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[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

> . It's not 100% cast iron, so I may sell it and buy another
> one when I find one on craigslist.
> 

I would go out of my way to get an all cast iron stove, but a good second 
choice is steel plate (as opposed to sheet steel which wears out in a stove 
pretty quick).  In the common area is a great old cast iron Franklin stove 
with a 
mica window.  It will take all and sundry odd chuncks of wood.  When we are 
sawing up wood for the kitchen stove, anything too hard to process with hand 
tools gets chucked over to the Fanklin pile.  In the basement in the woodshop 
is 
one of those production cheapie Vogelsang stoves.  All cast iron but pretty 
light stuff.  Yet it serves the prupose quite well.  Keeps the tea kettle and 
glue pot hot.  One day I will get them confused and not talk so much.

The antique cookstove is mostly cast iron and a couple of the sheet steel 
parts (oven pannels) were replaced at some time in its history.  If I ever 
replaced it, it would be with a Waterford stove, but with the dollar exchange 
rate 
now of days, that's pretty much out of the question.  The Waterford is all 
cast 
iron.

I've also got a couple of other stoves not in use, a Warm Morning stove and a 
homemade stove of very thick steel plate.  It is VERY heavy and if I had the 
gumption it would go in the wood shop, which gumption I haven't.  I'm hanging 
onto the superfluous stoves because someone is going to need them sometime.

Another thing about wood heat is the ashes for the garden.  They neutralize a 
lot of acidity.   </HTML>