I found this stove for sale last November on FB Marketplace, listed as "Antique Primus No 15 Stove" for $75 CAD. The pictures posted revealed the typo in the listing title. Discus style, three-legged stoves didn’t interest me at the time, but living in an isolated rural town, local pick ups are extremely rare. I had to jump at the chance to buy a stove with no shipping cost. The seller, a kind old lady who had found it in her father's garage, generously offered to drop it off at my place of work when we couldn't make the connection. I sent her an etransfer for the $75. She never accepted it. I messaged her about it, but I didn’t hear back. If she ever chases me down for payment, I will happily pay. Hope she's okay. I felt like I did my part. Free stove for me. It was in decent condition, but I didn't know how to light a stove with no regulator, this was a first for me. I hopped on CCS, promptly found a manual for the stove, and carefully followed the instructions. It fired up first try without any issues. Then I stashed it away for a few months, intending to revisit it. Top view Date stamp S6, indicating 1928 Burner. It didn't look like this when I bought it, it looked like a normal burner with a healthy amount of use. I am in a metal polishing phase right now. Still learning the tools and techniques, and polishing things that need not be polished just for practice. I also think its kind of funny to polish a flame ring with holes in it rather than replacing it. It wasn't enough of a restoration to bother with before pictures. Engravings on the tank It included a thin, embossed trivet. It was quite rusty, so I cleaned it up and gave it few coats of wood stove paint. Priming with methyl hydrate Burning Post-burn. Truly no point in polishing a burner... It also came with a copper Coleman filter funnel, which was manufactured in Toronto from 1927-1932 according to Terry Marsh All of this came in a painted plywood box, likely homemade, labeled "STEVENSON". I don't know who this refers to, as it was not the seller's last name. Perhaps it was her father's. Under the lid there is a message in permanent marker reading, "NB this stove Burns White GAS". The first time I saw this, I interpreted the NB to mean "No Bullshit", and created a whole story in my head about the previous owner, who would implore borrowers of his stove not to trust the manufacturers instructions to only use paraffin. He had used white gas, and trust him, it worked better! More likely it is short for the Latin term "nota bene", or "take notice". Either way, I ignored it and used kerosene. It all packs away quite nicely. I am not sure if this model originally came with a reserve lid, but this one didn't, and I haven't been able to find a plug that matches the thread, so painters tape is my inelegant storage solution. Based on this gallery entry by @presscall for the same stove, it is an economy model that wasn't meant to be packed away, so it stands to reason that a reserve lid didn’t come with it originally.
When all is said and done, for me the 3/4 quart/ .750 liter discus stoves are the apothosis of the classic brass kerosene camp stoves. In my case, the holy grail was the Optimus 45, the equivalent of your Primus 51, that I was given at 12 or 13 years old in the early 1960s. A stove that I have extolled down the decades here. Really fascinating that a previous owner insisted on 'white gas' only. Totally wrong, though of course the stove will burn white gas just fine-- until it doesn't. This of course because the much more volatile fuel is very dangerous if the NRV fails, or until at shutoff vapor from the release is ignited by the still-extinguishing burner. Likely? No. Has it happened? Yes, many times down the years. If you use white gas, above all do so outside. Should you? No, use kerosene, which is what it was designed for. For you Old West aficionados, it reminds me of the injunction with single-action six-shooters. Keep the hammer down on an empty chamber, lest a bump to the hammer drive the firing pin into a chambered round. Likely? No. Did it happen? Many times over the years. If in the unlikely event I was in camp and found my brass keroburner was empty and I'd only brought the bottle of white gas, would I use it? Of course; because I'm outdoors and I'd interpose a dinner plate between the air release and the burner when I shut the stove down. Beautiful stove, great presentation. The hole in the flame ring will do no harm.
@GibsonsRavinePark2 A very nice example of a 51 discus style, a great collapsible stove that reasonably compact yet plenty of power
Thank you @mr optimus Thanks @Ed Winskill I love your passion for these stoves and the hypothetical reasoning. There is a right way and a wrong way to use these stoves, and plenty in between. Since this post I printed out the instructions I read the first time I used it, posted by @Dave1000car I posted them inside the box, so that if somehow this stove has a new owner without talking to me first, they will have the proper info. I love how insistent the instructions are that this stove is ONLY to be used with kerosene. I also found a new solution to the lack of reserve cap, a soft spile. I work in a brewery and these wooden pegs are used when serving traditional cask ale. With some firm downward pressure and some pliers, I was able to effectively "tap" threads into this spile. I find it more effective and aesthetically pleasing than the painter's tape I was using before.
