New to your forum, and my new stove!

Well, I've heated my house with hard coal for a few years now after using soft coal for 5-6 years before that. The hard coal is really the way to go. It's so much nicer and it doesn't put a black smudge on the side of my neighbors house that they can't figure out! Here in Iowa I don't think many people heat this way. This summer I found this small baseburner on craigslist for $125 and took the next day off work to get it. It was made by the Keeley Stove company and is a "Columbian Joy" A2. The firepot is about 12" across and 6 or so inches deep. It's a pretty well made stove. One of the foot rests is broken but the other is good so I'm going to send that to the foundry to get re-cast. I also think I should like the firepot with some refractory cement after having a couple of test runs with it this week. It really burns the coal a lot more completely than the gravity furnace does, but that old furnace is huge and on warmer days it's really hard to keep it from running me out of the house.
I need to get a new ash pan made for it and replace the mica. I should also eventually get all the nickeling re-done. It looks better in the photo than it really is. You can see the cat was impressed with the thing. I've never actually used a baseburner and it's a fascinating way to heat. After I took this picture I unhooked the stove and decided that I need to line the firepot with refractory cement as it does tend to easily get the firepot red hot, or at least a dull red anyway. Maybe that was how they burned those things years ago, I'm not really sure. I've seen enough of them with warped and burnt firepots and I really don't want that to happen with this one. With the infared thermometer it would show a reading of around 450 degrees F. on the hottest iron parts of the doors, while at the same time the stove pipe would be 185 or so degrees.
I have to say I'm pretty impressed with the old girl, and I also have really enjoyed reading through many of the posts on this site in the last week or so.
This stove even has a large blue glass marble for the swing top handle. I'm thinking it's a later 1890's stove from the shape of it and all. Gosh we used to have some artisans in this country years ago. Thousands and thousands of them too yet. And now you can't even find a decently made stove bolt........

NICE EH.

Your cat seems to like it.

Very nice stove !! You got a real deal on her

I have always liked those base heater stoves with all the mica windows since seeing Norticans "Bride", once you get it restored and all the nickel replated it will be a show piece and deserve to be in a room as a focal point. Your stove appears to be in good shape and that is a great price you got it for, can't blame you for skipping work to pick her up.
Welcome to the forum, we need more pictures !

Wow what a great price! I'm jealous! Welcome and happy burning ! It looks great!

Welcome. That sure is a pretty stove.

Freetown Fred, you crack me up. I used to live in Northern NY me and I like dat stove too EH. My Grandfather's name was Boissoneault. Need I say more. What great country.

ct, how the hell did you end up in Winchester, Va???????

What? $125 ! Really, fixed up that stove should be worth at least 6K... wow, nice find.. that would really look good on my hearth, want to double your money..

Sounds like you're an old pro at this Earl. Great deal, and thanx for rubbing it in our faces.(another jealous one). Good luck restoring it, and keep us posted on your progress. Welcome aboard.

I've never had a really nice old stove to heat with like this. The people I bought it from found it up in the attic of a farmhouse they were renting. The owner said they could do whatever they wanted with what they found on the farmplace so this got brought down to the garage and sold. She was really worried about the rusted out ash pan and the stove was partially apart when it got carried up to the attic. But at least it was all in one place and they had enough sense to know it belonged to this thing. It had the remains of some 1930's newspapers in it so it probably hasn't seen a fire for quite some time. The firepot looks about like new in it and whoever did use it years ago did not overheat it which is really nice. They just thought it was a nasty old wood stove and it was pretty dirty.
I did see a HUGE Riverside baseburner that some people tried to drag across the kitchen floor and they broke one of the legs off and it fell into the wall. Except for the nickel parts on the stove and the doors, every single casting in that thing was cracked or broken. It must have really landed hard.
I heated for a long time with a big Round Oak Stove. It was a double burner or some such thing. They are well made stoves but very utilitarian. I traded a clock about 15 years ago for the largest size Round Oak baseburner, but in those days I didn't know where to get hard coal and sold that to a stove guy from Texas I think. He was from down south somewhere anyway. That was a lot bigger than this stove is. There are also some people I know that have a baseburner about 30 miles from here that's never been used. They bought the house they are in around 1965 from the people that built it in 1906. They didn't think they would like central heat so they bought the hard coal stove 'just in case'. They didn't want the stove and it was still in the packing crate wrapped in 1905 newspapers with twine and excelsior! That a nice looking old stove of course, but since it was kept in a basement like it was for 60 odd years it's got some unfortunate, though not terribley distracting things going on with the nickeling.
You guys are funny. I've really enjoyed reading through your postings on some of these stove subjects. I will be glad to post more pictures of the stove as I get some of the work done on it. I need to get the foot rests re-cast and I'll send those out this next week. One of the side ornaments for the finial was broken as well, so I'll get that made also so I can put the finial back together on it.
It also takes a 5" stovepipe so I'm really glad that the cast iron elbow stayed with it.
I'll shut up now. Thanks now you guys. Earl.

This stove has the double heater feature and the magazine in it, you have a great find there Earl. Glad to see someone restore such a great find and put it to use, make sure to line the fire pot with refractory cement. Pierre (Nortican) has a great thread showing the restoration of a stove just like this, it's called "my bride" or something like that and has a lot of great pictures.

I bet the unfired base heater in its original crate is probably the last of those around anywhere, are you going to buy it or at least put us in contact with the person that has it ?

No kidding and unused, still in the crate stove is quite the find regarless of the nickel. Your Columbian Joy looks to be very complete and running nicely. The original magazine in it too! Very nice. How's the output?