Antique wood cook stoves can be found in many specialist stove restoration stores both online and offline, and are surprisingly popular even now in the early 21st century. Many stoves originally built in the 1800s or early 1900s are still used today having been fully restored and refurbished. The question is, why use an antique stove?
Firstly, we should explain exactly what a wood cook stove actually is. A wood burning cook stove is a traditional cooking appliance which requires no external electricity supply and which rather than using gas, electricity or other fossil fuels can operate purely by burning natural wood. This wood for your wood burning cook stove can be bought from a hardwood supplier or even chopped yourself from your own timber supplies.
An antique wood cook stove could be defined as one which is not just a piece designed for show or created simply to look historically accurate, but something which is original, did once work and preferably is still in working order today. Again though we are left with the question, why use an antique wood cook stove in preference to more convenient modern stove and cooking systems?
Firstly many antique stoves are bought by working farms, country and historic houses or simply to complete a period home or kitchen. In many cases antique stoves are used because they match the period during which the home or kitchen was first constructed, or because the absolute authenticity of all the fixtures and fittings in the building is a key selling point for a particular business. Many antiques are of course bought by museums for display purposes only, and many of these are not in working order.
Alternatively there may be practical reasons for using a wood cook stove, for example living in a remote location with no electricity supply but an abundance of natural resources to use as fuel. In this case some may prefer a more modern stove but many who choose to live in such locations will also choose to cook using the type of stove they have used all their lives, so should their stove need replacing they will actively seek out something similar. In addition some people say there is a particular taste to food cooked using a wood stove which would be difficult to replicate using modern methods.
Whatever the reason for buying an antique wood cook stove, the buyer must make sure they buy from a reputable company to ensure the stove meets all safety codes and regulations, unless it is simply to be used as a display piece. There are many government and local laws and regulations which must be adhered to when installing and using home appliances.