Well the weather outside is frightful...

I don't think so. The do sell various stove accessories and I think trivets, but I'd have noticed if I ever saw one in soapstone. The top of the PH has numerous "plates" for cooking, that come off. I know people do use the top surface of the Fv to do some types of cooking or t least warming.

 

What are these boot dryers you are talking about?

 

I too am wondering.I have an electric one,but drying on the stove would be nice.

 

I took it with my iPad so and I think it looks a little stretched. I’ll be happy to post the dimensions as soon as I can. This one has been glowing really well for me all along, and I did just clean it yesterday. I took advantage of the heat wave also. I’ll be happy with 5 years on a cat. I’m planning to keep it clean and hopefully that’ll help. Assuming dry wood of course.

 

Mine is actually still lighting up and bright orange, but it has warped a bit on one side and is not snug in the housing. I think the gasket material is gone, so I need new gasket around the cat as well. However I'm told by WS that the new CATS don't have the cast iron housings, need no gaskets, but do need to "hold down" bolts to secure the cat in place.

WS is actually in the process of switching over to building the cats in house, and not quite ready to start shipping them, so I have ordered a ceramic cat from another vendor. I am not sure how this will work out, but my previous experience with 25+ years with a CDW with ceramic cat was very positive. So we'll see.

It got cold down here in Massachusetts, but the Fv is shut down for the holidays, as the Christmas tree has moved into the house, so I'm stuck with feeding the AS 24X7 till we take the tree down day after New Year. It's all good, we have my daughter and her husband up from New York City with the baby so we got more important things to think about that feeding the stove for a dew days.

 

They are small pieces of soapstone that can sit on the stove to warm up and place in boots or gloves to dry them out.

Soapstone can be worked like wood with regular shop tools. It cuts, file and sands pretty nice. I have a handwarmer set I made my wife somewhere when she walked the kids to school.

 

I was thinking soapstone trivets when I saw some of these stove top temps. I can forge out some trivets, but I would think iron would stain the top stones.

 

Mine has the SS cat and it’s pretty light so they told me to be sure the bolts stay in just finger tight. I’ve had it out 4 times to vacuum and the bolts back out easily by hand. The gasket stays on the frame now and the cat sets into it at the bottom edge. I’ll be curious to see how you make out with the ceramic one. I’m thinking I’ll buy a spare but probably wait a couple years.
That’s a great picture! Our first grandson will be 22 months on the 25th and Christmas is starting to be fun again so I understand completely! He’s a handsome little guy!
How well does the AS heat your house by itself? I realize it’s not an ideal setup.

 

I asked for and was given 2 small pieces to use for trivets but it’s not enough because they’re pretty small so I intend to pick up a couple more in the future. I found the Lodge cast iron trivet is just the right size and it sets quite low so it works perfectly. As for staining, I’ve dripped blueberry juice and apple cider on the top of mine accidentally already and I was pretty upset at first. The blueberry stains were very dark, but they were completely gone over several days without any help from me at all, they just disappeared. Penny told me that would happen. She also said if anything doesn’t burn off a little sanding with 0000 steel wool will take care of it.
Unless the STT is above 400 it takes quite awhile to boil water without a trivet I find. I’m hoping to get to meet Mrs. Backwoods Savage someday and learn some wisdom about cooking on the Fireview. I’m the family chef and I love using my cast iron Dutch ovens and the Fireview is wonderful to cook on.

 

Well this is the secondary duty of the Fv during Christmas. The Absolute downstairs tries to take up the slack but of course it can only do so much being on a different floor than the people. But it still does a good job if we keep the doors open. The heat comes right up the stairs and into the center of the first floor. My basement is completely insulated on all walls so no concrete walls. I've considered floor registers, but decided not to go in that direction.

 

That’s a perfect setting for a display like that. The Fireview makes a great piece of display furniture.

 

Careful there you don't get into one too many egg nogs and fire it up. Santa is used to North Pole weather.. 700* and I think he's melt!