Photo Thread; Fishers With a 3-Piece Top

[Todd67]

If you have a Fisher Stove with a 3-piece top, please post some pics in this thread. I'm curious to see how many had a rear flue or side flue, and which ones had the right handed door vs the left handed door. It would be interesting if you could tell us a little bit about your stove, such as where you got it from. I'm also curious to know if you have any 3-piece stoves with the first type of cast doors, without the trees, that have a crack on the door. I'm also curious if any of the original stoves with the plate steel doors are still out there somewhere.

I don't have one yet, but I'm working in it. I'll post pics if or when I add one to my collection.

Coaly, do you have any idea how many stoves were made with the 3-piece top with the original plain cast iron doors, and how many were made with the cast doors with the fur trees?

 

[coaly]

No idea, but the time frame for the plain doors to adding trees wasn't long. They are only found in the western states, so as licenses were sold across the US, only doors with Fir trees were shipped to fabricators as they expanded. As an example the first stove produced in the South East had trees.

The first few with steel plate doors would not be marked, so it's difficult to tell if it is an original or copy, unless it came from one of the known customers. They would have all been in the area of Upper Camp Creek. The whereabouts of the only one known would be the first stove.

 

[Todd67]

Reading the Fisher Stove Story again, it looks like the first cast door cracked around the end of July 1974. That was from the first usable batch of 15 cast doors that were made right.

 

[Todd67]

Well, since I started this thread, I guess I'll post some pics of my newly acquired Papa Bear with a 3-piece top. Shipped from Grants Pass Oregon (Medford OR to Syracuse NY). I'll clean it and paint it this summer.



This is the same stove after I restored it...

I am hoping to see more pictures of other Fisher stoves with 3-piece tops

 

[Portage Fishers]

 

[Portage Fishers]

Here is a mama

 

[SpaceBus]

@Todd67, could your papa bear have been originally owned by one of Bob's family or friends? Maybe one of the first stoves with the improved draft caps suggested by Bob's father (I think it was his father).

 

[Todd67]

Very nice Mama Bear, thanks for posting the pics!

Where did you get it? How long have you had it? What are your plans for it?

 

[coaly]

@Todd67, could your papa bear have been originally owned by one of Bob's family or friends? Maybe one of the first stoves with the improved draft caps suggested by Bob's father (I think it was his father).

No, the first draft caps were not 5 fin. They were up to 4 fins by 1976, and Bob designed his own to compete with his dad to sell them cheaper to their fabricators. They were not only sold to their own builders, many stove makers used them. Baxters were too expensive. Many stoves had the hot to touch iron pipe caps replaced with the aluminum later draft caps. The fins not only keep it cool, they are for foot operation. Same as missing chrome ball handles. Many were replaced with springs.

 

[Todd67]

@SpaceBus ,I believe the first ten stoves that Bob made for family, friends and customers had plate steel doors.

If memory serves me correctly, he then had 15 doors cast at a foundry, and most of them became hardened so much that he couldn't drill holes for the hinge pins. So he returned them to the foundry and had 15 more doors made.

During the summer of 1974 Bob had at least one complaint about a door cracking between the draft caps. That's when he decided to add the trees to the doors. I don't know how many plain doors were made before the trees were added. I also don't know how many plain doors were made like mine that don't have PATENT PENDG on them.

The first Baxter Fisher draft caps came later, and they had 4 fins. My Baby Bear has an early steel 4 fin draft cap. Then they changed over to aluminum 4 fin draft caps, then the aluminum 5 fin caps in 1979, maybe... coaly has all the dates for these changes.

So, that's the long answer to your question. I think someone finally replaced these pipe caps with the 5 fin caps, but that had to be after 1978.

I wonder if my door is one of those first 15 good doors that replaced the original "hardened" 15 doors that Bob returned. It would make sense that those first 15 doors were cast without PATENT PENDG on them.

Page 44 of the Fisher Stove Story says the the first 15 cast doors said FISHER STOVES, SPRINGFIELD OREGON. The book doesn't mention when Bob added PATENT PENDG to the doors.

 

[Todd67]

I was still typing my reply when coaly replied... thanks for the info Coaly!

 

[coaly]

Baby Bear from Iowa. Restored and brush painted. These vintage stoves were not sprayed!

Papa from Boise Idaho before restoration.



Lefty with top vent Papa.



Papa with rear vent, welded two 45* piece elbow and oven.



Grandpa with brass ball feet, brass ball handles and lift off doors without rivet hinge pins. I found it in Ohio, from a home in Michigan.

 

[Todd67]

Page 45 of the Fisher Stove Story says that the first 6 of those 15 stoves with cast doors were made in Bob's shed at Upper Camp Creek. He still had materials for 9 stoves when he found the shop on 42nd Street.

 

[Todd67]

Thanks for the pics coaly!

I'll buy some Stove Bright satin black for my Papa. How many cans should I buy, 2 or 3?

 

[coaly]

Get a quart of 62M290. Brushable Satin Black by Stove Bright.

 

[Todd67]

Thanks coaly!

 

[SpaceBus]

View attachment 237845 Baby Bear from Iowa. Restored and brush painted. These vintage stoves were not sprayed!

View attachment 237846 Papa from Boise Idaho before restoration.



View attachment 237848 Lefty with top vent Papa.



View attachment 237851Papa with rear vent, welded two 45* piece elbow and oven.

View attachment 237853

View attachment 237850 Grandpa with brass ball feet, brass ball handles and lift off doors without rivet hinge pins. I found it in Ohio, from a home in Michigan.

Is that Baxter's oven idea?

 

[Todd67]

@SpaceBus , I was wondering the same thing. I've seen a couple variations of that stove on Craigslist but I don't know which one is Baxter's and which ones are copies.

 

[SpaceBus]

@SpaceBus , I was wondering the same thing. I've seen a couple variations of that stove on Craigslist but I don't know which one is Baxter's and which ones are copies.

You know what they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!

 

[Todd67]

You know what they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!

Very true!

 

[coaly]

No, that is a a stove top oven. His were incorporated into the stove.

 

[SpaceBus]

No, that is a a stove top oven. His were incorporated into the stove.

Oh, I didn't realize. The book was pretty vague about the ovens.

 

[Mholes04]

I picked up a papa bear in northwest wisconsin. Never had a fire in it. Rear flue

 

[Todd67]

I picked up a papa bear in northwest wisconsin. Never had a fire in it. Rear flue View attachment 238050

Nice looking stove, thanks for posting the pic!

What are your plans for the stove?

 

[Mholes04]

Haven't decided on what I'm doing with it yet. Might sell, I have other fisher stoves and would like to open some room up for another glass door fisher.