Picked up this stove this summer at a swap meet. Saw it the month before and didn’t bite but when it was there the following month I got it for $10 lesson on an already fair price. My hesitancy was not due to the price but mainly due to the number of projects I already have lined up but, I am weak, what can I say? (The bit of blue you see in this photo is some tape and not a runaway flame shot!) As the title indicates it is a Quick Cook Model 112 by O’Keefe & Merritt, an upper end kitchen range company out of Los Angles. They were bought out by Tappen in 1950. They started in the early 1900’s but I have found limited info on the company other then they both founders worked for Pacific Stove Company which supposedly produced camp stoves among many other things. Sadly, my stove has no badge but I was able to identifying by its twin that is shown on the Terrence Marsh site. I spent a little time on the internet and other then the twin, I have found no other similar stoves or other info on O’Keefe and Merritt making camp stoves. Perhaps some of our learned members will have insight. It appears to be a 1920’s style stove. It has removable legs, fortunately all four were there, a screw on pump resembling, if not, a Kamp Kook pump, a steel tank and was all black in its youth. I am sure there was once a small tank wrench but I didn’t get that. The lid has a couple of folding supports but there are no side wind shields. The main burner has a preheat well and the lighting process is straight forward, especially if you use the tank/generator to fill the well and thus getting fuel in the generator during the preheat. Heats up quickly and although the burners are small, puts out a lot of flame with great adjustment. The second burner runs off of the main like other suitcase stoves. As you can see the tank hangs on the side and there appears to a double wall with what looks like an asbestos pad shielding the tank. Needs some rust removable but it is far down on the list so it will have to wait. And a happy face
I recall my parents had an O'Keefe & Merritt natural gas range when I was a kid. I had no idea until this post that they ever made camp stoves. Interesting! ....Arch
I had never heard of a O’Keefe and Merritt camp stove either and only have the posting on the Marsh site to go by. Wish my badge was still there. A lot of the features such as the case and legs resemble PW stoves but the details on the tank and burners do not. I guess it is not impossible that PW produced the cases and O&M made the rest or just badged it. It does not have any “frills”, pretty utilitarian. The knobs are steel also.
Hello MartyJ, Congrats on research success coming up with it's twin on Marsh site, you've done your homework on this , well done. Thank you for an excellent post. I have a few comments inline with your own observations, some questions and then I may just follow along from the peanut gallery for the remainder. For your stove I'm not a learned fellow stovie but you were right to expect things could pop here: Already Arch recalls O'Keefe & Merritt . This stove right now is not a priority for you, I respect that. It seems to me "so far", to offer a camp stove originally O&M may have assembled parts & designs from other maker(s). PW certainly provided models for others to rebadge but, myself, I can not see this as a "rebadge only" PW model. *Burner: Yourself & MrAlexx being familiar with the "happy face". [Yours has a burner] " …like other suitcase stoves." Exactly. Check the early AGM Kampkook 3 re your burner assembly and pump. Check **early PW No.3 for **legs, same **grates in same type of cooking surface. To help us possibly further confirm (or not) along those lines: Your burner sure does look like a match with the early AGM No.3, if so: the tops are 2 1/2" dia. and 9 1/8" apart (center to center). ------------------------------------- If you can please provide dims of your closed case. [[ FYI we might learn the case does not match? : my early AGM No.3 closed case is 14 1/2 x 8 3/8 x 3 1/2”, the smallest US 2 burner iirc ]] ---------------------------- AS an aside: Sooo many member "locations" were auto-removed from member IDs. Is it wrong for me to ask approx. where are you from? (maybe add it to your ID). At this point I have zero recollection of your approx. location and can only guess: North America. Yours is quite an interesting stove, thx again. omc @MartyJ
Came across this Cook Quick no12 O'keefe & Merritt 3/20 SoCal. Measures 16x9x4-1/2 inch closed. tag is held on by two small cotter pins. Will add entry to this reference section when I get it fried up. My tag looks like No 12 not 112 maybe T. Marsh has different stove or typo?? Daryl
Thank you for that post and clarification. They do look like the same stove and I would agree that based on your badge, the model number is twelve. Certainly not a very common stove!
