[Stoves] Shichirin Stove

[Keith Addison]

Greetings all

"Shichirin" means seven rin - in the old days one rin was 1/100th of 
a yen. With a Shichirin charcoal stove you could cook a meal with 
only seven rin worth of charcoal, not much charcoal.

You can buy Shichirin stoves everywhere in Japan for the equivalent 
of about $10. They're widely used, in homes and in restaurants. Most 
are made of clay. Those made of diatomaceous earth are more 
expensive, about three times as much, and you don't see them often. 
More information on them here:
http://www.fnw.gr.jp/7rinhonpo/index.htm

We have quite a few Shichirins, new and old, of different types, and 
we use them. Some of them we found here at this old house when we 
moved in. It's a traditional Japanese farmhouse, about a hundred 
years old, in a small village up in the mountains not too far from 
Kyoto. One of the old Shichirins is much larger than the usual type, 
a complex stove with two inner walls. It's very efficient. I've used 
it as a forge, burning charcoal, did the forging work then covered 
the stove, and 18 hours later it was still hot enough to bake some 
sweet potatoes for lunch.

Shichirin stoves have been exported to West Africa to replace 
traditional three-stone fires. I suppose they can be made locally 
from clay, I'm not sure if they are. I think the inner shape and 
dimensions are rather precise, probably it needs a mould of some kind.

I'm in the process of making a Shichirin mould, and when it's done 
I'll publish all the details needed at our website.

I think the ideal material for making them is rice-husk ash cement, a 
very effective refractory cement:
http://journeytoforever.org/bflpics/rhahand2.jpg

Full details:
http://journeytoforever.org/at_woodstove-allen.html
Rice-husk stoves

Mould it into an old galvanised bucket.

Rice husk is mostly silica, and when you prepare rice-husk ash 
properly you're mostly left with tiny glass bubbles. Used with cement 
added (ordinary cement) as a stove material it's much the same as 
diatomaceous earth. Easy to mould, and easy to carve too.

Diatomaceous earth isn't found everywhere, but rice husk is widely 
available, and very much underutilised.

I'll post more information when the job's done - it's standing in the 
queue at the moment, but I should get it finished quite soon.

Best wishes

Keith Addison
Journey to Forever
KYOTO Pref., Japan
http://journeytoforever.org/

 

>Dear Small Stove Lovers
>
>
>
>I receive a message from Shunichi Samejima  at the Asahi Glass Foundation
>that includes a picture of a Shichi-Rin which is a small stove made from a
>very interesting material that may appeal to makers of insulated brickwork.
>
>
>
>You can read about them at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shichirin where it
>says:
>
>
>
>"The shichirin is a light-weight, compact, and easy-to-move cooking stove.
>It has had prototypes since ancient times, and it is said that shichirin
>roughly the same as today's were made in the Edo period
><http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edo_period> . Old shichirin are mainly ceramic
><http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceramic>  and many can be found in old houses.
>Most modern shichirin are made by heating diatomaceous earth
><http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diatomaceous_earth> , but the raw materials
>are not uniform. There are also shichirin such as those made with a double
>inside and outside ceramic structure (these are called Mikawa konro). The
>shape is mainly cylindrical, square, or rectangular, and the size also
>varies. Many varieties of shichirin are made for different uses. In the
>Kansai <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansai_region>  region, they are also
>known as "kanteki"."
>
>
>
>Shunichi Samejima wrote:
>
>
>
>"Separate from glass, traditionally in Japan a stove called "SHICHI-RIN" has
>been used for cooking. In the old days they were made from clay and recently
>from diatomite. Attached is a photograph of a stove currently sold in Japan.
>If this is something you are thinking of, then I think the material should
>be something more porous like diatomite rather than glass which is solid."
>
>
>
>That fact that it is porous and apparently durable is very interesting.
>
>
>
>When it says 'heating', to what temperature?  Is it a temperature that could
>be achieved in a wood fired kiln?
>
>
>
>Thanks
>
>Crispin