Fireplace tools

Fireplace stove with fireplace tools on the left

The fireplace set (or stove set ) is a collection of tools for operating a stove . The tools that are used directly in the combustion chamber are made of non-combustible materials. The fireplace tools are kept ready for use in the immediate vicinity of the stove.

Before central heating and electric stoves were introduced, fireplaces, stoves and stoves had to be deashed and cleaned more frequently. More representative cutlery is used today in tiled stoves and open fireplaces .

Components of the fireplace tools

Historic fireplace tools, 16. – 18. Century in the Musée de la Gourmandise, Hermalle-sous-Huy, Belgium. A bed warmer is also shown in the picture .

The fireplace cutlery is generally made up of three to five parts, but the composition depends in principle on the design of the fireplace and the fuel used.

• poker
• Fireplace, stove or fire tongs

  Are used to correct the position of the items to be fired. The poker may also be used to operate the oven door or to clean the grate. With the pliers you can z. B. spend coal or coke briquettes in the combustion chamber without having to touch these very dirty substances directly by hand. It used to be used to remove glowing charcoal e.g. B. to light a pipe, since lighting a fire with a lighter was more cumbersome.

• Ash shovel
• broom

  A shovel and broom are used to remove the ash from the combustion chamber and to clean the parking space. Sometimes there was also a long- and a short-handled shovel, one for the fire chamber, the other for the space in front of the stove that had to be cleaned more often.

optional:

• Splitting tongs : These can be used to split modern round wooden briquettes into small slices to make it easier to cheer
• bellows
• Blow pipe

  A bellows is useful for firing, earlier there were also simple pipes for blowing, mostly with a slightly curved nozzle. The blowing pipe was sometimes combined with the poker to make the blowing iron .

• Broach and scraper, wire broom: Various rods with plates and wire brushes for clearing out and removing soot . These tools are typically only used by chimney sweepers when it is not a domestic heating system; they are no longer common in the household.
• Ash bucket : A metal bucket is usually stored separately, it enables the ashes to be stored safely and cleanly, and still glowing parts of the house fire to burn out safely.

The fireplace tools are mostly made of iron or steel or stainless steel , but also of brass or bronze . The handles are also made of wood, brass to iron, but also porcelain and similar non-flammable and / or poorly heat-conducting materials. As typical living room accessories, the cutlery is mostly kept historical, for example in a cast iron look.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Helmut Dickmann: Fireplaces inside and outside. Springer-Verlag, 2013, p. 62, ISBN 978-3-322-84264-0 ( limited preview in Google book search).
2. ↑ Fireplace tools ( Memento of the original from January 31, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ Ernst Danz. Chimneys. G. Hatge, 1964, p. 30 ( limited preview in Google book search).