"Backyard Blacksmithing" pounding iron on the forge this evening!

Valley Lee country store

Funny how things trigger memories like that. I remember my grandfather had a potbelly in his office in Austin Texas and I remember a huge one at the Valley Lee Country Store in Maryland. During the lean years when I was just starting out, I had a very nice Everett Stove Works potbelly of medium size that heated my tiny rental house in addition to a gas radiant panel. I worked in a truss plant and got all the two" X four", six", eight" and ten" shop drop off delivered to my house for free. Worked out well. I do remember that the old cast potbellies had to be fed often!

 

Thanks Scotty, appreciate that!

 

Beautiful metalcuttr!

 

Fired the stove up today to set the paint and see how she burns. Filled it with some crumpled newspaper, kindling and splits on top of the ash grate. Put some crumpled paper under the ash grate and lit her off. Took a while to light off and she smoked a bit. Then the smoke cleared and the afterburner lit and she started cooking. I probably had it too full with kindling and smaller splits. When the afterburner slowed, I tossed in some larger splits and she settled down to a steady burn and threw lots of heat. The paint smoked a bit as it cured but no smoke escaped the lid even when open. You can hold your hand underneath the stove and it is just warm. The whole thing is airtight enough that it will almost go out when the draft is closed. Pretty happy overall and impressed with the afterburner!

 

No smoke outta that chimney!

 

Awesome stove metalcuttr love the design and the added touch of the elk scene! I am sure that will keep a hunting camp or house quite warm!

 

Thanks for the positive comment. That means a lot coming from someone named blacksmith !

 

Thanks but I'm definitely no professional, more of a hobbiest. Haven't been able to work in my shop for a couple of years, to many other projects have taken up space and my time!