Soapstone Become Brittle With Age???

[MSGGrunt]

First post and already I am looking for help.

I picked up a Hearthstone II made in 1981 as a winter project. My plan was to disassemble the stove and give it a complete rebuild/reseal. The problem I ran into is just about every piece of the soapstone was cracked, chipped, and just crumbling apart. I was very careful taking it apart and there were still pieces of the stone that just fell apart.

Is this a common occurrence with soapstone after many tears of use.


I really liked the looks of the soapstone and bought this design based on esthetics but, given the above issue I am now seriously considering some other stove, possible a Jotul 121 "Moose" or some other stove that is as much a piece of furniture/art as it is a heating appliance.

 

[Lake Girl]

I know I saw a rebuild of one of the soapstone stoves that included pics ... will try to find it. Parts list: (broken link removed to http://a1stoves.com/free/H-II.pdf)
http://www.hearthstoneparts.com/cgi/display.cgi?item_num=H-II

 

[begreen]

The stove may have been overfired. If so, that is a bad place to start off from. Maybe look at a new Jotul Oslo?

 

[MSGGrunt]

I would bet that the stove in fact has been over fired given the looks of the insides. Will over firing cause soapstone to become brittle? I was very surprised, though having no prior experience with soapstone, I still thought it would be much more durable than what I found.

 

[Lake Girl]

Easy answer yes. As a kid, it always surprised me to find cracked rocks under where the bonfire was...

 

[mark cline]

Over firing will cause the stone to crack , but don't forget to fire the 3 successively hotter fires every year prior to using the stove . Over the summer the stone absorbs moisture , which needs to be driven off yearly before full time use . Thus the 3 hotter fires so you don't crack the stone before the moisture is driven out.