I got this alcohol stove / chafing dish warmer from an estate sale recently - it gives a date of 1908 on the bottom. It doesn't look great but I'm still curious how it works. Any ideas? As to moving parts there is the cap which unscrews, a little handle that moves up and down, and a regulator type knob that raises / lowers a cover/sleeve around the center piece. I've seen a few of these stoves mentioned but none appear exactly like this, and no directions for use. Any help appreciated.
Same device to power it up is HERE and you'll see you use the little pump to get fuel into the priming trough, then control the flame once the main burner's fired up using the regulator wheel, which raises and lowers a sleeve on the burner. John
Excellent, thanks for that link. I'll try it out on my stove this afternoon. My stove is copper plated brass with most of the copper gone. A shame the finish is so uneven and not as nice as the one at the link!
What a majestic find! It deserves to be so shiny again. I hope you plan to have it centrepiece on your table in all it's glory. Maybe full of buttered new season potatoes? Tummy rumbling now! B
@Centuryhouse I think you'll find your stove is made of brass sheet. The copper patches you see are typical of tarnished brass (traces of the copper content of the brass migrate to the surface) and they'll easily polish out. I've a similar chafing dish outfit that I featured HERE equipped with a different design of L,F&C stove.
@Centuryhouse Take heart, yours will polish up great. I was just lucky that mine has a nickel finish in good shape, so a light dusting merely brought up the lustre. Actually, I reckon yours has the more interesting combination of a copper dish and lid (tin lined I expect) with brass stove and frame, creating a beautiful contrast. I can't quite make out the detail of the dish handles and lid knob but they appear to be faux staghorn, like I've seen on a 1950's clasp knife. John
You are right it is the fake stag horn for handles - all in good shape too. I tried lighting the stove and had problems. The priming pump works and dumps alcohol into the warming ring. But I can never get the stove itself to actually light. I tried doing the priming burn 5 times in a row and opened the sleeve all the way, but once the priming ring ran out of visible alcohol the flame went out. Is there a trick?
Make sure each of the burner jet holes (see photo below) are clear. A length of wire of suitable diameter as a pricker should do the trick.
The holes seem fine but while messing with it I discovered that the central burning 'stack' unscrews and comes out, and has a thick cloth wick inside it. The wick was black at top and brittle; there was also a complete separation in the middle of the wick, so the wick was in two halves. Any ideas where to get a replacement?
Great work @Centuryhouse. Certainly a wick in poor shape would explain the firing no-go. A good source in the USA for wicks I know of is HERE. Thanks for the old clipping. Excellent read. John
