Bolting was the most efficient way to assemble the cast iron parts of a wood stove. Welding the castings together was nearly impossible, and the sand-casting methods available at the time were not accurate enough to allow parts to be snapped together into a sturdy assembly. The combination of a round-headed machine screw and a square nut was cheap, and easily tightened with common household tools like a flat-blade screwdriver and pliers, or even a table knife in a pinch. The term "stove bolt" got applied to round-headed machine screws with a coarse thread, like 3/16" or 1/4" screws. When Chevy started attaching sheet metal parts to their engines with slotted-head 1/4" screws, the "stovebolt" name was a natural fit.
Jerry
