Cleaning Cookstove Help Please

AverageJo · #1 11/24/12, 08:13 AM

I'm trying to figure out how to clean up a top of an old wood cookstove. It's got a black top and is getting some surface rust on it. I've heard to use ashes to help blacken it, but they also said to use "just a bit" of lamp oil or vegie oil. I really don't want to mess this up and end up with a stove top that smokes while burning off the oils. Is this true? Is this right? Is there a better way?? Help please???

mtnviewfarms · #2 11/24/12, 08:20 AM

Go to your local hardware store and ask for 'Stove Black' it is a polish that you rub on
the surface you are describing and it helps even it out.

suitcase_sally · #3 11/24/12, 08:23 AM

Stove Black.

AverageJo · #4 11/24/12, 08:27 AM

Does the Stove Black put off any fumes when you get the fire going again? This stove is in a very small building that is used as a summer kitchen. Sure don't want to gas anyone out.

braggscowboy · #5 11/24/12, 08:54 AM

Without knowing how much trouble your top is in, hard to say. Black only covers it up. The normal black is natural in most cases. I have one and it is pretty much black and what we do is after burning, if not burning for a while, wipe lightly with crisco lard. It might have some smoke, but not much. If the rust is not too bad a small brass brush might take care of the most of it. If it is an old stove, the black will be with you to stay, and should. Some even cook pancakes or eggs on top of the stove which will work. Pics would help people give ideas, but would be careful of the stove black unless nothing else works.

Yvonne's hubby · #6 11/24/12, 10:26 AM

I would never use stove black...... again! It contains a wax that stinks to high heaven as soon as it gets hot. I agree with the other posters who recommend a lite coat of oil after each use. Your stove top is cast iron... and I like to take care of the stove top the same way I take care of my other cast cookware... clean it, apply a lite coat of crisco or lard and let it season from use. It will turn a beautiful soft black within just a few uses and maintain that luster as long as you keep it clean and oiled.

Dale Alan · #7 11/24/12, 11:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yvonne's hubby

I would never use stove black...... again! It contains a wax that stinks to high heaven as soon as it gets hot. I agree with the other posters who recommend a lite coat of oil after each use. Your stove top is cast iron... and I like to take care of the stove top the same way I take care of my other cast cookware... clean it, apply a lite coat of crisco or lard and let it season from use. It will turn a beautiful soft black within just a few uses and maintain that luster as long as you keep it clean and oiled.

+ 1

That is what I do,the lard will smoke a little when heating up. Stove black is poison in my book.

AverageJo · #8 11/25/12, 07:54 AM

Thank you all!! I already have Crisco and plenty of Lard, so I think I'll go this way. I really don't like using chemicals or paints, etc, which is what the Stove Black sounds to me. And it just makes sense to 'season' the stove like the cast iron pans. Duh....

I'll try to take before and after pictures so you can get an idea of how this turns out.

7thswan · #9 11/25/12, 08:15 AM

I don't use anything, just cooking and a bit of grease gets on the surface. I wipe it off. Have never had to treat it and it's a smooth nice black surface.

ronbre · #10 11/25/12, 09:38 AM

the stove black is ok on NON cooking surfaces..but if you have a surface that you cook pancakes on, and such...you don't want that crap on that surface..you should kinda season it like a cast iron pan (if it is cast iron)..and yes it will smoke a bit when the oil burns off but it won't be putting poison in your food.

I had an old majestic wood burning cook stove and the entire top was a cooking surface and you could remove a top and set a pan down in the hole as well..I loved cooking on it..makes great english muffins and pancakes right on the top surface..

thre are a lot of areas of the stove that the black will be ok on but not where you'll cook

luvrulz · #11 11/25/12, 10:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yvonne's hubby

I would never use stove black...... again! It contains a wax that stinks to high heaven as soon as it gets hot. I agree with the other posters who recommend a lite coat of oil after each use. Your stove top is cast iron... and I like to take care of the stove top the same way I take care of my other cast cookware... clean it, apply a lite coat of crisco or lard and let it season from use. It will turn a beautiful soft black within just a few uses and maintain that luster as long as you keep it clean and oiled.

This is what I did on one I just refinished....it had been stored for who knew how long and I asked around the Amish community. They use these stoves daily.... And they told me to treat it like a cast iron skillet and use oil on it once I removed the rust. I also was told to oil it about monthly and it will turn black just like those old skillets! The stove black stinks and isn't good to breathe in.....

AverageJo · #12 12/02/12, 07:51 PM

The building this stove is in was very cold and the lard wouldn't smear on it without really globbing, so I figured I'd warm the stove up just a bit. Started over the flame area. It smoked big time. As the stove is in a small building and we had an event (more explanation later), I wiped up as much as I could and stopped doing any more. What I did do looks a lot better than the rest, so I'll go back and get more done later.

The building is part of an 1800's village called Heritage Canyon here in Fulton. The Early American Crafters put on a few events and last weekend was the Christmas Walk where the public is invited to watch history come to life. Didn't want them to get gassed out.

Anyway, here's the 'before' picture... I'll see if I can get an 'after' later.

Waterwheel Farm · #13 12/02/12, 10:06 PM

I have a Pioneer Maid cookstove and when I first got it, the cooking area surface looked like yours. I used steel wool to remove the rust, then lightly applied vegetable oil as others have already stated. The first couple times I think I got carried away with the oil and it did smoke quite a bit initially. It is now getting seasoned really well, and takes much less oil to coat it, and results in equally much less smoke. I was surprised how well it turned out. Good luck.

braggscowboy · #14 12/02/12, 10:39 PM

There is a block of pumace that is used to clean commerical grills with, that would help clean it, while cooking on the crisco lard. Seasoned well, will not rust if done so once in a while.

haypoint · #15 12/02/12, 11:02 PM

Treat it like a cast iron pan. Once the oil has burned into the cast iron top, it won't be so easy to get rusty. I always wipe the top of a hot cook stove with an oily rag.

o&itw · #16 12/03/12, 10:58 AM

You need to take some (medium) steel wool and polish the rust off. Make sure you clean up the steel wool particles afterward by rubbing it down with damp or cloth, or they will leave rust marks everyplace. I would then put stove black on it. While it will smoke a bit for a minute when it gets hot, it will not be near as much as grease (lard, shortening, etc) will do. Lamp black is nothing but elemental carbon in a solution (lamp black). Shortening, will decompose when you put in on and heat it enough, and you will end up with the same thing, but it will take longer, smoke more, and often be sticky till it "burns-up". On the "main burners" this will go pretty quick, but on the outlying parts of the stove this may take days or months before it ever gets that hot.

With a little time and effort with the steel wool, your stove could be like new. Either the grease or the stove black will work, and the grease may cling to some parts better, but If I were doing it I would use stove black and stay away from the whole place smelling like a grease fire.

If you use grease, stay away from bacon grease or anything that might have salt in it. Shortening or lard will say in the ingredients list. If you only use it in the summer, you will need to coat it every year at the end of your canning or whatever, or it will draw moisture from condensation an rust over the winter. This will keep it from getting rusty again and having to use the steel wool.

Thrifty Sarrah · #17 12/03/12, 01:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by braggscowboy

There is a block of pumace that is used to clean commerical grills with, that would help clean it, while cooking on the crisco lard. Seasoned well, will not rust if done so once in a while.

I do this. In fact I like to keep a block of pumice in the house for when I burn something on top of the cook top surface because I didn't have it hot enough. Usually tortilla. I can generally get it off without too much problem but sometimes The Pumice to the rescue.

The trim on that cook stove around the oven door and the kick plate area was probably nickel plating. An attempt with an SOS would see if there is any surface left. If not perhaps a fund could be raised to plate it. Or do some PR work and find a place who does plating and ask if they'd like their name displayed as contributing to the restoration of the stove on display.
Nice looking stove. But rust will kill it. I love the old villages areas set up for bringing a glimpse of life prior to the earlier ways. So many people are now interested in their food sources. Makes a person smile.

MichaelK! · #18 12/04/12, 08:43 AM

I used a 50:50 mix of water-extracted bacon grease, and powdered charcoal to make my own lampblack.

Bacon grease has salt in it, which might promote rust, so what I did first was heat the grease in a quart jar, then added one volume of boiling water to the fat. After screwing the lid on tight, I shook the jar to emulsify the fat and water. (Use caution here!) After emuslified, set the jar upside down (lid down) in the refrigerator to settle. Water is heavier than fat, so the water settles at the bottum next to the lid. You then unscrew the lid, pour off the water, and retain the solidifed fat.

BTW, water extracted bacon fat no longer has any bacon favor, so this might also be a way to recycle saved fat for making pie crust, pastries, or whatever.

I then heated the fat again and added an equal volume of powdered charcoal. Mix well and rub on the iron with a cotton rag. The stove aquires as fastastic mat sheen that looks like it belongs in a museum.

hugho · #19 12/04/12, 11:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AverageJo

I'm trying to figure out how to clean up a top of an old wood cookstove. It's got a black top and is getting some surface rust on it. I've heard to use ashes to help blacken it, but they also said to use "just a bit" of lamp oil or vegie oil. I really don't want to mess this up and end up with a stove top that smokes while burning off the oils. Is this true? Is this right? Is there a better way?? Help please???

we cook on a cookstove daily. Steel wool the top to remove light rust, use a griddle pumice for heavier rust. wipe it dry with some kerosine or a light oil like kerosine or diesel. You don't paint the tops of cookstoves. They will turn black on their own with use.

Shayanna · #20 12/04/12, 11:50 AM

We bought our woodstove used and it had more than a little surface rust. We attacked it with a wire brush, then used some black stove paint (bought at Family, Farm, and Home), and its good as new (almost.) It warned that there could be smoke, but we just didn't use it for a couple months and there hasn't been a bit of smoke.