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| The Riverside Bakewell cookstove in our summer kitchen. |
Our summer kitchen, a Tuff Shed, was designed and finished with the knowledge that we wanted to let as much heat escape the building as possible. Unfortunately, this resulted in the building itself being as good a chimney as the flue that the cookstove is attached to. Therefore, starting the fire can be a very smoky affair until a sufficient draft is established in the chimney. To prevent being smoked out, I first burn just a couple of sheets of crumpled newspaper in the firebox.
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| A piece of crumpled paper and a couple of tissues in the firebox. Notice that the ashes are cleared off the grate. |
I then make sure that the stovepipe damper is open,
the oven damper is open,
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| The knob is broken off the oven damper, but you can see the hole next to the word "open." |
and the side draft is partially open.
Then, I light the paper and put the lid back over the firebox. As you can see in the picture below, the smoke that was let into the room was minimal.
Once the paper had been burning for a little while, all the smoke began to go up the chimney. After the paper has completely burned, I put more crumpled papers into the firebox and add a few small sticks of kindling.
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| Kindling burning in the cookstove. |
It usually won't be long until you have a nice little fire of kindling. You can then gradually add larger pieces of wood. Because of the draft problems in our summer kitchen that I mentioned earlier, I cannot completely shut the oven damper as quickly as I always could with the stove in our house kitchen. In the summer kitchen, I have to close it partially to strengthen the draw around the oven.
If baking is your goal, or if you want the maximum heat output of the stove, by the time a good bed of coals has been established, larger pieces of wood can be added, and the oven damper can be completely closed as shown below. Of course, if you have a chimney that draws well, the oven damper could be closed shortly after the paper has burned away in the firebox.
Drafts can be closed down to slow the burning of the fuel and to thus conserve it.
Due to the fact that the firebox side of this stove is very near the sink, you can see that I put water in a canner and a 40-cup coffee pot over the firebox. Otherwise, the heat that radiates from this side of the stove is nearly unbearable to stand next to.
Keep in mind that each stove is different. This is what works for this particular stove while hooked up to this particular chimney. Please feel free to share your "startup" methods.
Nice post! I have written about my wood cook stove a few times on my blog too. Cooking on one is such a joy compared to the other stoves.
ReplyDeleteI have a hundred year old Kiner Keno from Bangor Maine made by Noyles and Nutter ,,,I am wondering how to keep the temp to the same degrees or close to it because after awhile mine starts to drop ,,,,anyone know ????
ReplyDeleteWelcome to my blog, John! Are you asking how to keep the oven temperature consistent, or are you talking about the temperature of something cooking on the stovetop? Let me know because I have suggestions for both.
DeleteI hunted for a picture of a similar stove online. I bet yours is a beauty!
I know this post is from a while ago, but I am just starting to learn about my new wood stove. It looks exactly like yours, except it doesn't have the box on the right. I've gone through your posts but haven't found all the answers yet.
ReplyDeleteI have some beginner questions I hope you can help with!
What is the box on the right?
The white enamel on the doors of my stove has worn through at the corners. How do I refinish or fix it?
The cast iron stove is a little rusty, but not too bad. What is the best way to clean them and prepare them for long-term use?
The part right above the wood box is also warped. Is there anything I can do about that?
One of the breadboxes has a small hole through the bottom. How do I fix this?
Hello! I'm sorry I'm so late in responding.
DeleteThe box on the right of my stove is the water reservoir. Yours does not have that.
The wood stove restoration team at Mill Creek Antiques in Paxico, Kansas, mixes high temperature paint to match any missing enamel on the stoves that they restore. From a distance, this makes the stove look better, but close up, you can definitely tell that they are painted.
Cast iron pieces can be gone over with a steal brush and then a grill brick to remove rust. Once you've done that, you can use stove black (my preference is the Williams paste), or if it is the stovetop and you're going to use it, I just rub vegetable oil into the cast iron with a flannel rag.
I imagine you are talking about the "T" right above the firebox being warped. This is pretty common. There isn't much you can do about it, but you might be able to take it to a good metalworking shop and either have a new one cast or that one repaired.
If I were you, I wouldn't worry about the small hole in the floor of the warming oven. Some brands were intentionally perforated along the back to let more heat from the cooktop in. Again, a good metalworking shop could help you with a new piece of sheet metal for the floor of the warming oven if you wanted to go that far.
Best wishes as you learn to cook on her!