My post about the French stove last week got more response than anything else I've ever written about here. Not all that much, admittedly, but still more than anything else. As things are a bit quiet otherwise, I thought I'd do a quick update on it. Jim managed to get it to pieces - it's made in quite a lot of separate pieces; in particular he extricated the inner cast iron firebox from the enammelled front and top. It does not look good. There is a single, big, crack that extends from the bottom left of the front, by the ashpan, right round the side to more than half way up the back. The good news is that that's the only damage; the bad news of course is that it will be fiendishly difficult, if not impossible, to repair. It's cast iron, it's old, it's rusty, it probably wasn't very good quality in the first place - and our only hope is to try to get it welded. Mission Impossible for Len the local welder, with whom it now rests. Last we saw, he was still sucking his teeth and shaking his head at it.
Tomorrow, a report from Jim on the engine's progress .....
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