Inherited Papa Bear

[jtetterton]

Amazing information here! Thanks so much to all the contributors. I don’t have a picture of my stove handy, it’s sitting outside undergoing restoration and I plan to finish that up tomorrow. My stoves story, as I know it….

It’s a papa bear, it was installed in a house north of Charlottesville, VA that was built in 1990. My father bought the house in 1997 with the stove already there. As a teenager it was my job to start the stove, keep the fire stoked and keep the pot on top full of water . I have many fond memories of this stove, including filling the house with smoke many times, lol. My father added onto the house in 2004 and decided to take the chimney out to add the addition. The stove was moved to my grandfathers shop in Pinetown, NC where it heated his pole barn until 2018. In 2018 my grandfather fell ill and the family cleaned his barn out. I inherited the wood stove from my childhood and I couldn’t have been more happy. I drove down and picked it up and hauled it home to Culpeper, VA and stored it in my basement.

My original plan was to install it in my shop…. One problem… I don’t have a shop, or the money to build one right now! Lol.

Last week I had a local hvac company professionally install a triple wall pipe from my basement, out of the concrete, and up the side of the house. If all goes well, the stoves that’s been in my family since 1997 and passed down to me from my now late father and grandfather will be heating my home for the foreseeable future.

I’ll post some photos tomorrow as I would like help identifying as much as I can, it’s a square door with 4 fin draft caps and no baffle. I’m thinking 77-79.

Left to do; paint, install, new fire bricks, research and install a baffle.

Thanks again for this wonderful resource!!

Jason

 

[jtetterton]

Amazing information here! Thanks so much to all the contributors. I don’t have a picture of my stove handy, it’s sitting outside undergoing restoration and I plan to finish that up tomorrow. My stoves story, as I know it….

It’s a papa bear, it was installed in a house north of Charlottesville, VA that was built in 1990. My father bought the house in 1997 with the stove already there. As a teenager it was my job to start the stove, keep the fire stoked and keep the pot on top full of water . I have many fond memories of this stove, including filling the house with smoke many times, lol. My father added onto the house in 2004 and decided to take the chimney out to add the addition. The stove was moved to my grandfathers shop in Pinetown, NC where it heated his pole barn until 2018. In 2018 my grandfather fell ill and the family cleaned his barn out. I inherited the wood stove from my childhood and I couldn’t have been more happy. I drove down and picked it up and hauled it home to Culpeper, VA and stored it in my basement.

My original plan was to install it in my shop…. One problem… I don’t have a shop, or the money to build one right now! Lol.

Last week I had a local hvac company professionally install a triple wall pipe from my basement, out of the concrete, and up the side of the house. If all goes well, the stoves that’s been in my family since 1997 and passed down to me from my now late father and grandfather will be heating my home for the foreseeable future.

I’ll post some photos tomorrow as I would like help identifying as much as I can, it’s a square door with 4 fin draft caps and no baffle. I’m thinking 77-79.

Left to do; paint, install, new fire bricks, research and install a baffle.

Thanks again for this wonderful resource!!

Jason

Here are the photos.

 

[coaly]

The missing handle spring could help dating the stove further. The first stoves used a solid chrome ball. This was changed soon to a stainless steel tightly wound spring. Later the spring used was like available today made of spring steel, with space between the windings and plated with brass or nickel. I would lean towards 76 or 77 if stainless. Also by then most 4 fin draft caps were used up and the newer 5 fin were being used.

This probably would have been made by the Dunn Brothers who were very busy and used the older parts up quickly. Their stoves were not numbered. The location where originally installed and no leg taper from that fabricator also confirms this. If you don’t have the original spring, or don’t remember, I can post pics of the different types. Most with the older air dampers had the older stainless spring.

 

[coaly]

It won’t take much to bring it back like new. Some light wire wheeling, a wipe with mineral spirits, then final wipe with lacquer thinner before paint. Satin Black by Stove Bright will give the original finish.

 

[jtetterton]

It won’t take much to bring it back like new. Some light wire wheeling, a wipe with mineral spirits, then final wipe with lacquer thinner before paint. Satin Black by Stove Bright will give the original finish.

I have the original handle it was off for prep work. It’s the spring type. I basically performed the steps as you mentioned but I didn’t do the lacquer thinner wipe as I just saw this. I painted it with a high temp black I got at tractor supply… it came out good.