@emanate Having looked up some stuff, I kinda didn't :) Also it turns out that ma lot of the technique I did dimly remember don't work as well in a metal fire enclosure.
@indi I should probably look stuff up too, and I'd still be happy to build one for you sometime. :-)
@emanate Part of the problem I'm realizing is that a lot of the standard campfire construction techniques (teepee, lean-to) rely on having friction with the ground to prop stuff up on. Not so effective with a flat metal base.
Basically I'm thinking more and more about just doing the earth firepit thing ASAP.
Come to think of it, there's quite a few correspondences between paganism and scouting. The pyromania, the social ritual...
And some issues both need to work on, like authoritarian bullshit and Native cultural appropriation. ;)