Round Oak Stove (circa 1903) Earning It's Keep

Round Oak D-18 at 1030 PM More splits to be added, draft and damper closed.



Round Oak D-18 at 530 AM Time to reload.



jackpine

I like the Round Oak stoves. There were a lot of people using them when I was growing up. There is still one in the hunting cabin in the woods (I think it says 1888 on it?) if I remember right. One of my relatives up the road heats his garage with one yet too.

The stove has been used by three family generations. Someday it will be my son's stove if he wants it. I expect it to be in the same shape as when it was given to me. The rule is...do not burn coal in it and it will last for a good number of years.
jackpine

Howdy Jack

My round oak got a good workout last week!! Mine is a 16 and the last patten date I can find on it is 1878

Cooking breakfast on it! Does a good job too.



My dad standing infront of it. With my new made birch coat and boot drying racks.



Billy

Cowboy...that is a great looking stove you have there. Definately a pre-EPA stove. It is amazing that you still have the finial and swing top. It was quite common that they got seperated from the stove. People most likely wanted to heat something up on top of the stove and in many cases removed the swing top completely and stored them away from the stove. Stove got sold or moved and the swingtop was in the attic or on a shelf somewhere.

The Round Oak cylinder stoves made from 1890 to 1894 had the patent dates of July 16, 1878, December 11, 1883 and July 10 1888 cast.

Have you owned the stove for quite awhile?

I have a finial the same as yours...It was found in the attic of a house I owned back in the 1970s. Wish I had the stove to go with it.

I like your rustic birch boot and coat racks, too.

My Round Oak is a D - 18...made between 1900 and 1905.

Say howdy to Dad.
jacpine

Forgot to ask Cowboy...do you burn the wood vertical or lay in the stove horizontal?

jackpine

Thanks Jack

I was really wondering what year it might be. When I bought the house I am living in in SE Michigan in 2000. The stove was in the living room as a decoration. They were having a estate sale and had it for sale for $200 I liked it and bought it. My Dad brother and I have 120 acres in Michigan's UP about 350 miles from where I live. Its off grid and I had to make a road 1/4 mile through the woods on my Uncles property to get to it. We have a 26' traval trailer on it that we stay in. Last year I started building a 12x16 entry way to the trailer that would give us more room and a place to put a wood stove in. My Dad had four mini stroke Nov 1st last year so I came home to help take care of him. And it was too cold to do anything up there after he was feeling better. I got laid off Oct 15th this year so I went up and finished up the building and ended up making it 12x20 with a hallway that connects to the trailer. The stove is in pretty good shape but the center to lower section was loose came apart on me. So I drilled out the rivets cleaned up the rust smeared it with stove cement and put it together with stove bolts. There is also a 8" crack in the center section and I covered it with stove cement but it is flaking off. So I may try to braze it up next summer the metal is quite crystallized and I am afraid to try to weld it.

The coat racks came about because I forgot to buy coat hooks. Then my brother said he wanted logs screwed into the wall and thats what I came up with. Its really cool that you have the same final! Guess we should buy lottery tickets with a long shot like that!

I am burning vertically as thats the way I thought it was supposed to go in. Never really thought of cutting it short enough to go in flat.

Here's some more pictures of the stove and what I have it in. http://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/47000/

Billy

Awesome pics!!

Billy,

There has always been a debate about the length of the firewood burned in a cylinder stove. Some stoves were small as 12" diameter inside so you would have to cut 10" sticks, which means more saw cuts per one foot of log length. My D-18 is a hand-me-down...Great Grandfather, Grandfather, Father. They all fired the stove with chunk wood cut between 14 - 16"and laid in the firepot horizonally. Some neighbors and relatives had larger diameter stoves 20s and 24s and also laid the wood in horizontal. In the late 1950s and early 1960s small farms were being sold and urban folks started to populate the rural landscape. "Back to the land" was there motto. They showed up in VW mini-buses and old school buses wearing head bands, roman sandles, beads and peace symbols. They seemed to prefer burning long stickwood set in the cylinder stoves on end or vertical. Many of us thought that was rather odd, but hey it was the 60s...liberated women and wacky tobaccy was a whole new thought process.

I have experminted with burning wood vertically and I found chunk wood to be more efficent...good fire control and extended burn time. That appears to confirm the Round Oak advertising..."Round Oak Stoves - have double doors, admitting large chunks of fuel."

My ancestors would fire their stoves for long burns as follows: Maintain 2 - 3 inches of ashes on the grate, a bed of coals, dry chunks and semi-dry chunks on top. Once a day or every other day fire the stove with damper and door draft open for about ten minutes. It would be considered red-line on todays stove thermometers.

As a side note...the finial appears to be in good shape. It is worth more than the stove.
jackpine