Blacksmith, Yes. I used good quality stainless bolts and washers. When I took possession of the stove it was a true rust bucket. Every single bolt on it had to be cut or ground off. I spent an entire day just taking it apart.
Dave, the tomahawk and stone ax came to me in a barter transaction. I traded a heavy silver chain necklace for them based upon a mutually agreed value of $400. My opposite on the deal was a Chippewa Plains native American artist named Darrell Poitra who lives and works out of a studio in Fargo, North Dakota. Darrell made the stone ax. The tomahawk was made by an artist friend of his, Wolf Pierce, also a Chippewa Plains native American. My understanding is that both of these gentlemen are highly regarded artists. They also have their own web site but I do not recall the name of it at this moment. The deal came about on a web site, Tradeaway. The items are really beautiful. The beads are cut from natural stones. The fur pieces are bear. The cones are hammered aluminum. That forged iron ax head is as sharp as any knife in my kitchen.
Something to take the chill off... Ok, so the stove has been fired up for a couple hours now. Everything seems perfect. The smoke alarms have not sounded; the carbon monoxide alarm has not sounded. I have opened the load door numerous times and there is no problem with the missing smoke panel. Only twice a small wisp of smoke came out when I opened the door. The air in the house is clear. Only when I go outside can I smell that really nice burning wood 'smell.' Chimney shows no smoke. I am burning a couple pieces of very well seasoned oak and I tossed in a couple pieces of white birch, the latter being a wood that I do not like but which was slipped into a load of stovewood that I acquired in a barter deal. (I will not deal with the guy again.) The room with the stove is at 70 f. Upstairs seems to be close to that, or maybe a bit warmer -I have to get additional thermometers. I took temperature readings with the laser thermometer all around and under the stove, along the flue pipe, and all around the flue pipe in the upstairs bedroom. All results are fine. The stove is now around 300 f. and the flue around 200 f. now that the fire is settling down. It was chilly in the house before I lit her up. It is now a comfy 70 deg. f.
Hey welcome to the forum, I am another Maine sheep farmer and a lover of old stoves, though I am a touch south of you near Belfast. If you ever get the chance, drop down to Thorndike and check out Bryant Antique Stove Works, they sell and have parts for old stoves. I mean a LOT of old stoves. I got (2) broken legs for my old 1893 Woods and Bishop Pot bellied stove which is a rare stove found on Uncle Henry's...you know the go to place for use frugal Mainer's. It is worth the trip as they have hundreds and hundreds of stoves and even more parts. My Grandfather was a machinist there back in the day so I know the people well, and they have some nice stoves, some having been leased out to movie makers. They might have the parts you need, though honestly they tend to have the original manufactured stoves and not so much the imports, but you never know. If you want a really nice antique stove, but lack cash, talk to the owner. They have dozens of old wood burning cook stoves that they put on a trailer and give away to people that wants a stove, but lack money. The sticking point is that it takes work to rebuild them and few people today want to do that. Obviously you have some stove rebuilding skills. One word of caution, do NOT go into that place with a wad of cash in your pocket, I did that, not only getting parts to fix my living room stove, but came home with a 1913 gas range that fit our 1930 kitchen decor quite well. I do not regret it a bit as my wife loves her purchased old stove, but my wad of cash was $700 smaller!
That is looking great. You did nice work getting the stove restored. It sure keeps a nice looking fire. Is there a baffle behind the stove door? I'm just curious what you did there.
LodgedTree, Yes, that seems to be a really nice shop. Those stoves are simply gorgeous. And way, way beyond my means. If I hit the lotto, then maybe...
Jon, it is not really a baffle. At least I don't think so. When you open the front load door there is this plate, with some holes in it. It seems to force the intake air that enters from the front load door to go up. But I am not sure. I really lack the technical knowledge regarding air routing for these stoves. Tomorrow I will post a photo with the load door open and we can have a better look. At the moment she is fired up.
Ok, I see. When you load the stove, does the wood get as high as the grate? You did a real thorough job on the restoration.
No, no, no...reread my post. I know I write a lot and people skim them, but they give stoves away to those who are willing to fix them up. Just talk to the owner Bea, if you are cash-strapped, that is okay, as long as a person is a willing to do some work, they can have a stove that is just as nice as what is in their showroom. By have I mean FREE, they just have to do the restoration themselves, but still a free antique stove that just needs a little TLC...not a bad deal in my opinion. She came from a family that had 14 kids so she has a pretty strong work ethic. There prices are negotiable too. I got 50% off my cook stove, so its not as bad as it looks.
Jon, The stove, being somewhat of a rectangular shape standing on an edge, can be filled with a rather tall charge of wood. And if filled, the wood would go above the top 'line' of that inner 'grate.' I have never filled the stove like that. (I do not like to overly charge up stoves and I do not mind having to tend to a lit stove by adding wood every so often.) When I first examined this grate, back when I had the stove broken down to its component parts for restoration, I noted the unusual (for me) air inlets of that grate. I can only suppose that it is integral to the design of the stove. And I like it, even if I do not understand exactly how it controls the air flow. Interestingly, the stove gives off a rocket sound when fired up with all air ports fully open.
LodgedTree, Please pardon me for the apparent short shrift I gave your response. It was unintended. I did not merely skim your note, and, in fact, I did feel somewhat regretful that I lacked the info to get a stove as you mentioned. I just moved up here to Linneus, in northern Maine, in June- solo, and my work-day goes long and hard. So, as much as I research online a great many issues, there is simply not enough hours in the day for me to do everything perfectly, e.g., see if I can find a free stove. Working this farmstead by myself, I have to get things done and I have to get them done fast. "Good enough" is, sometimes unfortunately, the best I can do. When I arrived in June, I set the priority of freeing myself from a fuel oil bill every month. That meant that I had to run around to a lot of garage sales and find two stoves and get them up and ready by cold season. For weeks I was immersed in the nasty work of cleaning up my two stoves. But two restores is enough for me, lol. I love those classic vintage stoves at Bryant's. But at this point, I am done with stoves and now busy tending to the long 'to-do' list I have in my lap. Over the years, I have restored/renewed several items. A '66 Chevy C10 truck; a Craftsman-Atlas lathe, a vintage steel desk, and other stuff. Alas, I am not as young as I used to be, and now too busy with other critical activities, that I must decline even a beautiful, free, vintage, additional stove. /// BTW, that Crawford stove in your photo is your stove?
Oh I understand completely, we are sheep farmers are we not? It is frustrating how many hours goes into that with no real financial benefit, yet it has to be done. Like this weekend, I had to put up sheep fence to get the sheep fattened up for winter in their fall pasture, but it is a day that I could not log, so it is a day without pay. And so it goes with firewood, I don't get "paid" for a day of firewood production for my house, but it does pay me back in the end. So yes I understand whee you are at, I say "we" all the time, but yes it is just me doing the work. One of my foresters quipped that legally I only had 2 years to clear some forest into farmland, and legally that is true, but my family has been trying to clear this patch of woods into farmland since the year 1800 and have not got it done yet, and neither will I even with chainsaws, bulldozers and skidders. I told him, "I think I am Grandfathered from that law". What is a judge going to do, arrest me for trying to farm? So you have my sympathies. As a full-time sheep farmer I live your life everyday!
Oh yes it is my own land. I have cut wood on other people in the past, but now concentrate on just my own. With Maine's new logging market there sure isn't anything to save my own wood for. In the State of Maine, they give you 2 years when doing a "change of land use". In this case a change of land use would be going from forest into field.
