Great Western Stove Co. "Handy" small cook stove questions.

[desert rat]

Hi all, I picked this stove up cheap, and have a few questions. It seems complete except the grate is missing. I think I can fabricate something.
Questions, can it be used with wood, or only coal ? Firebox seems small. It has a damper, how would you cook with this stove ? Any idea as to age ? There is a spare part, matching casting numbers but can't figure out where it goes.( last pic) I have a pot belly I use, but this is all new to me. Thanks ! John

 

[SpaceBus]

From reading many posts on here from folks that know way more than me, that looks like a coal fired laundry stove.

 

[begreen]

With the oven and 4 cook plates, this looks a bit more like a camp or summer stove. Laundry stoves were typically 2 burner with the fire directly under the top. Hard to say its age. Great Western made a lot of stoves from around the beginning of the Civil War to the 1930s.

 

[desert rat]

Thanks for the replies. It's definitely a cook stove with an oven door, I'm just not sure how you would regulate the temp accurately. I may attempt to cook a turkey in it outside someday just for kicks.

John

 

[begreen]

I'm guessing that accurate temp regulation is not built into this stove. There doesn't appear to be a bypass and the fire is in direct contact with one side of the oven. It looks like portability was a more important feature. Temp regulation would be governed by the air supplied to the fire and duration of the burn.