Primus 1895

Hello,

recently I have been the only bidder on Tradera, on a 7 days auction, for this 1895 un-numbered Primus stove… so I won it for 13€… less than the cost of the most stupid spare part.



It’s incredible how little appeal these oldies have between international collectors… well, good for me

I always wanted to add an early Primus to my collection and this in particular is the latest design evolution before the introduction, in 1896, of the Pri-LOGO-Mus engraving on tank and the first model numbers (0 and 1). As well probably the last year for the old style bottom stamping.

On this 1895 version we have the recently added hex shape for the burner base and pump removable tube. The burner as well is original (fortunately), confirmed by the “square” head of the jet.

So, a very emblematic stove, the father of the universally known Primus 1 and father of all the stoves that we know, a design that lasted for 130 years without the need of any major update.

A stove that can’t be missed in any collection in my humble opinion.

I fired the stove with its 130 years old jet, clearly a little worn, but still performing not too bad… absolutely no need to add a new jet to this stove just to achieve a better flame.

Here it is after a little restoration (I will explain in detail next):



A short video of the stove burning:



Now let’s talk about the restoration. After a basic clean and fettle my job was done, I didn’t want to disturb the stove too much, leaving also the very ugly soldering repairs at the front supports and pump tube:




So I fired it and everything seemed ok, but then I noticed some kerosene on the bottom plate… so a leak was somewhere…

After some investigation, I found the leak at the pump tube seal so I renewed the seal and tested again… the leak was still there.

So I made a better visual check and I noticed a tiny crack on the pump tube tank fitting, so that was the cause of the leak.

The only possible solution was to remove the fitting and braze the crack. At this point, having to work on the tank, I decided to make a full restoration, clean the ugly solder repairs and reposition the supports in a better way (they were repaired not too perfectly).

So desoldered the parts and wiped away a lot of solder:



Then with some 1500 wet&dry paper I removed the layer of lead and cleaned the parts to be ready to start soldering:



The crack on the pump tank fitting:



I masked the internal threads and brazed the crack, then lead soldered everything together and polished a little to remove all the traces of flux:



Job done and stove reassembled with the pump and fired, fortunately everything went smooth.

Enjoy,

Nicola

 

Well done on bringing it back to life.

 

@Nicola Francesco Elia
Profitable purchase and sophisticated restoration. great result!
Stanisław

 

@Andrew thanks

@Stanisław Grajewski thanks Stanislaw! Restoration is always a big dilemma, but I really can’t live with a stove that doesn’t work as it’s supposed to do

Nicola

 

@Nicola Francesco Elia.
Good Evening Nicola, first of all congratulations on a brilliant score and having an early Primus added to your collection.
Secondly congratulations on a brilliant restoration through out, bringing a true antique back to life, you have done a brilliant job of the soldering work.
Looking at the photo's and the video of the flame pattern the jet orifice has very little wear, may be the jet was changed in its history but if so this jet has been in there for many decades, once again Nicola well done there

 

@mr optimus thanks Brian, I appreciate your words! I think the jet is still the original one. As I said, it has a squared head that I have found only on pre-1900 stoves like Aetna and Vulkan.

So, a little rich flame is acceptable!

Nicola

 

Good point Nicola, i should have remembered that detail

 

Hi @Nicola Francesco Elia .
Congratulations. You are very lucky. This is a really valuable catch. And it's a wonder that no one fought for it.

I have a similar opinion.
You handled the repair of the damaged parts very nicely.
You didn't mention the NRV. Did it require any repair? From what I know and read, this solution was reliable.
Greetings
Stanisław

 

@Knee, thanks Stanisław!

The NRV was functional with the original cork pip, but I have anyway replaced it with a piece of viton… I really like this old type of nrv and I think it’s pretty simple to fix. The pip is big and it hardly fails to seal.

Nicola

 

A beautiful restoration for a stove that was well deserving

 

Excellent job as usual.

 

A lovely stove and a great and sympathetic restoration. 1895 and the basic design hasn’t altered much to the present day. Is there much else that can boast this?

 

@CW @Firestarter @Hugh_Manatee thank you very much! I really appreciate your messages.

Nicola

 

But at least no-one will ever see that
Running beautifully, and looking good, what more could you want
Ian

 

@igh371 thanks Ian. Usually I keep the original cork pip, but I noticed it was a little rotten… so because I intended to well seal the pump tube I’ve chosen to make a long term repair to it.

Nicola

 

Lucky catch, I usually only look any more for my last three Primus 96’s I need.
Great job on the repairs.
Duane

 

@hikerduane thanks Duane! I wish I was focused like you!

Nicola

 

Healthy respect for "original"

Superb addition to collection, congrats! Your highest level restos are amazing. Your ongoing countless on-topic contributions to CCS are "value adds" incl. this exceptional presentation.
Magnifico !
Thank you, this is very much appreciated.

 

@OMC wow, thanks! Your compliments are really, really appreciated! I am happy if my posts are a good contribution for the forum, in the end whatever I post or write, is something that I have taken and learned here, re-elaborated… so whatever I can give back with my hobby it’s just a refund to the community

Nicola

 

Wonderful early Primus, the tank markings are archaic on this era of stove, they put me in mind of the classical era.

Sad about the historic repairs being lost- but I'm in agreement that it was the best course of action to get such a stove back in working order.

A beautiful result, good to see the component parts, an all round good find!