info on fisher wood stove (Honey Bear)

yes i bought a small wood stove over the holidays and was wondering if i someone had any information on it, it is small has double doors with fisher written on the right hand door, stands on a pedestal not on feet, and i hsve some pics , thanks for the help.

I love my modern stove, but I still get nostalgic for the old Fisher stoves.

My father and grandfather both had Fisher's when I was a kid. Neither of them burn wood any more. My parents house isn't conducive to wood heat (way too big and broken up to heat effectively with wood), and my grandparents spend their winters in Florida now.

I have such fond memories of sitting around in front of the old Fisher and watching TV or listening to a story being read to me and my brother, sister, and cousins.

I'll second the comment about that stove lasting for ever. Clean it up good and slap a fresh coat of stove paint on it, and it'll be good as new!

As mentioned, it'll be hungry... but no hungrier than it ever was!

-SF

thanks guys, i was just wondering about it, i know it isnt very effecient, i always wanted a wood burning stove, my uncle had one in his house, and i get that nostalgic feeling around them. i just plan on using this one in my small office/storage building (16x20) and i was always told that Fishers were one of the oldie but goodies. i just never seen one like this.

My Grandma is Grandfathered :D
As I've learned here 500 degrees is nothing for this stove. I've found on good seasoned oak and running at 450 degrees she burns very clean. I live in a neighborhood where houses are only around 15' apart and neighbor complaints are at 0. I've also learned to keep it hot during reload. I used to burn it to coals and load it up and let it sit there and enjoy watching the new load slowly ignite. That did create alot of smoke and loss of heat. I now load 2 or 3 splits every 3-4 hours and leave one door closed and one about an inch open for a good draw of air and once the thermometer hits 400 again I close the doors and open the dampers around 4 full turns and then damper down 1-2 turns to maintain 450-550. Of course this will vary with types of wood and a few other factors that i'm also still learning here.

Yeah I'd say thats a pretty old Fisher. I wish there was a way to know the years. I'm pretty sure my Father installed ours in 1975.

Gotta love those old Fishers. You may find this interesting, Fisher manual and brochure.
http://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/wiki/Fisher_Stoves/
Here is a pic of mine.

Next one I get a hold of one on a trade, I'm installing a 2ndary system and submitting it for testing...

Looking at the brochure, it appears they had a rudimentary secondary burn system.

look at the prices scribbled in the corner of the brochure... for @800 you got a 50 yr lifetime stove w/ all the bling... amazing. we'll sell those for that now, without all the trim for 800 used...

pimp 70's show layouts in the brochure, too...

Here mine, this one was put in before I joined the club it cranks out the heat and eats wood like crazy

brother bart posted a link in a previous thread to a site in new zealand or austrailia (i forget which) where they still make fisher stoves.

Hi coaly and everyone I was just surfing and came across this thread and great site. I thought I would add what I know about the early honey bear stove. Its not much but it all adds up. Anyway in the early 80s I lived in tillamook county oregon and my parents bought a freestanding honey bear at the county fair it looked just like the 1 in the photo in this thread and the pedistal was just a u shape open in the back and the air controle on the front worked just like most fishers , it cut their wood consumption down from 7.5 to 3 cords a year. Well I was looking for a wood stove yesterday and found this on craigslist


the tag on the side of the pedistal says it is a honey bear and was tested at the northwest testing labratory 7-7-81 report # 237278. I believe this might be the first production model of the honey bear stove as it came with a glass door that fits like a screen on the top door hinges when the doors are open I will get some photos of the glass door when it gets light out. Anyway its going to get referbished as I will be using is as my main heat source.

Robert

Ok heres the glass door/cover





The air comes in through slots in the top and sides of the cover and the bottom stradles the door channel for aditional air.
I've looked it over and this is the same stove we had in oregon but we didnt have the glass cover
The stove doesnt look to have been used much It just looks like a stove that sat outside in a wash in az for 25 years. It should clean up nice.
The guy I got it from said it might have been made in flagstaff az.

Robert

Coaly it has the baffle plate as in your photos, a warning tag rivited to the ash tray and 2 stickers on the right side of the pedestal 1 is a clearance diagram and 1 has the testing data and a place for mfg and date at the bottom but it looks like it was never compleatly filled out. I dont see a UL tag or a place where 1 might have been. I will be taking photos of everything as I go through the prosses . I'm hoping to find some evidence of what color it was from the factory. The 1 my parents had was black but they had it a few years and painted it before I saw it the first time.

Robert

So I had a few hours to spend on the stove and I took some more photos. Heres the tags on the right side of the pedestal. There is some paint left on the base and it looks to be grey.



I started by taking the air valves off and cleaning up the doors and thats when I found this.




It seems the doors were mfg 10-15-84 for a polar bear.
Polar bear doors on a honey bear stove in the AZ desert?

Robert

I cant see any evidence of marking by the mfg (lower left) or date(lower right) on the honey bear tag.
The nortwest testing tag is thicker than the honey bear tag and the info is stamped.
This 1 must have been mfg in 85 or later.

Robert