A buddy had this, and I'm curious. Appears to be a bucket, made of VERY light galvanized tin, and completely lined with a heavy ceramic(?). The "floor" of the bucket is elevated to half height( so there's a lowr area below it), has multiple holes leading into the lower area, and the lower area has an adjustable door or gate on the side. It has a clearly cast " Champion No3" visible on the floor on the inside of the bucket.

Just totally guessing, but something to put a fire in, and adjust the air flow coming from the bottom? But why?

Guess I'm just really wanting to know what it's called and what it's used for.

 

I don't know about the whole device but the cast iron fire grate IS a Champion #3 fire grate. I "suppose" (guess) it's a fire pot for heating, cooking something. The "draft" is adjustable with the gate valve so whatever it heated, cooked, etc. needed a controlled heat level.

The apparent bale indicates it's easily portable though a person wouldn't carry it with fire going though perhaps with a few coals. Or perhaps the fire bucket was hung by the bale under something that needed heat.

A petty neat little fire bucket, thanks for the opportunity to speculate, I expect we'll get more ideas or maybe a solid ID before long. If you find out what it is please stop back by and let us know.

 Frosty The Lucky.

 

There's no cast iron. Just a tin shell, wire handle, and ceramic.

I did have the thought maybe it's for transporting hot rivets? But then I figured they'd heat them close to point of use.

Wait... Quick thought. Is the Cast Fire Grate from Champion done with raised lettering? I ask because this is recessed lettering. Maybe someone made this by casting it around a champion fire grate? Or a whole Firepot?

I can not recall seeing anything cast iron that did not have raised letters. I am leaning towards your second thought and that someone molded it over a piece of Champion equipment. 

Here is my guess, it is a home made grill maybe for someone's shop.  Put a few lumps of charcoal in it, a grill on top and in just a few minutes we are having burgers for lunch. 

May be way off base but that just seems plausible because of... well, people like us right here. I could see that being posted in the "What did you do in your shop today" thread. 

If they’d molded it over raised letters, the text would be reversed (mirrored). 

You're right Billy, I missed it until taking a closer look just now. The light in the pic is from the lower right, the shadows in the letters that show a shadow are INSIDE the letter and on the lower right. Meaning they're inset rather than raised. Definitely NOT cast iron, a duplicate molded directly off the original. 

 Frosty The Lucky.

Dang it Mike, you are correct. Just throw a monkey wrench into my brains gear box. 

O.K. So...

Not made of cast iron.

Not molded from a standard iron grate (letters not mirrored).

 

I'm inclined to say not homemade. There are 3 ribs molded into the inside wall. But look how smooth and regular they are. Could be homemade, but that's a bit too well done for most home brews. Also, and again not conclusive, who would go to the trouble to cast in "Champion No3" on something like this.

No, they wouldn't have used the original as the mold, they used it as the pattern to make the molding pattern and IMO discovered the lettering didn't transfer well and cut them afterwards. 

If the "manufacturer" is in one of the less scrupulous nations the workers could easily not notice, not know better, not care about inset lettering instead of cast proud. 

OR here's another thought. Perhaps Champion didn't want anybody mistaking this air grate for one intended for a forge?

Here's a bit to cheer you up this morning, having the last thought lead me to delete a few paragraphs of Frosty windy ramble. You're welcome.

 Frosty The Lucky.

3 hours ago, Frosty said:

having the last thought lead me to delete a few paragraphs of Frosty windy ramble.

I like the ramble. Listening to more viewpoints and a broader swath of knowledge can only make me more informed. Viva la Ramble!

Have you read my posts? Do you REALLY want to encourage me?

In truth I almost never post something without reading it a few times and editing heavily or I'd fill pages answering simple stuff. I wish I could make it flow in a consistent story line I'd love to be an author.

 Frosty The Lucky.

Please Don't Kick the Metal Container (Bucket).

Neil

I could probably looks this up, but presumably recessed letters aren't much used on cast iron because letters protruding from a sand mold would be vulnerable to damage.  Ceramic formed in an iron or steel mold would present more-or-less the opposite problem -- raised letters wouldn't hold up on the finished project.  So my guess is that this really was made by Champion (or at least a company with that name) and the form of the letters flows from the material used.

Having seen this in person, I'd say the tin portion could either be homeade or just an indication of how crude manufacturing was then when compared to today's standard. But the Ceramic portion just seems to well made to be homebrew. Too smoothly done, too well formed. Just my opinion.

I still haven't a clue what it's for though.

It looks vaguely like a soldering iron stove, but if so, I can't work out exactly how it would be used.

Or maybe you put newspaper in the bottom and charcoal in the top .

Google Lens result:

https://texancultures.utsa.edu/cabin/artifacts/brazier/

By George I think Lee has it! Occam's Razor says it's a brazier. To paraphrase, the simplest answer that fits everything is "Probably" right.

 Frosty The Lucky.

Lee for the win! Big thanks. Pretty sure you just put a few new wiskers in your Beard of Wisdom.

You are quite welcome.

3 months later...

Thought I'd drop a few pictures in here. The same buddy came up with a second bucket / brazier and gifted it to me. Looking this one over, I'd say the bottom was clearly formed inside something very much like a 5 gal bucket. The raised floor / grate section was added afterwards and blended into the clay. (based on how it looks) Overall a cruder example in the grate area, you can definitely see where it was worked by hand. Also, does not appear to have been used / fired.

The interesting part is the lack of the champion branding. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it's likely made by individuals in a cottage industry style. The tinwork certainly reflects that too. Which means to me that the first unit was probably a cast of a cast of a champion fire grate (to account for mirroring) by some enterprising individual.

 

None of which means much of anything, I just thought it interesting enough to share. 

 

Neat another one. You know once you pick something like this up they'll start showing up everywhere, friends, the mailman, everybody will get word you're collecting them and start giving, dropping them off or trying to sell you rare antique fire buckets. 

My younger Sister's ex-SO rebuilt one of her old sewing machines, then other folk brought him their sewing machines to repair and next thing you knew they had a 2 car garage full of sewing machines. I even contributed a 100yro Singer hand crank. THEN I discovered the hand crank Singer is the best selling sewing machine on the planet and still being made. Heck, you can interchange the parts from a brand new one with one from the turn of the last century.

Frosty The Lucky.

On 5/5/2025 at 2:42 PM, Frosty said:

By George I think Lee has it! Occam's Razor says it's a brazier. To paraphrase, the simplest answer that fits everything is "Probably" right.

 Frosty The Lucky.

It is a brazier now that he has two, right? Or is my support too late? Did I post just under the wire?

With the number of people replying to posts years and even decades old you're golden! 

Frosty The Lucky.