This mantel has lots of great things going on with it. First off, reclaimed white oak is really the best reclaimed wood for color variation. It starts out as a wheat-ish tan, but can become nearly coffee black in a barn environment. From that, we get all kinds of colors in between. The face of this mantel has the least amount of material removed. It has a darker color range with some pleasant lighter areas. It also has some beautiful flowing cracks as well. This beam has done it’s cracking, so I do not expect them to grow. The bottom of this mantel is filled with nail holes and what we call streaked white oak. By cutting into the wood, we get beyond the full dark layer and back into lighter wood. However, over time, dark color saturated into the cracks to create a streaked appearance. We also filled an original mortise pocket where beams once came together. Finally, we cut deeper on the top to get beyond a layer of rot. We revealed some wonderful natural wood grains.

This particular piece was a sill timber from an old barn. It was the big beam that rested on the cement foundation upon which they built the rest of the barn. They used white oak for sill timbers and fence posts back in the day because it has a good natural rot resistance. The wood was probably sawn on-site with a mill somewhat like the one pictured.

This mantel beam came from a early 1900s vintage barn between Norwood, MN and Green Isle, MN. About 40 miles SW of Minneapolis downtown. This is the beginning of modern farm country West of the Twin cities. The soil here is rich and black and runs black as deep as three feet. This was the Western edge of the Big Woods, if you are familiar with the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. The barn roof had caved in during the winter of 2015. Our old friend, Harry, who is in 60s salvaged what he could from the old barn before the rest was burned to the ground.

This beam is priced at $100/LF. The beam is 61.5 inches long and priced at $100/LF for a total of $512.50. While we can cut this beam down in length, the price is firm. We can ship this one via FedEx Gnd. We use a flat rate of $65 for all mantels that ship via FedEx. If you’d like it cut down, please contact us at antiqueww@gmail.com or call 888-226-5370.

The Tag –Western Electric — Dad ‘s lots more fun since he go that Western Electric hearing aid! I guess we all know a few grouchy folks who can quite hear, don’t we?