My name is Julian and I started off making horseshoes an embarassingly long time ago. I then trained as an agricultural engineer and travelled the world for many years in that capacity. And then I went back to the anvil, and have had my own workshop and forge for just under three years. I started out making trivets and camping equipment after many people enquired, and started designing and making my own wood-burning stoves after I was approached by a friend. I spent a long time listening to people then I spent a lot more time designing a wood-burning stove that gave them everything they wanted. It boiled down to three key things for me, it must stay in overnight, it must take big logs, so it needs a big door, and it must have a hotplate for cooking. I added in the fact that I wanted my stoves to last forever and that I wanted them to look nice and arrived at the basic design, which has remained unchanged, though each of my stoves is unique and some are really works of art.
Having got hooked on making stoves, I started looking for ways to make them more useful. I kept thinking of all that heat and how I might harness some of it. Generating power seemed the obvious task to me. Even small amounts can make a huge difference if you have no mains power, particularly in winter. Daylight is limited, wind is unpredictable and generators have a host of problems, so there was a huge challenge to get my teeth into. I looked at steam in various configurations and  I even looked at Stirling cycle engines, before rejecting all of them for a host of practical  reasons. You can see what I arrived at on The Tinderbox page. I'm excited, and I think you will be too.

Contact the Fireweaver, you will not be disappointed!