point is to use good dried/curred splits.

dwfisk said:

Just my $0.02. Get your coal bed started like others have suggested. Then, USE GOOD WOOD! I use kiln dried hickory or pecan that is down to <14% moisture. You can get the same quality with air dried, my point is to use good dried/curred splits.

Click to expand...

That's what the preheat I mentioned is for, not to mention the wood is quite hot before it goes on the fire. It's definetly helpful if the wood is damp from a rain..

I used to see Pitmasters doing this and wonded why. Then one day the light just went on and I knew what and why they were doing it. Some of them even put the splits on the inside of the firebox, to the side, for perheating, if they have a big enough firebox.

A lot depends on the type and quality of the pit in question. However on my large Shirley offset this is how I do it. I put 5 pounds of unlit charcoal in the pit. I then start 5 pounds of charcoal in a chimney starter. Once burning good, I dump the lit coals into the unlit charcoal and add 3 fair size sticks of wood as well. I let this burn until the pit falls down to whatever temp I'm shooting for. Usually 250-285 degrees or anywhere in between. When the pit hits 250 I add a stick. I keep doing this for the duration of the cook. As long as the pit is in the window of 250-285 I don't fuss over trying to lock in on a set temp. Just somewhere in this range. By establishing a large coal bed up front, I find that everytime I add a stick it lights immediately and burns clean. Also I regulate temperature by how much and how often I add wood. I run my exhaust and intake wide open the whole time. I never throttle down with the intake. I limit the amount of wood I feed to the fire to keep temp down. By doing it this way, I never have dirty smoke. There is one pitfall to this method though. Over a real long cook, you will run out of hot coals because you are not feeding enough wood to replenish what coals are consumed. However this is usually past the 6 hour mark. When I reach this point I simply add 5 more pounds of charcoal and repeat the whole cycle over again. My method is probably not the best way but I have never had bad smoke by leaving the exhaust and the intake wide open. The controlling the temp by the amount of wood fed instead of restricting air works great. You just have to be prepared to cook in a range instead of a locked in temp. Just thought I would share. Good luck.

Gotta say I'm kinda shocked on how much charcoal y'all are using to get started....I'm using 1/2 chimney or less and over 400* in about 20 minutes. Just seems like a lot of lump.

My half chimney just pours on my partial burnt from prior cook.