A few photos of smokey fire

[fornax hominus]

what you have to remember is you are not burning wood , you are burning a mixture of the wood gas that comes off the heated wood and the air/oxygen mix that enters the oven ... so it's about carburation ... the space between your wood .. too far apart not enough heat to produce gas.. too close together ..not enough room for the air ..
tricks to reduce smoke ;
I use two largish lengths of wood as andirons to hold the burning wood up to allow the air in .
I also pull coals to the front to re-heat the cold incoming air entering through the lower part of the door .
Split your wood , exposed corners heat up and ignite much faster [with less smoke] than rounds
tim

''man who finish oven ...die'' with apologies to Confucius

[drogers]

When burning wood in any enclosure remember that one needs enough room for the air and gases give off by the wood to mix properly so combustion can take place completely. When I owned a sawmill and burnt wood chips in our boiler I always figured 1 cubic foot of space for each 25,000 btu's. This was with a firebox made specifically for burning wood. If you place to much fuel in the space you displace the air needed for good combustion.