Properly Coating/Finishing a Stove

I have always been in somewhat of the dark about refinishing these old stoves. Granted I am fairly new to the stove world but I had the same issues with automotive/motorcycle parts.

The big thing in the world of metal that gets hot is high temp paint. I have never found this to work even if it's rated for over 2000 degrees F. It always burns off and stinks as its doing so. Finally someone turned me onto Rutlands stove polish for my motorcycle exhaust. It worked for a few months then it starts to rust again as moisture creeps in the air. Not bad though, still the best I've found. When I bought the parlor stove it was coated in enamel on the outside and still in really awesome shape. It also holds up to the heat very well. When I received the cannon heater it was sand blasted and then coated in rutlands stove polish which gave it a nice gunmetal loo. Then I fired it once to cure the polish but after a few months of sitting in my sun room it started to rust again, so I repolished it again the other day and was thinking of clear coating it with high temp stove bright paint, until last night.

My most recent purchase was a Warm Morning radiant heater. I followed the same process of rutlands but I didn't fire it to cure. Instead I let it sit a day or two then after polishing it I sprayed a few coats of stove bright, high temp, clear coat, paint. This was to prevent the intermediate rust. It is a nice look but not as nice as the enamel or the deep black coating that I see on some stoves. When I fired it up last night and it reached about 500 degrees on the flue pipe, I started to smell some burn off of the paint or polish one or the other. Now it doesn't seem to show it burning off but the stove is tacky to the touch when hot.

So my questions are:

What is the most effective refinishing technique to restore a stove?
What are the best chemicals to use?
What will really hold up to high heat?
Will it stop smelling after its curred?
Is enameling a stove possible at home?

I have a friend who was explaining enameling to me and it seemed quite an involved process but I haven't read into it.
I noticed that the Warm morning was listed as an enameled stove when new. The cannon heater was white and seemed to be coated with a very durable paint, most likely lead based which seemed to always be a more durable paint. I searched for another thread specific to this but I didn't come across anything but I am slightly search impaired remember lol.

I see some beautiful stoves on this site!

My 1909 Glenwood cookstove has an enamel finish. For it, I use barkeepers friend to clean it and then sprayed with Thermalox clear coat HT paint. Great stuff.

For my Star Herald and the cast iron parts of the Glenwood not enameled, I use Williams Stove polish. I prefer it to Rutlands because it contains no wax. It's just graphite in solution and just works. There is no burn off smell (the wax) and it lasts about the same amount of time as the Rutlands. They might even own it now but it's diffferent than their polish. It's a small Yellow tube.

I do each stove once a year at the end of the season usually with the William's.

SteveZee wrote:My 1909 Glenwood cookstove has an enamel finish. For it, I use barkeepers friend to clean it and then sprayed with Thermalox clear coat HT paint. Great stuff.

For my Star Herald and the cast iron parts of the Glenwood not enameled, I use Williams Stove polish. I prefer it to Rutlands because it contains no wax. It's just graphite in solution and just works. There is no burn off smell (the wax) and it lasts about the same amount of time as the Rutlands. They might even own it now but it's diffferent than their polish. It's a small Yellow tube.

I do each stove once a year at the end of the season usually with the William's.

So the thermolax doesn't burn off or dull at all? I am going to try the Williams next. I'm not a Dan of the burn off smell it's pretty much gone now but anyways

The thermalox is some great stuff for clear coating the enameled surfaces. I had some area's of crazing on the oven and shaker doors of my Glenwood C and you can't even see it any more after a couple coats of thermalox clearcoat. It's been on the stove since summer so I can't say long term yet but, so far, it hasn't changed a bit and the stoves been running for a few weeks straight now. Ask me at the end of the season but I think it's quite durable based on what Emery at Stove Hospital told me.

Take a look at this stuff

http://forrestpaint.com/index.php?page=high-temp- ... osol-paint

They claim 1200f temperature . Most of the clear coat on the Warm morning is burned off now after two night of burning. The stove only reached 680f max, so what's the problem? I am going to email the company about this. I wonder if I'm doing something wrong and maybe spraying over the rutlands polish made it fail. They say many stoves use their brand as a factory finish.

Edit: just emailed the company about this issue. Maybe I can get some answers.

I think the Rutland stove polish is graphite and wax. Not a good base for paint.

franco b wrote:I think the Rutland stove polish is graphite and wax. Not a good base for paint.

The paint took very well to it after the rutlands was polished out and it cured to the touch but maybe the wax is burning off under the paint causing the issue. But still the paint shouldn't be burning.