A swedish stove weighs often more than a ton. It contains up to 60 tiles weighing about 350 kgs, 400 kgs of bricks and 250 kgs of miwed sand and blue clay. All the bricks and tiles are dipped into water for a few minutes before use to make sure, that the whole thing holds together. That means the stove contains more than 100 liters of water when the stovemaker has finished building it. Therefore it has to dry out for 3 months before firing it up.

After 3 months drying it's very important to start it up slowly to be sure not to spoil the stove. It's important to use dry wood, length max 25-30 cms, diameter 10-13 cms. Place some small sticks and some fireblocks against the back of the combustion chamber. Place 3 pieces of wood over the small sticks. 

Keep the door and the the topdamper open and ligt it up. Keep the door 10 cms open, the topdamper 100% out for 10-15 minutes as well. Then you can push the topdamper 30-40% in and keep an eye at the door if smoke is coming out. If so you have to drag the damper a little out again. At this time, after having opened the air intake at the bottom of the door 100%, you can close the door. Stay close to the stove to make sure that the fire is burning nice.

You should start firing for 1-1 1/2 hours and let it burn out. After 5-6 hours you can fire for two hours. And so on you increase the hours of firing. After 3-4 days the stove should be ready for firing 3-4 hours at night - 2 hours in the morning. Then the stove will keep warm the whole winter. Everytime the fire burns out, you should push the topdamper as far in as possible and drag it 1-1 1/2 cms out not to  to be carbon monoxide poisoned.

Do never fire the stove harder than you can place your hand on the surface of the stove. To keep the stove warm for 12 hours, fire for 3 hours. Fire in the back of the combustion chamber to protect the tiles over the door. Then your stove should stay healthy for 25-40 years.

When you start the next firing season, offcourse you don't have to go through this procedure.