WOW! I just did a super quicky search and these are all within an hour of us!

http://kitchener.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and...AdIdZ535667210

http://kitchener.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and...AdIdZ534482863

http://london.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and-se...AdIdZ517405287

I hope you find something affordable....

And no... I still can't locate any oven clean out drawer. meh..... :/

I cooked on a cookstove like yours for nearly 30 years. Small firebox and not airtight, limiting a controlled burn were drawbacks. But it was original in the 1933 farmhouse. If you were serious about cooking every day, I'd suggest something with a larger firebox and airtight. But those are either plain looking or very costly. What you have is very useable. Enjoy.

Yet another reason to move to Canada....

My stove is a Montag sold by Montgomery Wards. My Grandparents got it new in 1953 when they bought their little farm. When my Grandpa died suddenly in 1968 my Grandmother could not live by herself so the little farm was sold quickly. Much later the people that bought it defaulted and my Grandmothers estate got it back. I bought the place and rehabbed it and resold it. I kept the stove. I was always told it was a trash burner but I have never found a trash burner with an oven. It has a door much as the OPs on the left and a small oven door. The oven is only 13" wide but deep enough for a cookie sheet. The fire box only has 2 shaker bars. It does not have legs, the skirt sits right on the floor. It is in perfect shape, never set in an unheated space. There is a clean out right in the middle of and below the oven door....James

Those grates as you are calling them are for Chinkers. I was raised with coal being the main heat and when you burn coal you have to break up the Chinkers to get them to go down. It was always a pain when there was pyrite streaks though the coal which didn't burn. You would have to remove them as rocks after the coal burnt if they were of any size.

The porblem we had with our old woodstove (which we had for years) was the "firebox" burning out. It is the cast iron that surronds the burning chamber, and of course one cant purchase them anymore. However a good welder can usually make a steel one for you. We burned wood, and it was a long time before ours wore out. With coal I suspect it would be faster. One doesn't normally need to shake the grates with wood (there should be a hand crank to do so, but they were lost from many old stoves). With coal, sometimes "clinkers" would form, which were hard like gravel. Turning the grate back and forth would allow them to fall through.

Be a little carfull putting the wood in. The cast iron firebox liner will break if it gets "banged" hard by a piece of wood, that is usually what happens sooner or later and requires the firebox be replaced.

Great information!! And yes, we did get the original crank to shake the grates when we got the stove.

All this is making me feel like I'm getting wisdom that I never would anywhere else. Thanks everyone! (From a 48 year old whippersnapper that's going through a midlife crisis..... )

We don't really need to shake clinkers when burning wood, but do shake once in a while to get the ash out of the grate.

Our clean-out is in the front, under the stove door.

I FOUND IT! I FOUND IT!

No kidding! It took literally MONTHS to find the oven clean-out drawer. You have to pull the clean-out drawer out for the firebox and inside that area at 90 degrees is the clean-out for the oven. Wild!

And, to top it off... we have been cooking on NOTHING else for the whole winter. We love, love, love this thing! One of the best purchases I've ever made.

I hope everyone here gets the chance at some point to have one or at least learn to cook on one. It's a level of satisfaction that is hard to express.

Cheers!

I agree. There is great pride and satisfaction in learning to cook on a wood cookstove, and nothing like the feeling of accomplishment when you produce that first tray of un-burnt cookies, the first pan of biscuit that's brown instead of black.

Dang. I almost (almost!) want to drag out ol' Belle and fire her up. ;)

Here is my Elmira Oval. Newer, air tight big firebox, but looks old. Pricey.

Grew up around a cookstove like that. Use stovewood like basswood about 10-12" long split about an inch and a half to fire, start off slow and add as needed. As a kid one of the favorite things was to toss a kernal of popcorn on the top and try to catch them as they popped. Made bullets on the same stove using an Ideal pot and ring to melt the lead alloy

Lovely stove Panther, but I covet those 2 oil lamps on the warming shelf more!

I have a decorating idea for a small book case my Mr created yrs ago from 2 old wooden peach lugs - I think that is what they are. I want to display some of my oil lamps in it but found that I only have 2 lamps that are under 14" tall. Have to be patient til I find some short lamps to put my project together. My favorite short lamp is 1/4" too tall. I currently have 21 oil lamps on display.

This thread is a great find for me as I hope to go look at a home comfort cook stove for sale this weekend.

What things should I look for? IE bad spots etc. Guy has had it for sale for over a year so it may be a piece of junk. He's asking $400. I know where there is another cook stove sitting in a old building but the lady who owns it would rather let it sit than sell it. She even admits she'll never hook it up. :fussin:

Thanks for any pointers in advance.

One more thing. Any tips for cooking on one? Unless it looks like total junk I will probably buy it.
Larry

Baked any bread yet? Now that is satisfaction.... With a little butter and strawberry jelly

....James

The Grates are number one. Make sure they are good. Then the oven wall closest to the firebox.Make sure there are firebox gaurds,usally cast iorn that sits on a tab that protects the thin metal that is the outside of the stove and the oven. Then just look all over for thin,rusted out spots. Many times the areas where ash can collect, get wet, then they will rot right out because of the Lye in the ash.
Cooking, fire it up and mess with the draft. Set a pot of water on top and when it boils ,move it around and watch the boil, you will learn the hottest spot(usally between the front eye and the smoke stack) and the coolest spot(farthest to the right). The stove has mechanics that make sence when it comes to stovetop cooking and different ones when you want to bake. example-my one stove browns the top of bread too soon, so I lay a piece of A. foil on the top of the loaves after a few mins. in the oven. Then during the bake, I must move the right hand loaf over to the left side of the oven. My left side is hotter than the right because it is near the firebox. You will just have to learn your stove and bakeing bread is usally not the best to learn on, a caserol is much easer because it just has to be turned around.There is a draft diverter that makes the smokestack go directly towards the back and out the stack-OR-it will divert it around the oven and out the lower part of the stack. As I've said, I also put a damper in the pipe of all my stoves(woodburners too) for extra control.

My Grandmother always had one of those stoves in her kitchen. They are intended to be used as a combination stove to burn either wood or coal. Grandma would use wood in the daytime when she was cooking or baking. At night she would 'Bank' the stove with coal cause it would hold fire all night . If she tried to keep fire in it all night with wood it would burn out. I think you got a good find as the grates and firebox look in great shape. If you look around most of the more popular cook stoves still have parts available.

Thank you so much! Just the kind of info I was looking for. :rock:


Larry

You would probably enjoy this Blog, it is just about woodstove cooking:
http://woodcookstovecooking.blogspot.com/

Need Parts for a Good Cheer Stove-51D17
 

Hi,

I'm looking for parts for the Good Cheer Cook Stove 51D17. I'm missing the three grates and the ash bucket. Can anyone help? If so please contact Liz26 at: lhabicher@yahoo.com.

Many Thanks, Liz

Try The Goodtime stove company. They refurbish all kinds of woodstoves.