Adventures in a BIG old country mansion

I think some of it is as simple as the size of the firebox. The Progress is 2.6 cu ft versus 3.2 (?) cu ft for the Ideal Steel. The Ideal Steel has much more secondary air through the perforated top plate of the firebox, but it can also be dialed down further than the Progress for an all cat, black firebox burn (although I suspect part of that is due to the strong draft of this particular Progress installation.)

Being a steel stove (though with soapstone lined fire box and leg covers) the Ideal does heat up faster and the front glass on the door radiates more heat than the Progress. I don’t know why but the Ideal holds coals for a restart much much longer than the Progress. The Progress has very little coals left after a burn. (It could be the wood too, as we’re only burning ash?)

The Fireview is also a fine stove, but it’s not a hybrid and cannot compete with the size of its siblings.

 

Progress on the wrap around porch at the country manor:

 

I figured out how to repair the cast iron cooking surface crack without welding it. In lieu of welding the cook top, one of the antique stove repair shops recommended I bridge the crack and bolt it on each side.

So I cut a piece from a discarded cast iron fireplace smoke hood, drilled it out and used 2 countersunk screws. I need to finish countersinking them with a half inch countersink bit but it’s solid. The “leg” on the cast iron piece props up the broken section on the bricks below so the weight of a big full pot on the burner isn’t just supported by the repair and bolts.

 

I finished stripping the rust off the old cook stove with a 6” brass wire wheel on an angle grinder, then stripped the wax and graphite based black stove polish off all the cast iron with kerosene. If the wax isn’t stripped, the graphite bleeds through the stove paint, discoloring it grey.

I just finished the first application of black stove paint, and it looks pretty good. I ordered a pint of white stove paint we’ll use to hand paint the manufacturer’s name and model number white:

Before starting refinishing:

 

Looks awesome! Nice work BrianK

 

That is gorgeous. It must have taken real skill to operate that, to produce edible food on time. And can you imagine how hot the kitchen would be!

 

I did some more research last week and realized this old manor is older than I thought. I originally thought it was built in 1904, but that’s actually when the original owner died; he built the house in the 1890s. I went to an antique stove shop on Saturday and he said that makes more sense, as this stove model was made in the 1880s! So this stove is at least 130 years old.

When this house was built, a whole crew of servants would have been occupied keeping this stove hot 24 hours a day so it could be used for both heat and cooking three meals a day.

There’s a really well done hour long show on Netflix called “Fanny’s Last Supper,” Fannie's Last Supper | Netflix in which they prepared a twelve course Victorian Christmas feast using recipes from the 1800’s and ONLY a wood fired cook stove very much like the one I’m restoring. It’s a fascinating look at how they would have juggled cooking and baking that feast back then.

 

Great thread Brian, very beautiful place. Was it you that recommended Fanny's Last Supper in a different thread on here? That thread was about a similar cook stove and I ended up watching the show after seeing it mentioned. It was amazing how much thought had to go into everything from dishes, cook time, stove temp, serving time, etc and keep it all continuous over all those courses.

 

Yes, I had made a couple posts in one of Backwoods Savage ’s threads but decided to start a separate thread.

 

I wonder if some furnace cement to fill the crack would be a good idea...couldn't hurt IMO...
Nice work rehabbing the ole girl!

 

Thanks. I already picked up the furnace cement and plan to do just that! This has been a really enjoyable and rewarding project, one they let me do at my own pace, as I’m able.

 

One of the things the stove needs is stainless steel boxes to line the dual ovens. The ovens are directly in the path of the hot flue gases (smoke) and have to be airtight so the smoke stays out of the food and the kitchen. Whether I go to an antique stove repair shop or a local metal fabrication shop to get them made it’s going to cost hundreds of dollars to replace them, which I’m trying to avoid.

The old oven boxes look like these:
I’m going to need new ones like this:
So I’ve decided to try to make them myself. I have a manual metal bending vice so I can bend the stainless sheet metal, but I had no way to weld the seems.

But I found a tutorial online to make a spot welder from the transformer inside a discarded microwave oven, so I’m going to make one, and modify the design so I can seal up my ovenboxes. If I can get a free microwave that doesn’t work, I’ll be able to make the two boxes for about $50-100 total.

 

I wanna see this!
Gonna be hard to beat that price if this works...fab shop would charge much more!

 

I already fabbed sheet metal boxes for some rocket stoves I’ve built, so I know how to measure, bend and cut sheet metal fairly well. If this spot welder works as I suspect, I should be able to craft some nice stainless boxes. I’ll post them when I’m done, but I won’t be able to get the stainless till I’m home over Thanksgiving. No way am I paying New England prices when I’ve got a great trustworthy metal shop back home in PA.

 

BrianK Is your goal to get those old stove back to being functional? Will they be used?

 

Absolutely beautiful, it looks fantastic! Amazing work! Old restored things just have such a natural charm and endless character to them...!

 

Yes, we plan to use this stove occasionally, for both cooking and baking, but mainly to make old fashioned homemade sour dough bread.

 

Some of the best meals I've ever had came out of an old wood fired cook stove.

That one is beautiful!