About the service
I run a small workshop dedicated to restoring antique cast-iron wood-burning stoves so they leave in true working order, not just polished for display. Most of the stoves that reach my bench have been sitting unused for decades, and the firebox seams are the first thing I address: I rake out the old, crumbled fire cement, dry-fit the panel joints, and re-seal every seam with a fresh high-temperature fire cement rated for sustained firebox heat, tooling each joint smooth so smoke and embers cannot escape through hairline gaps.
The damper is next. Decades of soot and rust often freeze the plate mid-travel, so I disassemble the mechanism, strip corrosion from the shaft and pivot points, true up a warped plate on a jig if needed, and lubricate with a graphite-based compound that tolerates heat instead of gumming up like ordinary grease. A damper that will not seat fully is a draft problem and a safety problem alike, so this step gets tested through a full range of motion before anything is reassembled.
Decorative nickel-plated trim — foot rails, hinge covers, urns, and finial caps — usually arrives pitted and dull. I hand-polish these pieces in stages, working up through progressively finer compounds to bring back the original shine without rounding off the cast detail, and I re-plate pieces that have worn through to bare brass when the design calls for it.
For the body, I strip failing coatings back to bare iron, then refinish with a genuine heat-resistant stove paint or blacking compound rated for the surface temperatures a firebox actually reaches — no ordinary paint survives a real fire. Before any stove leaves the shop it gets a full safety inspection: firebox integrity, flue collar fit, air-intake operation, and a supervised test burn where practical. Typical turnaround runs two to three weeks depending on parts sourcing, and I document each stage with photographs so you can see exactly what was done.
The damper is next. Decades of soot and rust often freeze the plate mid-travel, so I disassemble the mechanism, strip corrosion from the shaft and pivot points, true up a warped plate on a jig if needed, and lubricate with a graphite-based compound that tolerates heat instead of gumming up like ordinary grease. A damper that will not seat fully is a draft problem and a safety problem alike, so this step gets tested through a full range of motion before anything is reassembled.
Decorative nickel-plated trim — foot rails, hinge covers, urns, and finial caps — usually arrives pitted and dull. I hand-polish these pieces in stages, working up through progressively finer compounds to bring back the original shine without rounding off the cast detail, and I re-plate pieces that have worn through to bare brass when the design calls for it.
For the body, I strip failing coatings back to bare iron, then refinish with a genuine heat-resistant stove paint or blacking compound rated for the surface temperatures a firebox actually reaches — no ordinary paint survives a real fire. Before any stove leaves the shop it gets a full safety inspection: firebox integrity, flue collar fit, air-intake operation, and a supervised test burn where practical. Typical turnaround runs two to three weeks depending on parts sourcing, and I document each stage with photographs so you can see exactly what was done.
