I just got a package with a really old Radius 17 in it. I have no idea how to date these... So I asked the seller who told me a tale ...a tale of big fish .. cold nights and this stove being what the old guys would cook on in the galley. My mind swirled an thoughts of men hand throwing harpoons into whales... Storms.... The smell of fish shit and clam chowder...men with fish hooks stuck in their fingers... Men who worked harder than I have ever done... The seller said he was some kind of salvager of old boats. They strip them of anything useful and try to resell them...so we circled back to the stove..."and this was used in one of those boats...off the coast of Africa itself" In my mind I could hear the narrator on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland...loud thunder.... Buried treasures... Then... My college education came into play... "I got a question.... Didn't they use alcohol stoves on boats?" A few seconds of waiting... Then he said "Nah I'm pulling your leg...I do salvage boats but the guy I got this from was from South Africa. I think he liked to fish" Hahahahahahah! Well here is the very stove indeed. It's pretty grimy and the brass looks terrible... So I got it in a bath of high level citric acid... I'll pull all that off the brass and have it shiny and looking new soon! I think it's going to take a few hours but look at all that crap coming off!
If the bottom of your Radius is stamped ‘A B Radius’ then it will be pre-1938. If it is stamped ‘Radius Ltd’ it will have been manufactured post-1938.
And I was joking about removing the patina hahahaha More photos.... Got it running now. Needed to make a leg for it
The CBR 15 stamp on my Arara led the Previous Owner/Seller to believe it was a 1915 German Trench Stove. Turns out the CBR was a prewar [WWII] government test facility that rated appliances. [Marginally by today's standards.] So maybe it was a wartime stove. but not army issue. Not a sea story, but I believed it...
@SveaSizzler hahahahahahaahaa well when something happens to be or someone else (like the wife) I just have to laugh and say that at least we figured out later that we had been had... There are people running around who still believe the story they were told...poor bastards
Ah, the venerable Radius 17! The stove that caused me to contract the stove-pox. It's the 1st stove I own. Finding how it functions led me to the dark path that is CCS, called 'spiritburner', back in those days. And the rest is, as they call, is history
@ajvuik I really like it. I got a few 100 type stoves and I like them all. Handy size and they fold down. I've kept it pretty much as I found it other than wiping it down. I just got a radius 20 (one I have wanted for a really long time and it's one of those "polished to death" types. I didn't buy it because it was polished...I like to use them. This one looks great and works great. I needed to make a leg for it but that's ok
@fjfj765 they're both correct... That's where I got that gasket....and nice catch on my fallout figure. Super secret here... But I'm a big time convention attendee to a lot of gaming conventions and comic cons like San Diego comic con. My office is full of geeky stuff...so is my wife haha
