wsherrick wrote:Often times the brass was nickel plated, sometimes not. It's a matter of your personal taste.
According to the Catalog page, the 14 inch model was $51 bucks. That was quite expensive in the early 1890's when this stove was made.
Just judging from the inside showing so much green corroision, I'm going to say that it was polished Brass.
I was able to get a coat of filler on the inside of the FP.
While that was drying I took the Finial outside and waved a propane torch over the surface. It instantly smoked the paint off without putting alot of heat into the base metal. Quick scrubb and the surface started looking rusty, real rusty.
Now I'm thinking UT OH! "William was right this thing is plated"
BUT...
It's not plated, the entire thing is solid brass and will polish up fantastic.
So I took it completely apart and stuck it in my vibrating polishing machine.
AKA brass tumbler for reloading.
After a few hours in corn cob media the brass is starting to look like new. Putting it back together now... shouldn't pose any problems. I might need to do a little drilling and taping for some teeny tiny srcews but getting it polished while it was in one peice wasn't going to happen.