Wednesday, September 27, 2006

More stove musings

If you were one of those who envied us our French stove (July 30th), then take a look at Stovefinders. These splendid people not only find, restore and sell all manner of gorgeous stoves, they have been really helpful and interested with regard to ours (a Deville 'Lily'), and they supply all the peripheral bits like gaskets, flue adapters, window mica and heatproof vermiculite sheeting (because you can't get round firebricks any more).

The big crack in our stove did weld up - but as it cooled, not unexpectedly, lots of hairline cracks appeared. We are still not sure how it will stand up to being used (will it fall to pieces?) but I think we are going to give it a go. The Stovefinder people say that cracks there (in the lower part of the firebox) are not a problem with regard to leaking smoke. Where this is a problem is when the top is damaged - and the top of ours is in good nick. Anyway, we will line it with the vermiculite stuff and seal any cracks with heatproof silicone, so the only worry is really its structural integrity. Apparently we needn't have had it welded; we could have screwed a steel plate across the gap instead. Live and learn.

We came across Stovefinders whilst just generally browsing for stoves, thinking we might need a new replacement. There are so many different designs of wood and solid fuel stove available, in many different sizes - these, for example - that I marvel at the ubiquity of the Morso Squirrel - one of the plainest, most basic looking designs on the market, and not cheap either.

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