Hello to all. My name is Alden and I am new to the forum. I am an early retiree from NYC now raising sheep, chickens, and bees on a small farm in Linneus, Me. I recently acquired an old, rusted out wood stove which I am refinishing and planning to use to heat my house. The stove, as far as I can tell, is made in Taiwan and was marketed as a 'parlor' stove in the US back around the '70s. There are several versions of the replica, the differences basically being more or fewer nickeled parts. I have read that the design is intended to replicate a stove popular in the 1880s. I have also found the stove referred to as a "Washington Stove." Below is a photo of the stove that I found online. My own stove (photo below) at the moment, is laid out on my garage floor, where I have dismantled it to its component parts for refinishing. (I went through hell and highwater to take her apart. The stove is made up of several sections and various parts that are bolted together. My stove was so badly rusted that it took me nearly six hours and a pile of tools to finally break her down.) I looked like a chimney sweep at the end of the day -just from the dismantling! The good news is that the clean-up seems to be going well. In the photo below, the firewood grate and the top plate section can be seen. So far, I have de-rusted the top plate, which on my version was not nickel plated. I am pleased with the results so far, though de-rusting just that one piece took a few hours. It will now go into a vinegar bath. I am almost finished de-rusting the grate. [My de-rusting procedure consists of wire-wheeling the flaky rust, then a vinegar bath for a few days, a then a soapy wash, then applications of Must-for-Rust, then paint.] /// I do have a few issues that I hope to resolve with advice from this forum. The first issue is that my stove is missing the 'smoke plate' that should be hanging down, just inside the right side door. (The stove can be loaded from the front side, right side, or top side.) My understanding of a smoke plate is that it permits loading the stove from the side doorway without smoke exiting the stove into the room. This stove is supposed to have a smoke plate that hangs down about half-way from the top. That is, when you open the right side door, the smoke plate is hanging there and it swivels up and inside so that one can insert pieces of firewood. I am wondering whether and how I should replace the smoke plate. /// My second issue concerns the nickel plated parts. On my stove, the decorative parts that you can see in the topmost photo, one of which sits on the stove's top plate, and the other of which sits on the base section, are badly rusted and pitted. I do not relish the thought of spending major bucks on replating. So paint seems to be the best option. I do not know whether the plating is actual nickel -I am only assuming it is. I feel pretty sure it is not chrome. But I have to decide how to make it look nice. /// The final issue -and most important to me, concerns the fact that the stove lacks any baffle inside. The stovepipe portal, if you can see it in the photo, is a top exit, at the center rear. It seems to me that a woodstove should have a steel plate that sits a couple inches below the exit so that the heat from the fire does not go directly out and up the flue. I want to add in a baffle, but I cannot find online any engineering specs for such a mod, though the design aspect seems simple enough. And it seems that an added-in baffle will foreclose any possibility of adding in a smoke plate due to space constraints. It was also my intention to line the inside with refractory bricks. I am thinking about having a baffle plate simply sit on refractory bricks that are set up on each side. /// I would be grateful for any comments and advice that I can receive from the forum. Thank you.
Hi Alden and welcome to the forums. I can't offer too much but I have a few questions. That's great that you are restoring the stove. I was not aware reproduction parlor stoves were made overseas. Are there any castings with name or numbers anywhere? Please post pictures as you go as it may become recognizable by someone out there doing an internet search for this type of stove. Was there any refractory cement where the plates meet up? As far as paint, I would go with stove paint or stove black paste. As far as the smoke plate can a new one be welded/fabbed up to fit? I hope others can help out here. If there are any names, post them up and maybe it will generate a search hit.
Welcome to FHC Alden ... looks like you've got quite a project going. I think a baffle is a good plan. Maybe a chunk of 1/2" plate steel? The refractory cement too. Good luck with the re-build.
Welcome to the forums, Alden! Glad to have you join one of the most down-to-earth families on the web..... That's a neat old stove but I have a few questions/concerns in relation to the stove you chose.....one is the fact that it may not meet UL standards and if this the case, your insurance company may not approve of the install. And if you are looking for serious heat and something that runs efficiently, that stove will probably disappoint you as it's probably not the most efficient one to choose for heating with. Please don't take what I've said to heart, I'm not trying to offend you or upset you. Just a few things to consider.... One of the most important facts in efficient woodburning is getting your firewood and properly seasoning it, as yiu will find out reading our pages here. Keep us posted on your project, it appears to be an attractive stove nonetheless.
Hi, Jon. Thank you for your reply. The only info found on the stove so far is a raised, cast "Taiwan" on the rear panel. My impression is that a good number of these stoves, perhaps in various configurations, were imported from Taiwan. I base that on the frequency that I find these stoves at yard sales, and in classified ads. I did notice on the bottom of the grate "Made in USA" but I am assuming that the grate was purchased later and separate from the stove. I would also not be so sure that the stove was designed to use a grate. As for refractory caulking, I found none and it is my understanding that these stoves were not designed to have such caulking. The stove is clearly not of the sealed firebox type. I know that people do often caulk such stoves, but I have no plans to do so. The extent of my plan to ensure a hot fire is to add the refractory brick lining inside, and to lay in a half-inch steel plate that I have laying around the shop. At the moment it is my intention to use stove paste on the insides of the stove's panels, but on the outside I want to come up with something a little 'fancier', lol. Regarding the smoke plate, I am sure that it is a rather easy job to fabricate one. My problem about the smoke plate is that it would foreclose the option of putting in liner brick and a baffle. So I will likely skip the smoke plate since the liner and baffle are more important.
Hi, Scotty! Thank you for your reply. As for UL and my insurance company, there is not much I can do about that. The stove is a darn good stove, pleasing to my eye, and it will be installed 'by the book' in my living room. As for efficiency, I will do what I can. I have about 40 acres of woodland in addition to the 40 acres of the farmland, with a very ample supply of hardwood. I usually let the logs season for three or four years or even five, so the efficiency of the stove should be fine. The house is not a large one. I live alone during the 9 cold months that the stove will be used. At the moment the house has central heating with oil. I do not wish to pay $350 every month for fuel oil. So I will see how she does. If I have to bring in a second stove, say for another section of the house, I can do that, too.
Sounds like you have a solid plan, I like the way you think! Keep us posted on your project and progress, glad to have you in the family!
I applaud your efforts, and welcome to FHC. I do have to add that I used to try to heat my house with my former open fireplace with a heatilator rack. I use less wood now that I installed an efficient modern stove insert, and I actually heat the entire house and can say that my stove, and not the gas furnace is my primary heat source. As we all know, making firewood isn't easy work. Using a stove that is inefficient just makes you do more work making firewood. That said, it will make heat, and it will alleviate some use of the heating oil. Give it a shot. You've got the time now that you've retired
Hey, Horkn. Thank you for your reply. I hear you about making the firewood. It is, indeed, a chore. Taxing both physically and timewise. But for me, there is no choice. I cannot afford to spend the money on the fuel oil. Plain and simple. Fortunately, I have the wood on hand. I will keep the central heating set to about 50 deg as a matter of prudence. I mean, it came with the house. It is in excellent condition, a relatively new system. It sits in the crawl space below the house, so it is not any eyesore, etc. I live alone for most of the year. Family comes up in the summer months. So if the stove heats one room, I will use one room. If it heats two rooms, I will use two rooms. Etc. The house, not designed by me, is not configured ideally for a wood stove or fireplace. That is, it is rectangular. But the previous owner did a decent job of cutting in openings for hot and cold air movement throughout. I visited the house in the winter before buying, and I saw that the oil burner system does a very good job of sending heat up through ducts to the ground floor and then up to the second floor. So I will see how well my wood stove can send heat throughout the house. I mean, it is what it is. I live on a very fixed income and it will be a couple years before I see any decent income from the farming. I still have seven years until s.s. checks. I could not permit myself to spend a grand on a used stove, and a new one was out of the question. I picked up two old, rusty, stoves for $250 delivered. Another $40 in vinegar from Walmart. With a lot of elbow grease and some time, I will have two fine stoves that I could not otherwise afford.
Well, in that vein, I will tell you something, Scotty. I haven't felt this good since....probably college. I dreamed of living rural almost my entire adult life. Hated the big city. But once you get caught up in it all, it is difficult to free yourself of it. Now I hear chirping birds when I wake up, and see the Milky Way when I go to bed. Soon the smell from the woodstove will complete the picture. As they say about Maine, 'Life as it should be.'
Welcome to da club Alden My old stove simply had a round piece of flat quarter inch steel hanging from the top about three or four, maybe five inches down with 4 little straight brackets welded to the top of the stove and the round baffle, the round piece was a bigger than the outlet and kept most of the flames and Heat from sucking right up and out. Kind of like an upside-down Chimney Cap
Hi, HDRock! Yes, I think I will figure out a decent design for the baffle. As for the smoke plate, I am not really concerned. It has been many years since I used a woodstove, but I do not recall that loading wood brought any smoke issues such as a smoke plate is designed to address. And I haven't noticed such an item on wood stoves in general, but that may due to simply not paying attention. I am, actually, a masonry stove guy. But since the house I ended up buying for retirement is such a bad candidate for a masonry stove, I went for the old wood stoves. This particular one, though an Asian knock-off, is pretty nice. And, as I mentioned in a previous post, was affordable for me. This stove can be loaded also from the front door, and, interestingly, from the top. So I am not going to go crazy for the smoke plate for the side door. I think the baffle should do me good. I have to get a move on already because this stove has to be in place and ready to work asap. Northern Maine has a looooong cold season. In fact, I am still sleeping in winter pj's and using winter blankets in the middle of July!
welcome Alden yup country lives were it's at! getting dark has to shoo wild rabbits out of garage to shut doors deer in yard now... worked on wall street for 9 months hardest time of my life.. remember to get those logs cut and split as fast as you can wood dries faster that way
Open the air and the damper all the way, then open the door slowly and you should be okay with the smoke
It took me 5 months searching Craigslist to find the great deal that I really wanted, but I ended up with a three year old, $3,000 retail, EPA wood stove for $450, needed a new door gasket and little paint. I was retired so I had the time plus I was able to jump on it quick
