Restoring My Wehrle 112 Acme Sunburst Baseburner

It should be readily available at any stove or fireplace store. I've never had trouble finding it.

jubileejerry wrote:I'd like to find out what kind of formula was used for stove polish on old stoves like this at the factories. I want to put something as close to it on this stove as I can. I realize there are modern paints that would look real nice and withstand the heat, but since I'm trying to make a decent attempt to make it look like it used to, I'd like to use a formula like they did. I don't care if it might take more maintenance...that's not my point. I'd assume whatever it was, it must have been easy to get and plentiful, considering the number of stoves there were. I wonder if it might have had a petroleum base with graphite mixed in it? Is there a stove polish manufacturer out there who has been using the same formula for 100 years? I hope I'm not opening a can of worms with this question...it could be like asking "what's the best oil for my motorcycle?" Jerry

I don't know if this is the formula manufacturer's used 100 years ago, but according to the book "Woodstove Cookery - At Home On The Range". "To make stove blacking, mix 1 part powdered graphine & 2 parts boiled linseed oil. It says to mix ingredients and brush blacking on the stove. Keep this well stirred as the graphite prefers to settle to the bottom. Build a small fire to hasten the drying; it may take a day or so". In this book it also quotes an old book and it mentions stove black-leading in the cleaning process. It does not go into any detail on the black-leading though.
Randy

wsherrick wrote:It should be readily available at any stove or fireplace store. I've never had trouble finding it.

Tractor Supply usually has it in stock too, if you have them in Washington. Williams is what I use too, it does work well even on the old cook top.

jubileejerry wrote:I'd like to find out what kind of formula was used for stove polish on old stoves like this at the factories. I want to put something as close to it on this stove as I can. I realize there are modern paints that would look real nice and withstand the heat, but since I'm trying to make a decent attempt to make it look like it used to, I'd like to use a formula like they did. I don't care if it might take more maintenance...that's not my point. I'd assume whatever it was, it must have been easy to get and plentiful, considering the number of stoves there were. I wonder if it might have had a petroleum base with graphite mixed in it? Is there a stove polish manufacturer out there who has been using the same formula for 100 years? I hope I'm not opening a can of worms with this question...it could be like asking "what's the best oil for my motorcycle?" Jerry

Try to avoid the petroleum based ones. They smoke up the place as the oil burns off.

The girlfriend's family made and sold one of the old stove polish. At least as far back as one of the grandfather's, possibly a great grandfather in the late 1800's, started making it as part of their local business.

The family continued to make up until the 1970's. One of her chores as a kid back in the 1960's was to help her brother mix up batches and fill the tins. She said it's basically, fine powdered graphite, mixed into heated petroleum jelly, with a small amount of winter green oil added for aroma.

While helping her father clean out his barn a few years back, I found a few cans. Her father gave them to me to try. Says to only use on a warm stove. Worked ok, and had a nice deep metallic shine. But once the stove got hot, it stunk up the house with a burned oil and winter green smell. Otherwise, it held up about as well as any of the other graphite stove polishes I've tried.

I gave the cans back to her and she passed them out to others in the family as part of their family history.

Haven't tried the Williams yet.

Paul

Sunny Boy wrote:

jubileejerry wrote:I'd like to find out what kind of formula was used for stove polish on old stoves like this at the factories. I want to put something as close to it on this stove as I can. I realize there are modern paints that would look real nice and withstand the heat, but since I'm trying to make a decent attempt to make it look like it used to, I'd like to use a formula like they did. I don't care if it might take more maintenance...that's not my point. I'd assume whatever it was, it must have been easy to get and plentiful, considering the number of stoves there were. I wonder if it might have had a petroleum base with graphite mixed in it? Is there a stove polish manufacturer out there who has been using the same formula for 100 years? I hope I'm not opening a can of worms with this question...it could be like asking "what's the best oil for my motorcycle?" Jerry

Try to avoid the petroleum based ones. They smoke up the place as the oil burns off.

The girlfriend's family made and sold one of the old stove polish. At least as far back as one of the grandfather's, possibly a great grandfather in the late 1800's, started making it as part of their local business.

The family continued to make up until the 1970's. One of her chores as a kid back in the 1960's was to help her brother mix up batches and fill the tins. She said it's basically, fine powdered graphite, mixed into heated petroleum jelly, with a small amount of winter green oil added for aroma.

While helping her father clean out his barn a few years back, I found a few cans. Her father gave them to me to try. Says to only use on a warm stove. Worked ok, and had a nice deep metallic shine. But once the stove got hot, it stunk up the house with a burned oil and winter green smell. Otherwise, it held up about as well as any of the other graphite stove polishes I've tried.

I gave the cans back to her and she passed them out to others in the family as part of their family history.

Haven't tried the Williams yet.

Paul

Williams stove polish tube says "Made from graphite and carbon black pigments. Contains no waxes, smelly solvents, or flammable materials". It does smoke some when the stove gets hot but not as bad as some I have used.
Randy

When I got the stove there was one obviously broken part on it, the foot rest or foot warmer, but fortunately both of the broken parts were in the bucket of items that came with the stove. I used the same torch and welding rod method to fix it as I used on the door knobs, except I used real cast iron welding rod instead of piston rings. On the good side where the nickle has to look nice, I blended and polished the repair with an orbital sander with gradually finer grits of sandpaper until I got to 1000, then finally polished it a little more with a buffing wheel and rouge. I cut the circle back into the piece with a small round diamond-embedded rotary tool in my dremel. I didn't try to make it perfectly round because none of the other circles in these parts are perfectly round either, instead I tried to imitate them. I just drew circles by hand with a Sharpie felt-tipped marker until I got one that looked right, and ground it out with the dremel tool. Jerry

Williams Stove Polish

You could try a True Value Hardware, if you have them there. They can get it from their Distribution if not in stock.

Thanks for letting me know about the polish! I have a connection with a large hardware distributor at my Farm Store and I looked in their catalog. They carry it in many sizes, along with Rutland stove cement. I'm sure I'll need some of that, too, as there are a lot of internal areas of the stove that have to be tight so the baseburner passages will work right. I'm glad I asked you guys now. This will be simple! Jerry

Very nice job of welding and finishing that break.

There's better stuff then the Rutland cement. I've used it and it gets too hard.

I just got two tubes of this based on several recommendations from guys on here. They say it has more flex to stay sealed and not crack and fall out.

https://www.lehmans.com/p-3143-hearthstone-stove-cement.aspx

They also carry the Williams.

Paul

Thanks Paul. I didn't know about that kind. That's why I asked. Jerry

Very good and nice restoration on the stove. Will be just like it's day one.
Keep on posting.

Your welcome.

Maybe in return you can tell me more about your cast iron welding.

Looking at the pix of the backside, I assume you used an O/A torch ? If so, what size tip ? Do you use a neutral flame, or carb-rich, or what ?

Paul

Sunny Boy wrote:Very nice job of welding and finishing that break.

There's better stuff then the Rutland cement. I've used it and it gets too hard.

I just got two tubes of this based on several recommendations from guys on here. They say it has more flex to stay sealed and not crack and fall out.

https://www.lehmans.com/p-3143-hearthstone-stove-cement.aspx

They also carry the Williams.

Paul

I have used the hearthstone cement and it is very good cement. Another good one that I was able to get right at Lowe's is Hurcules furnace cement and that worked well too. The only thing I did not like about the hearthstone cement I got from Lehman's is it came in a caulking tube. This stuff is like mortar and there is no way it is coming out of that small tube at the end like caulk. I ended cutting off the end of the tube and scooping it out. Between the two, I liked the Hurcules better for some things and the Hurcules better for the smaller cracks.
Randy

I did notice that at Lehman's site the Hearthstone Cement in caulking tubes has a 6 month shelf life.

If it gets older on the shelf...it gets harder to get out of the tube.

"Your welcome.

Maybe in return you can tell me more about your cast iron welding.

Looking at the pix of the backside, I assume you used an O/A torch ? If so, what size tip ? Do you use a neutral flame, or carb-rich, or what ?

Paul"

Paul, I learned this from my dad who learned it from his dad back in the late 30's, early 40's so I'm sure it isn't in a book anywhere. It's something I do by the way the flame looks and sounds and pick the tip according to the thickness I'm working with. I almost never look at the pressure guages, except to never let them get into the red zones. For this piece I used a Victor size 0 tip and a neutral flame. Most people say for brazing or cast welding to use a soft or fuel-rich flame. I actually used two torches at the same time on this part, one with a #2 tip and the little one. I used the bigger one to preheat the area around the repair area and help maintain the temp I wanted where I was welding and the little one to do the actual welding. There are a lot of parts to a torch flame, and with practice you can learn how and when to use each of them. That's why I can get by with a small torch and a neutral flame instead of a large one and a soft, rich flame. I used the same flux I used to repair my knobs, but I used a larger, factory-made welding rod instead of the piston rings on this piece. I'll try to remember to take a picture of that other welding rod. Jerry