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Our address:
Keystone Masonry Ltd.
P.O. Box 3861
Redwood Post Office
Winnipeg, Mb. R2W 5H9
Canada
Phone: (204) 781-0517
Fax: (204) 586-1726
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100 yr. Old Russian stove rebuilt
“Hamm” heritage housebarn
Neubergthal, Mb.
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Historical: Early masonry stoves on the Canadian Prairies were commonly built by “mennonite” immigrants from Russia. The style was of the “russian or peasant” type stove sometimes reffered to as a “grass burner”. It had a bakeoven situated between the firebox and upper horizontal channels. It had an inner loading door and an outer door with about a foot inbetween. Inside this area above the outer door was a simple sliding damper. Above this damper was where the gases would exit the upper channel of the heater into the chimney. I am only assuming that this was designed with the advantage of reducing smoke spillage into the kitchen, easy access for cleaning the chimney, and perhaps an area to “smoke” meats etc. Next to the front loading area of the heater(which was in the kitchen) was situated a wood burning cook stove which also vented into the same chimney. These appliances were not used during the hot prairie summer months. It was instead common to have a “summer kitchen” which was basically open but sheltered from the rain and perhaps insects.
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The large brick heater in the centre of the building extended into one or two other rooms besides the kitchen. Because of the heater's size and construction, it usually kept the house warm continuously if heated up only twice a day, morning and evening.
The heater worked equally well with a variety of fuel. In Steinbach and the East Reserve of Manitoba there was no shortage of wood for fuel but in the West Reserve of Mennonite settlement, manure was used.
To prepare this, moist manure and straw were spread on the ground to a depth of about one foot. Horses were then walked over this unit until it was fairly compact. When partly dry, after a few days, it was cut into squares with a spade and piled in such a way that the drying process could be completed. Fuel made in this manner was odorless and provided slow but adequate heat.
“Hamm” Heater: It was interesting to note that the home's construction consisted of a horse manure type of sod within the walls. Part of this “manure sod” was in direct contact with exitting gases of the stove before entering a completely surrounded chimney of burnt clay brick. The heater's outside surface had a “plaster” coating made from the same horse manure. Horse manure shows undigested bits of the grain/hay which would have given strength to the sod walls and plaster. In rebuilding the russian stove with firebrick and facebrick it was necessary to widen the sod walls opening a little. The sod wall could not be easily cut with a conventional sawsall but rather a small electric chipper was used comparing the task to chipping “soft” concrete. Our obsevations concluded that the horse manure was very strong and fire resistant.
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First course is laid out for an 8” reclaimed brick wall to support firebox floor. It's not immediately know what this area was used to store. An access door to this area was built into one side as per the original design. Close attention was given to the built in hutch (upper right in above photo)that originally touched the stove. Given that “campfire rules” now apply to the operation of the stove we still insisted that the stove not be allowed to touch any exposed wood surfaces. Hence the lay out meant moving the original stove's location slightly(1”) and decreasing the overall length so that the wood partition wall(lower right in above photo)not touch the heater. |
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