baby bear fisher stoves / 76 Grandpa Bear Question

me 2

Hi, and welcome to the forum!

Is your top made of one piece that's bent, or two flat plates welded to the top with a separate step piece on the angle?

I don't have any pictures of the 76 model directly from a fabricator. Remember, they all came from different welding shops, and they could have fancied up some, or even painted them different for a floor model to show the stars.

I picked mine up in Ohio a couple weeks ago. It originaly came from a home in Michigan. It's the only one Ive seen with the 3 piece top, and the ball handles match the ball feet with brass plated knobs. I've only seen chrome knobs on others. Mine has no markings underneath, but some welders initialed or numbered them. It would be great to put initials together and find the welders today. Most licensees are still alive and remember some employees. The only licensee with a B.A. is backwards (Art Beevor) from Beaverton Oregon. It's probably a worker, not a license holder who did it. A lot came from British Columbia, so a BC would make sense too from Washington. I may be able to find out employee names from the first Eugene fabrication plant soon. It grew fast there, and they had an office up the street. Bob turns 70 next month, and that was 35 years ago in a very hectic time of his life. The mind has a way of blocking out things in your life that could harm itself by dwelling on the past, so I try not to go there.

The first Grandpa stoves were in Oregon. Jake Jackson was a neighbor (his stove patent has his address very close to Bob) and he asked Bob to build him an outdoor bar-b-que pit. Bob was already too busy with his new business and turned the job down. He ended up selling Jake a license to build Fisher Stoves, and he later came up with the idea of a 2 door model to view the fire better. Bob wanted no part of more cast door patterns and the stove wouldn't be as efficient as his 6 inch single door stoves. Public demand caused the need for a "Fireplace Model" and Bob revoked his license when he found Jake selling an adaptation of his stove. This wasn't far from Springfield where they both lived, and Bobs "factory" was now in Eugene. So that's where the first ones would have been produced.
Exactly where did you find this stove, and did the owners have any history or story behind it?

I'll get close ups today of my 76 with the brass knobs to give you a better idea of how different it looks, and post them here. Valley Plating in California is the place to send your knobs if you want them plated. It may be cheaper than you think, they're good and a small family business that likes stove restoration work. They don't stand out as much as chrome and gives it an entire different look. Do the legs have welded studs sticking down for ball feet? I never saw ball feet in brass liek mine either. Any pictures would be great.
As I compile more information on each model, it would be nice to have a thread for each stove model. That way the Everything Fisher thread will be a general info source and anyone with a particular model will find the details that pertain to their model more easily.

To answer your question about aluminum knobs holding paint;

The only aluminum knobs used were the air damper, draft cap, intake knob..... whatever you want to call them. Patented as "air damper". They clean up and paint well.

If you mean the knobs as in door handles, before they used springs, they are a white metal, or "pot metal" a very cheap alloy used for intricate auto parts like carburetors. They corrode inside easily, they plate easily, but forget paint holding up on the door handle. Even nickel or brass plating wears off there. The ball feet are the same material. If you need to loosen the set screw to adjust them for height (they are there to move up and down when a brick pad is uneven to level the stove) soak them overnight with PB Blaster or another good penetrant. They corrode inside nasty.

Engraving something on an original Fisher part is like breaking one of the Commandments of the Fisher Collectors Creed. Do that with some cheap gearshift knobs and keep the original ball feet original. I haven't found a supplier for nickel plated balls that size. I have 2 new ones in stock and won't part with them. (the sacred ones under the stove that is)

Yes, I never saw an original with highlighted trees or stars. It's just something people do to bring out the design.

Does your stove have channel iron welded to the face for the door seal (3 point contact) like other Fishers, or is it a piece of round steel rod welded flat to the surface to fit into a round groove in the doors? All the doors I've seen have square grooves cast into them, and I'm wondering if all Bicentennial doors may have the round groove. Of all the pictures of them, they were always closed, and no one mentioned their door seal being different. If your groove is square, that means there was more than one pattern for the star doors. There are no foundry markings inside my doors, and the right door has the two stanchions sticking out to stop the handle from moving more than 3/4 turn.
By the looks of the Frontier Stove pictured below, perhaps mine is one of Jake Jackson's that got him in trouble...... I notice the same round door seal on his stoves. hmmmm

They could have ran out of bent tops being sent from the larger facility, but since this one has solid handles and early draft caps, it's also likely that the brake to bend tops only handled up to the 19 inch wide Papa Bear. When they doubled in width with 2 doors, I'm thinking they needed a larger brake, so started making them the old way with 3 pieces at first. But you would think more would have surfaced by now. The other possibility is mine being a prototype. When Jake had his license revoked, he went on to start the Frontier Stove Co. and many of them have the 3 piece top. It gives them a distinct look in person, since the step portion is only as wide as the stove body with no overhang. Both horizontal flat plates have all 4 corners rounded too.

If you stop in a stove shop that sells Lopi, check out the "Liberty". Same 3 piece top style (same stove style actually) of course with secondary burn tubes and extra zeros added on the price tag.
Yours would sell for 500 minimum around here. More after the summer's over. West coast now is cheap on Craigslist. High prices in the Eastern States. I paid 600 for mine, and drove 9 hours across PA and Ohio to pick it up.