I have a Fisher fireplace insert and while it's not rusty, it's a bit dull and dusty. I remember that stove black was something that grandma put on her old wood cook stove way back when. Is that something I could do to refresh my Fisher? If so, does anyone have recommended products?
Blacking a fisher?
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If anyone's interested, I wound up getting "Allback Linseed Oil Wax" which is a wipe-on, wipe-off product. It worked really well and was non-toxic. You wipe it on and wipe it off, then fire the stove. I also used it on a "wood stove look" propane stove and it worked great on that, too. It really soaked in to the bare metal areas.
It does not soak into bare metal. Metal isn't porous. Be prepared to redo it atleast once a year then strip everything off when the buildup gets thick and nasty.
Linseed oil is a very low smoke point oil. It is not for creating a cross linked or polymerized coating. Even the highest smoke point oils will burn off stoves that regularly exceeded 500*f.
What you are trying to do is what was done to cast iron years ago before high temperature paints were formulated. (You don’t have a antique cast iron stove) Stove black or polish was used on the rough cast iron parts, and machined smooth cast iron cooktops were coated with lard. Pigs ate a more natural diet, that had a higher smoke point than lard today with grain fed pigs.
Seasoning a pan cross links, or polymerizes the oil. This makes a hard coating like the grease spatters in a conventional oven. The coating has a higher smoke point than the original grease which requires a self cleaning oven to get hotter than normal cooking temperatures to remove.
All oils have different smoke points. Crisco is high, as well as Grapeseed. These can be used for seasoning pans at about 350* to polymerize the oil into a hard coating. On a stove top, this coating burns off at about 500*f. There is no oil with high enough smoke point for a stove.
Linseed is a self drying oil. It does not require heat to polymerize or dry. It smokes off at 225*f. It is ok for garden tools, wood, wagon and vehicle wooden spokes, but not for high heat applications.
A painted stove simply gets repainted. The oils and beeswax may be difficult to remove after firing. Those that recondition stoves charge a premium when this has been applied. Sand blasting is normally necessary before repainting.
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