Everything Fisher

[coaly]

Here's a LOT of info from this news article from Canada.

Gives you an idea of how many fabricators and dealers got started. This article also gives the welding shops $110 cost to fabricate, sold to dealers for 250 to 350, Bob Fisher getting 10% royalties. (I'll take $25 to $35 X 1/2 million stoves made ! Thats a cool 12 million back when 4 cords of firewood were $80.00 !!) Articles like this document how many models were made at any given time as well. 6 as of Feb. 9, 1978. I believe the 6 would be the three bears, the two Fireplaces, and the Insert.

HOT STUFF Wood stove business catches fire;

http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...J&pg=1671,1900400&dq=fisher+quits+stove&hl=en

 

[coaly]

So you want to know what happened to Bob's first stove? What his thoughts are after exiting the business?

"Maybe I could have kept pushing,'' Fisher says. "Maybe I could be the world's largest manufacturer of those new pellet stoves. And if I was, I'd be sitting in some damned board meeting right now."
"I'd sooner be home.''

Here it is in it’s original form, with a somewhat lousy picture of Bobby Fisher working on his tractor in 1991. Titled “Former wood stove king learns money can’t buy happiness”

“I was scared, I didn’t know if I could do it so I kind of put my arm around in front of the paper and I signed. Only I had one of those push-button pens and the point wasn’t out. And then I folded the paper and tossed it across the table and said ‘it’s a deal’. :lol:

“As far as I know, they never looked. They may still not know. But we ended up with a great relationship and they made a hell of a lot of money off the deal.” Bob Fisher 1991.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...AJ&pg=6935,1799059&dq=fisher+wood-stove&hl=en

And the edited version; “His stove was a hot idea while it lasted”
This is copyrighted to The Seattle Times Company. Sometimes you can post an entire article, as long as you supply a link to the original. I'm not sure. I know AP enforces the copyright law. This is not a Associated Press Article. It would be nice to have this piece on this site, if legal to post it along with the copyrighted link.

You can still read it here;
(broken link removed)

 

[hareball]

So you want to know what happened to Bob's first stove? What his thoughts are after exiting the business?

"Maybe I could have kept pushing,'' Fisher says. "Maybe I could be the world's largest manufacturer of those new pellet stoves. And if I was, I'd be sitting in some damned board meeting right now."

"I'd sooner be home.'' Bob Fisher 1991.

This is copyrighted to The Seattle Times Company. Sometimes you can post an entire article, as long as you supply a link to the original. I'm not sure. I know AP enforces the copyright law. This is not a Associated Press Article. It would be nice to have this piece on this site, if legal to post it along with the copyrighted link.

You can still read it here;
(broken link removed)

Great find!! This is like a treasure hunt. I wish there was a photo of that first stove. Hopefully h has a good plan for it after he passes on.

 

[coaly]

Here is a business news tid bit July 13, 1980 that documents the ANNUAL Convention of licensees.

"Some 33 licensees from Fisher Stoves Int. from various parts of the US, Canada, England, and...................... NEW ZEALAND" :bug: attended Fisher Stove's recent annual convention at Sun River, an eastern Oregon resort.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...480901&dq=bob+fisher+springfield+oregon&hl=en

 

[coaly]

[/quote]

Great find!! This is like a treasure hunt. I wish there was a photo of that first stove. Hopefully h has a good plan for it after he passes on.[/quote]

Yeah, to have it sent to this guy who is crazy enough to ship his old stoves from Oregon to Pennsylvania !

I picked up my EARLY Baby Bear yesterday at the Roadway terminal in PA after it's coast to coast trip. These first stoves have a different look with an upper plate and lower plate with rounded corners, yet the center step piece is only as wide as the stove box.
Pictures to follow between the snow removal process the next TWO days with 18 to 24 on the way.

 

[coaly]

Baby Bear's special built crate.

Whew, this Craigslister sent me a Baby Bear ! Not a box of rocks. THANKS ERIC !

 

[coaly]

First sight of my new Baby Bear ! She's beautiful !!

Enough oogling, Dr. Paul gets in position for delivery.

 

[coaly]

Head first delivery at 3:57 PM Feb. 24, 2010.

IT'S A GIRL !!

 

[coaly]

After carrying one of these baby's into the shop, I'm pooped.

OK, it's a BIG bear hug.

 

[hareball]

Holy freakn crap I want to hug it too

Congrats on taking delivery of that old bear

 

[watchamakalit]

Ok maybe coaly can help me out on this one. My Fisher is in pretty rough shape and I wanna basically restore it to as close to like new as possible. I am planning a good once over with the wire brush and then a coat of rutland stove polish. Am I thinking along the right lines? Can the chrome ball feet be replaced or refurbished some how? Also are there replacement handle springs available somewhere as the plating is chipped off mine with the years of use. I don't want to turn it into a museum quality piece but don't want it to look like a pile of rusted up scrap iron either.

 

[hareball]

I'd blast it with Walnut shells to clean it up

 

[coaly]

Walnut shell media gives it the best surface for a like new finish. Most don't have that equipment. I do more steam engine restoration than stoves, that includes steam pumps, air compressors, water pumps that are steam driven, and other appliances that hang on the side of locomotives and traction engines. Oven cleaner soaked over night is what I use first, if there is a nasty incrustation. Locomotives tend to get hot and cook steam oil into everything. So doing these are like a already cleaned up chunk for me. I like PB Blaster in a gallon can at Tractor Supply. I soak it first, and let sit over night. That loosens the surface, and small things I do with green scotch brite. Larger stuff a wire wheel. A knotted wheel cuts quicker, but leaves more marks. I find if I keep it wet, which makes a mess, I get a better finish than the polishing effect from a dry wire wheel. It doesn't settle dust over everything either.

Stove polish was for cast iron stoves back when they were never shut down. Does great on a rough cast surface. Sunday was stove polish day, so the fire was left to go out, and stove polish was put on a warm stove. The directions today call for a cold stove, but I have a few collectible jars and containers of old polish (the N word -head) that are very collectible today. They all call for a warm stove to emulsify the polish to go on easier. It was thicker like shoe polish in a can though. It worked better too ! It's waxes and pigments that get cooked in when hot. So it's not a very good finish for steel plate. It's not a porous surface to soak into. Even a machine finished cast top, like on a cook stove, or the top side of the eyes don't take stove polish well. I collect Buckwalter cast stoves too, and the polish goes on nice in circles, and buffs up shiny. Not so on the steel plate. If you buff it to shiny metal, you won't even get it black. It will smear around and be uneven. Makes a mess for me. Stove black is also water base, so if you want to paint a stove that's been blacked, hot soapy water. Your hands will be black for a week.
Anyway, Fisher only used paint. Stove Bright satin is the best for a user. Stove Bright Metalic is the ticket for a show piece. The early ones from the Oregon shop I redo were brushed on. Stove polish needs to be redone often, that Stove Bright satin will last 25 years.
The feet would probably need to be replated.

I use Woodmans Associates for my stove parts. Woodmanspartsplus.com.

 

[coaly]

Hey Pen,

Here's an ad that uses the picture from the front cover of your brochure.

The ad depicts the stove in the picture as a Grandma. It's not a typo, because they give the heating capacity of the Grandma as well. By measuring the size of the bricks on the wall at 8 inches, and the pipe we know is 8, that stove is a Grandpa. (30" wide) No way is it a Grandma at only 25 1/2 wide. (the 24" box would only be 3 times the width of the pipe)
Also, the door opening that you can measure by the flames is much higher than a Grandma's 10 1/2 inch opening height. Grandpa for sure !

http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...AJ&pg=2234,4859418&dq=fisher+bear+stove&hl=en

 

[Bxpellet]

Here is a picture of our Fisher stove at my Hunting club, This stove was there way before I joined the club, it cranks out the heat and burns wood like crazy

 

[lowroadacres]

The name brand on these stoves is different of course, and I only toyed with purchasing one briefly, but they are as close as I could find to a Fisher stove still being built in North America.

(broken link removed to http://www.falcongalv.com/stoves.html)

Apparently they are being built in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

Something tells me they are not EPA certified

 

[coaly]

Here is a picture of our Fisher stove at my Hunting club, This stove was there way before I joined the club, it cranks out the heat and burns wood like crazy

Yep, that's the classic way to install a good room heater and let the heat right up the chimney with an 8 inch flue to boot !
That stove was designed to be out in the room, damper on the back to limit the flue opening all night to the holes in the closed damper, and radiate off every side. This even covers the upper cooking surface.......... It's designed as a fireplace for people who want to burn with a screen with a large view of the fire. (the double door idea) The only time the rear damper is open is with the doors open. And you slowly close it during open door burning until smoke starts to roll in at the door top, and open it a bit to prevent smoke, but limit the heat loss up chimney. So if you're stuck with a firplace as that, the best way to get heat out of it, is exactly what Fisher built. A large size stove with a choked down 6 inch flue. A side vented Mama or Papa on a pad in front of that opening wouldn't stick into the room as far as a rear vented, and you could get to the damper, upper cook suface, and use half as much wood, AND the longer style stoves take a much longer log, so cutting it up is reduced !
In 1979 the Insert was introduced that had a chain pull damper for people that wanted the stove in the hearth. Goes in 11 inches, and later was changed to a pull rod. By the mid 80's they were available with brass and glass doors, and added secondary air intakes below the doors for an air wash. That would be the ticket to find for that installation. An '85 Insert with brass and glass. They go for 1000 and up on eBay today. That's more than they sold for new !
Bear Fact #6 , "A Fisher stove increases in value" :cheese:

I know you didn't buy it or install it, but it's a wonder Fisher had such a good reputation for as many that were installed this way !

 

[coaly]

The name brand on these stoves is different of course, and I only toyed with purchasing one briefly, but they are as close as I could find to a Fisher stove still being built in North America.

(broken link removed to http://www.falcongalv.com/stoves.html)

Apparently they are being built in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

Something tells me they are not EPA certified

If they're not EPA, might as well find a Grandma III for a third, or half the price of a new one of these. They are the ones with the interior "baffle" (They were called a "Smoke Shelf Baffle" BTW).
How they build a Grandma size stove that takes a 4 inch shorter log, and weighs only 3/4 as much is beyond me. That's "Reverse Engineering" :lol:

 

[Bxpellet]

That is the only heat source that we have, after the stove has been running for 10 - 15 hours the whole house is warm, when we sit in the living room and kick back we open the double doors and put a screen in front and enjoy the fire view and heat. Load it up before we go to bed close the front valves, when you wake up there is a bed of coals, just load it up again open the vales and let her rip. Here is a Picture with the doors open (the gasket has been replaced)

 

[lowroadacres]

Coaly,

Exactly why I only toyed with the idea

If I was seriously interested in a smoke dragon my in laws have one that we have set up on our acreage that we use for boiling off maple syrup.

While I have never done this I know that others have locally and by putting an "old wood stoves wanted" ad on the local free classifed ads board there are lots of fishers in our region that are sitting in barns and sheds doing nothing.

 

[hareball]

The way I run mine is load her up and shut the doors. Open both dampers 3 full turns, get the flue up to 500-600 °F then turn dampers down 2 full turns, then the temp will come down around 400 °F and then begin to rise again. Once it hits 500 °F I close dampers 1/4 to a half turn and let it go 6 hours. With only 1/4 to a half turn she will run around 350-450 °F on the surface of the single wall pipe.

 

[pen]

The way I run mine is load her up and shut the doors. Open both dampers 3 full turns, get the flue up to 500-600 °F then turn dampers down 2 full turns, then the temp will come down around 400 °F and then begin to rise again. Once it hits 500 °F I close dampers 1/4 to a half turn and let it go 6 hours. With only 1/4 to a half turn she will run around 350-450 °F on the surface of the single wall pipe.

That's exactly how my old grandma bear ran well also.

pen

 

[watchamakalit]

Coaly,

Exactly why I only toyed with the idea

If I was seriously interested in a smoke dragon my in laws have one that we have set up on our acreage that we use for boiling off maple syrup.

While I have never done this I know that others have locally and by putting an "old wood stoves wanted" ad on the local free classifed ads board there are lots of fishers in our region that are sitting in barns and sheds doing nothing.

Matter of fact thats where mine was before I rescued it.

Coaly thanks for the leads on parts and paint. I plan to start the project in a couple of months when the weather warms up a bit and I can stand to work outside. I don't have walnut shells but might pick some up just to save the hassle of all the dust from the wire wheel.

 

[hareball]

I know you really like your new stove....I saw the video you shot and really like it too LOL! But how much you miss your Fisher?

 

[hareball]

Coaly,

Exactly why I only toyed with the idea

If I was seriously interested in a smoke dragon my in laws have one that we have set up on our acreage that we use for boiling off maple syrup.

While I have never done this I know that others have locally and by putting an "old wood stoves wanted" ad on the local free classifed ads board there are lots of fishers in our region that are sitting in barns and sheds doing nothing.

Matter of fact thats where mine was before I rescued it.

Coaly thanks for the leads on parts and paint. I plan to start the project in a couple of months when the weather warms up a bit and I can stand to work outside. I don't have walnut shells but might pick some up just to save the hassle of all the dust from the wire wheel.

We have a few equipment rental places around here and I think the Home Depot does it too. Some of the private ones rent out some really impressive equipment! One of them sharpens chains too.
Good luck with your restoration and please document the progress with photos and share them with us.