I have been lurking on this site for a few years now learning about my fisher. I am still not 100% sure what year she is but is a grandma fireplace series with the square doors. I was getting some rust and we moved this year so I decided to repaint. After reading here I have done pb blaster with steel wool to remove the rust and am following up with lacker thinner to clean and then plan to paint with stove paint. I am wondering if someone used polish before as I continue to get tons of black soot no matter how much a wipe. So my question is do I need to keep wiping until no more black comes off or is this normal? Second question is were all fisher trees on the doors silver originally? If so, what do you use to paint them? My doors were solid black when I bought her. Thanks for any help!
Refinishing Fisher Stove
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Sounds like someone applied polish. I have wiped with lacquer thinner, mineral spirits, soap and water, even tried burning it off with a torch with a paint removing torch head. Fire up the stove, and get more black….. sand or media blasting will take it down to bare metal, but I scrub like you are and paint when I feel it is clean enough, or I can’t take anymore.
The entire stove was painted black. After 1980 there was an option to have the doors brass or nickel plated. In my opinion, painting the trees and letters is a faux (imitation, fake, false) way to imitate the more expensive optional plating. It may just be to highlight the trees and name. I still call people that do it “posers”. They use any high temperature paint and detail with a brush.
Sounds like someone applied polish. I have wiped with lacquer thinner, mineral spirits, soap and water, even tried burning it off with a torch with a paint removing torch head. Fire up the stove, and get more black….. sand or media blasting will take it down to bare metal, but I scrub like you are and paint when I feel it is clean enough, or I can’t take anymore.
The entire stove was painted black. After 1980 there was an option to have the doors brass or nickel plated. In my opinion, painting the trees and letters is a faux (imitation, fake, false) way to imitate the more expensive optional plating. It may just be to highlight the trees and name. I still call people that do it “posers”. They use any high temperature paint and detail with a brush.
Thankyou! Ya, I'm about sick of wiping🤣 I discovered after writing this that I would think I had the rust off and then I would wipe more and more rust would come through so I broke down and got a wire brush yesterday to make sure I got it all the way through. I feel like the polish was just covering up the rust as I have read here. I have another question about the inside. I noticed the bottom is cracked. What is the inside bottom and do I need to be concerned and fix this somehow? Pay no mind to the fire bricks laying. I am just concerned about the crack across the bottom.
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A wire wheel in drill is much quicker than a brush by hand. I use PB or diesel/kero to keep the dust down. I have a larger cup brush on a polisher that I can buff a stove down quicker. Depending on amount and depth of rust, a knotted wheel is more aggressive.
The bottom is normally covered with firebrick which holds the side bricks tight to the sides. Ash fills in the joints between bricks making them appear like a solid cement bottom.
Did you remove all firebrick to move it? Looks like a line where the joint between bricks is / was?
The bottom is normally covered with firebrick which holds the side bricks tight to the sides. Ash fills in the joints between bricks making them appear like a solid cement bottom.
Did you remove all firebrick to move it? Looks like a line where the joint between bricks is / was?
I did the wire cup on a drill and made fast work of that yesterday. I actually couldn't believe how much pitting showed up with rust. I had no idea by looking at it that it was that bad. We bought it 7 or 8 years ago and knew nothing about Fisher stoves. It was my first wood stove and I wanted to make sure it was a good one and after reading was dead set on a Fisher. Drove all the way to Michigan to get it. They obviously didn't know anything about them either because they had a gasket seal on it. It had broken fire bricks in the back and we never did figure out how to replace them correctly but somehow got them shoved in there loosely. It wasn't until I was redoing I noticed the crack on bottom. I found a thread where you explained the fire brick scoop and ot all makes sense now 😅 I didn't see the pre 1980 grandma layout though. We did not remove any bricks when we moved it and I am going to have to replace some of the sides. With a crack like that on the bottom do I need to replace that yet? And now that I'm digging into it the inside of the door has the GML and GMR and a small wcf in a circle. At the bottom. The back outlet has a reducer to make it 6 in. Any idea when or who made it? And do you finish the inside with paint or anything as well? Thanks for all your help and info!
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