Iron woodstove maintenance?

[Brian W Evans]

Several years ago I bought a house with a beautiful 30-year-old Scandinavian (Danish or Swedish, I think) cast iron stove. The stove was in excellent condition - deep black like an old iron frying pan and no rust. It has no enamel - just iron as far as I can tell.

Now, however, it has rust in some areas and has turned an ash grey color in others. I'd like to clean it up but have no idea how to go about it. The chimney sweep and the guy at the stove store have no advice for me.

I use the stove all the time from September to April, so I don't want to oil it or do something else that would create an odor or toxic cloud in my house.

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

[John Fricke]

Hi Brian
I have no experience with this but try this article.

http://www.ehow.com/how_4553197_antique-cast-iron-cook-stove.html

Looks like elbow grease required, good luck.

[David G Baker]

Don't know about cleaning your stove but I do know that you must use your chimney sweep faithfully and do not burn green wood or pine. When I was a kid we would use a wire brush and a product called stove black but our wood stove was just a very basic stove with out any fancy addons.

[Lee Mitchell]

John, thanks for an interesting link. That's the first time I've run across using waxed paper.

Brian, one note on the oil mentioned. I restore cast iron cookware and one of the things I learned early was to go easy on the oil. (I use canola oil or solid vegetable shortening.) If the oil film is too thick, there will be splotches left after curing. Also, for best results, the cast iron should be warm to low-medium hot before applying the oil. The heat helps open the pores so more of the oil will be absorbed.

Oh.... relating to odor. You will get some after applying oil. If you very lightly apply the oil, the odor will be similar to what happens when a new stove is fired up the first time. The easiest way I've found to deal with it is to set a box fan in front of an open window near the stove. Set it to blow out the window.

As to removing rust, a wire brush (like a toothbrush) works well for tight places. (Don't use the brass version.) The rust residue can also be removed using paper towels or old tee-shirt "rags" very, very lightly soaked with the same oil mentioned above. Similar to using a paper towel barely dampened with water.

BTW, for my shop woodstove, I use Stove Polish. Wear gloves to apply it. (It stains!!) Then buff as if waxing a car. To set, I build a very small fire in the stove. As with the oil, there's a little odor. I open the shop door and turn on the exhaust fan. Within a few minutes the scent is gone.

Hope this helps, a bit.

Lee in NC

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Wax paper? Why not just use wax?
Vitamin E is water soluble. It'll attract water. I'd not use it on iron.

I can't see any harm waxing a stove so long as you don't intend to use it - ever. Once you stoke it up the wax will smoke off making for a messy few moments and a house full of smoke.

[Lee Schierer]

I would check the Hometime web site. THey just aired a show where tehy restored a house of a prominant author of childrens books and they used some sort of stove polish on an old sotve and were still able to use it. The polish cleaned it up and turned it a nice black color. It might have been: Rutland Stove Polish.

[Brian W Evans]

I knew I'd get some good answers on SMC!

It does indeed sound like I'll need to apply a little elbow grease - so what else is new? Wire brushes and steel wool will be my first tools. The wax paper idea sounds a little sketchy. As Cliff said, "why not just use wax?" The Rutland Stove Polish (thanks Lee) is actually a blend of waxes with some pigment in it. I'll be trying some since it's cheap and Ace hardware carries it.

David, thanks also for the advice on the chimney sweep and wood. My chimneys (I have 3 wood stoves) get swept every year and the stoves & pipes inspected. I only burn dry hardwood except in my shop which occasionally has some 2x4 scraps in it. I know too many people who've lost houses or worse because they weren't smart about their stoves.

I probably won't attempt this until the summer so I can run the stove with the windows open, but I'll try to remember to report back.

Thanks again.