antique wood stoves-need a forum?

[ernie]

This is directed to the administrator and anyone else interested. I would like to see an antique stove forum here on hearth.com.
I am interested in antique stoves and run across some occasionally. I think it would be fun to share info and photos about what we find or collect. It would be helpful to find missing parts for stoves we find. What does everyone think?


Ernie

 

[STOVEGUY11]

Thats a good idea. There's alot of people that like to tinker with the older stoves.

 

[jadm]

This is directed to the administrator and anyone else interested. I would like to see an antique stove forum here on hearth.com.

Ernie

Do you know about the Suggestion Box? Look at Forum Home and it is in the list of other topics you will find here. You might want to take your idea over there.

Good Luck

 

[webbie]

I think there are a lot of sites dedicated to antique stoves - so I have never thought of it myself. Most of use here (the regulars) are not too educated on these stoves, so if we did this it would rely on a having a few true experts.

Look at the antique links at :
https://www.hearth.com/partsplace.html

and see if there are any decent existing forums. If not, we would need to make certain we had a couple regular "experts" or else a forum here would be the blind leading the blind.

 

[Danno77]

I looked around for just this and am having trouble finding something that deals with antique stoves. When I mention using an old stove to people I get the usual response of "they aren't safe, they don't work well, they don't work at all, get a new stove, etc"

Being an old home owner I can't tell you how many times I've been told that "old is bad" and new is good. If you don't live in an old home you probably just don't get why my 150year old wood windows are better than some vinyl replacements that will be dead in 20 years. You also probably don't understand why I want an old stove.

I'm reasonable, though, so if there was an informed group of people who know about old stoves and can be realistic about their use, then throw that forum together and those people will collect there to talk idiots like me out of buying that old unsafe stove unless I really understand what I'm getting into. (that was a pleasant run-on, lol)

 

[Peter B.]

I second the suggestion of an antique stove forum.

I'm far from expert, but I've been burning a stove that's (believed to be) over 100 years old for 25 of those years. I've made some modifications internally to improve eficiency, and while I'm sure it's not even close to modern EPA stoves, it has certainly been a lot of fun 'engineering' the improvements, and monitoring the results.

And, of course, I'm full of biased opinions on the subject at hand.

Hope there's enough support here for the idea.

Peter B.

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[larryhollenb]

Timely as I just had posted a question about operating a late 40's circulator type stove which I happen to like the looks of since it is in mint overall condition. No answers as yet on the check damper question however. Way too many people posting and visiting here, those kinds of questions seem to get lost quickly. I have several yahoo groups, one about vintage oil stoves and heaters and other oil appliances.. I also belong to a vintage stove group, its not super active and could use some people wanting to discuss things in a bit slower atmosphere. Its not my group I just am a member. Here is a link too it;

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/castironstoveenthusiast/

I am not opposed either to started a specific topic group here for vintage stoves, I would prefer that to wadding though hundreds of post on new stoves. I too owned several expensive EPA stoves in the last few years. They may have burned a bit cleaner in one case, but for the money they cost and the trouble to run, they didn't put out half the heat of a vintage stove. My new one now, or old one as it is, puts out instant heat and will run you out of here. Can't wait to see what a real cold spell would be like. I nearly froze with those new ones.

Larry

 

[wagvan]

I too would like to see an old stove forum here. I am also an old house and old camper owner and had an old parlor stove that I thought about rehabbing but there really was no good forum type info out there. (There seems to be better info for rehabbing and using old gas/electric kitchen stoves) I don't know about the others, but I think going with anything 20-25 years old or older would be nice as qualifying as an old stove. We have a Hearthstone H2 that we are rehabbing right now to use in our old house. I think starting out as "the blind leading the blind" is not such a horrible thing, at least you would have someone to commiserate and swap stories and ideas with. And besides, I think "if you build it, they will come" (meaning the old stove experts, or at least the amateurs with experience) JMHO.

 

[ScottF]

I have a stove built in 1904 just installed in a relatively new house. We have about 3000 sf with mostly all 16 ft high ceilings. This medium size parlor stove keeps the house at 72 degrees no matter what the outside temp. It performs incredible and throws tons of heat. I would not trade it for a modern stove ever simply because they do not make a modern stove that comes near the incredible beauty of this old heater. It doesn't use an excessive amount of wood either and goes about 3 hours on 4 or 5 medium sized splits. I could not ask for better performance. However, that said I am in the minority and don't think there are enough people like me to warrant a separate forum. I have found that if I have a question just make a separate post. There are enough knowledgeable people here with a vast amount of experience that every question I have needed answered has been. There are some very smart people in this forum and some even have triple advanced super duper engineering degrees and know about just about everything (reference Fossil). Just my opinion.

 

[NHFarmer]

I cook on a 1909 cook stove,Took some getting used to but I really love it.An antique forum would be a good idea.

 

[wagvan]

Awwwww, c'mon you can't mention cool old stoves and not post pics. That's just wrong!

 

[savageactor7]

I think whatever ScottF thinks...he's the antique maven around here.

 

[begreen]

I haven't visited them yet. Has anyone been on the forums here?:
(broken link removed)

To see some really nice old stoves visit:
http://www.antiquestoves.com/index.htm

 

[ScottF]

I think whatever ScottF thinks...he’s the antique maven around here.

Savage, thanks for the nice compliment but I don't know about maven. I do, however, appreciate the craftsmanship on a lot of old things and try to research the topics thoroughly. This site is a great source of combined knowledge (including yourself)where people really get together to solve problems. Its quite impressive.
Scott

 

[RoundOak]

Hey guys! If it's antique stoves you desire,
check out MYANTIQUESTOVE.com

 

[Danno77]

Hey guys! If it's antique stoves you desire,
check out MYANTIQUESTOVE.com

I'm glad to see that site exists. I've signed up, but the format will take some getting used to. Not to be offensive or anything, this is a comment on setup, not content. Spend 50 bucks to get a high-school student who knows something about "frames" to redesign your website. Your Forum setup isn't that bad, and didn't take long to figure out, but as far as I'm concerned I love the good old phpBB forum software, and the best part about it is that it's free!

 

[RoundOak]

(broken image removed)
Hello,
I thought some of you folks might be interested in the new Antique Stove Magazine that will be coming out in June, 2009. You can subscribe or read about it at (broken link removed)

Thank you!
Take care,
Chris

 

[mjbrown]

a friend of mine gave me an old glenwood parlor stove when he cleaned out his garage. the back is cracked and i would love to be able to restore it. problem is i cant find a replcement back or other parts. any any leads would be very helpful.this is the only antique(besides my wife) that i own ,and would love to show it.

the stove i have is just like this one:

 

[hot blast 73]

Hello, I have a florence hot blast 78 woodstove. I absolutely love it! It's old, and needs replacement parts. Anyone have any ideas on where I can Find them?

 

[begreen]

That is a classic beauty. I think your best bet is going be be by contacting the links in the thread above or an antique stove restorer that may have some parts for the stove. It does show up on eBay from time to time, so there is also the possibility of getting a parts stove.

also try:
(broken link removed)
(broken link removed)
http://www.oldtymestoves.com/

 

[ericwoo]

I actually haven't seen many of these antique stoves around. Do you guys come across these often?

 

[begreen]

Not too much, just a few times a year.

 

[ericwoo]

Yeah, I figured that. I haven't came across one in awhile. Thanks

 

[Treacherous]

I used to see a lot of them in the antique stores of my hometown when I was a kid.