Warm and Toasty

A few days ago, Dad bought some fire bricks for the wood stove. A couple of the old bricks lining the back that were cracked were missing, and they needed to be replaced. A fire brick is made of clay, alumina or mullite, and a lot of other ingredients. Fire bricks are used in wood stoves to protect the inside, and to reflect the heat back into the stove which helps it hold a lot of heat.

Before we put in the new stones, the old ones had to come out. I got a flat headed screwdriver and a hammer. Then I started working on taking them out. It was a lot harder than I thought, because the rocks were broken, and hard to get the screwdriver underneath to pry them up.

After getting all the broken pieces out, I cleaned out the ashes that had fallen into the crack along the back and pried out little pieces of rock that were jammed in between. After cleaning the crack out, I inserted one of the new fire stones, and it slid right into place.

The metal rack which held the stones in place had gotten bent down, this made it too hard to slip the fire stone into its spot. We heated the bent metal with a torch till it got so hot the metal turned red. Then we took a pair of pliers and bent it back into its original place. We placed in the new rocks, and they fit in perfectly. We had only one left over.

With the new stones, the stove will put out a lot more heat. When winter temperatures come, the house will be toasty and warm. I am very thankful for our wood stove and the new firebrick that will keep us safe and sound.

~ Jonah