Can anyone tell me about this stove?

[Reefdiverbob]

All:

My girlfriend and I just bought a farm property. The old house house this old wood burning stove in the kitchen. The previous owners used it, so I'm looking forward to lighting it up. Can any tell me anything about it? More specifically, can anyone point me to some good information on how to use one of these? This is a first for me. It looks like you start a fire in the upper chamber on the left. The middle chamber on the left appears to be a way to regulate air into the fire, and the bottom chamber on the left appears to be a ash catching pan. I'm not sure what the chamber under the oven is for? The thing is caked full of ash and other burned up debris. I'm wondering if it should be thoroughly cleaned out or not?

Any in sight the community can offer is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Bob

 

[BrotherBart]

How about a cookbook and manual for the stove?

http://www.okielegacy.net/WIRange/

 

[Jags]

Well THAT should clear up any questions the OP has.
Looks like ya gotz a good old cook stove.

 

[BrotherBart]

Many a bisquit baked in those things. When I was a kid a family in our church cooked everything in/on one. Winter and Texas summers. Ms. Sadie baked biscuits that were to die for in that thing. One day her husband came home in a new 1960 Ford Fairlane. She put him right back in the car and they went to town and she bought a new butane stove, piping and tank.

 

[TX-L]

Our family had one exactly like this one, even the same color, in our Adirondack camp for many years. It cooked a lot of venison, trout, frog legs, pancakes, cornbread, etc. And all the while it heated the camp, too. There is a lot of mass, and once heated up, will heat a space very well; you just have to frequently fill the small firebox.

First, you absolutely should clean it and the chimney, making sure the chimney is safe to use.

You could fill the firebox from the front, but most just remove the closest round griddle on the left top, closest to the front of the stove, and fill there. Just set the removed griddle on top of the one to the right, beside it. You will need a griddle handle for this, a tool of sorts specifically made to fit the hole in the griddle so you can maneuver it out of and back into its slot. This gives you direct access to the firebox.

Bottom left door is the ash removal door, it should have an ashpan with a handle you can pull right out and empty into a can.

Middle left door on ours, if my memory serves, had a sliding grate type air control; I don't see that on this one.

The space behind the small door below the oven will have real fine black soot in it, you should clean that out when cleaning the stove.

The large door below the oven is where we kept the ash shovel, long poker, and other cleaning tools. I think it's a warming oven, actually.

There is a "slider" on the back surface of the stovetop; this moves a damper inside the stove. All the way left or all the way right opens a bypass and lets the exhaust go directly up the chimney, all the way opposite makes the exhaust go around the oven before exiting the stove (I can't remember if left is full open or full closed). You can place the damper in any position between full open and closed, and this is how you regulate the oven temperature. The more open it is to the chimney, the greater your rate of fire. Closing off the chimney and making the smoke swirl around the oven is sort of like shutting down the air setting on a more modern stove, it will tame the fire. When starting a new fire, it has to be full open to the chimney or smoke will come out of every seam on the top of the stove.

There is a key damper in the connector pipe below the warming ovens, this also controls the rate at which the stove draws combustion air and exhausts smoke.

I hope this helps you out some.

Scott

 

[Reefdiverbob]

Thanks for the info! The manual really helps. I'm going to get this stove cleaned up this weekend and hope to be able to fire it up.