I left my country workshop with a feeling of great achievement last night - after 11 winters of freezing my arse off in the uninsulated old cow-shed, I finally got around to installing some heating.I bought this little cast-iron stove in the flea-market a few weeks ago, and it is small - about 2 feet high including the legs. It was made in Hungary, I would guess around 1900, and is the sort of thing that would be installed in a night-watchman's or railway worker's hut. It burns coke (now known as 'smokeless') and one load seems to last all day - just enough to keep the edge off and warm fingers. Probably enough to boil a kettle on too.
I had all the flue-pipe ready to hand, and simply ran it straight up to an arrow-slit window and out. The pipe cost more than the stove, including the bends needed to route it.
My charming and glamorous assistant suffers from 'white finger' more than I do even though he is 18 years younger, so this stove is more to entice him to work in the winter than for me. 'white finger' is - as the name suggests - when one's fingers go white and dead at the slightest drop in temperature, and pretty much every stonemason suffers from it as a result of destroying the nerves of his hands by continuous use of hammers - especially pneumatic ones. It is incurable once the nerves have been destroyed and the only remedy is to move to a warmer climate. It is one of the many physical drawbacks of doing things that the human body is not designed to cope with, and is one on the long list of drawbacks that I always quote to romantic, would-be stone carvers.
Right - I'm off to the workshop to light it again before the summer arrives.
get your chestnuts roasted!
ReplyDeleteOooh yes - there's a thought. I just stopped myself from making an Oedipus joke on your touching post. There's bad taste, then there's bad taste.
ReplyDeleteI was waiting for it!
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It is a cute little stove Tom. I write that as I sweat from the hot and humid weather we are having here at the moment.
ReplyDeleteDon't ever work in PR for the Stone Carver's Association - you don't paint a glam picture of the job!
I can only imagine the wear and tear on the body, Tom. Do you use a cane to get around?
ReplyDeleteI have Raynaud's disease (sounds tragic doesn't it)...just means hands and feet turn white and are quite painful when cold. I only have it in my hands, seems it's hereditary (V., has it too)...makes preparing a salad with ingredients from the fridge a little tricky and finding just the right pair of winter gloves impossible...but that's about it!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad my living isn't earned trying to use painful, cold hands in sub-zero temperatures.
God love your little stove.
The only problem with old stoves is finding the right size piping. Looks like you may have done a bit of DIY on the connecting point! All you need now's a nice old blackened kettle.
ReplyDeleteThat looks a great little stove for keeping your mitts warm, Tom. Looks as if it might even make a decent bacon and egg sandwich if you brought a frying pan with you!
ReplyDeleteFunny, I was just looking at an old cast iron stove at the antiques fair a few weeks ago. I almost bought it. I've been wanting a small one for the kitchen area, which doesn't seem to get quite warm enough in the winter. Yours is cute!
ReplyDeleteHimself had a work stove made many years ago which is still going strong. It builds up a real fug of heat in his carving room. Now you only need to go out and buy a big coffee pot for the top!
ReplyDeleteI use a cane to beat the person who pushes my chair, Grouch - I get around faster that way.
ReplyDeleteDid you catch it from abusing a fox, like us Brits, Jacqueline?
I've got the kettle, I've got the pot and I've got the frying pan. All I need now is for Her Indoors to kick me out, and I'll be sorted.
We have a wood burning stove in our sitting room Tom and once it gets hot we can shut it down all night and it keeps hot, throwing out heat until the next morning. Never thought of putting a kettle on its top though.
ReplyDeleteWe have a similar stove, Tom, and burn wood. It has the advantage of heating our water as well.
ReplyDeleteThere is usually a kettle on it although since my other half removed kettle and put the plastic electric jug on the stove with the obvious results we may have to stop that practice. Just one of the problems of living with Alzheimer's.
Oh, poor you, Susan, I suppose it makes sense to him, putting a kettle on the stove. It's the sort of thing I would do first thing in the morning. A few nights ago, I poured a glass of wine into the ashtray, and that worried me a little. I asked Her Indoors to keep an eye out for further irrational acts like this, and take whatever steps she thought necessary to safeguard her own well-being, but it must be difficult.
ReplyDeleteI am a Brit Tom...and I don't know what you are talking about.
ReplyDeleteOh, it was (another) bad joke about the folk name for foxes in Europe - and particularly France - which is 'Reynard'. 'Reynard the fox' is a classic children's book title, J.
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