SOLD TO RICK L.
This the 2nd of two fireplace mantels with unusually sharp, crisp corners for a hand hewn beam. The original 1800s ax work is also very smooth – creating very flat surfaces. I might even speculate that they worked this one twice — once with an ax to shape and another time with and adz to smooth. The front face has graining typical of the ash family and shows the hints of ax marks across the entire face. There is a little black staining on the righthand side. There is one mortise pocket on the top and the bottom. The wood is Black Ash. This particular piece is the other end of a beam for the mantel – Hollyhock Cake.

This mantel beam is another one of those funny pieces that was re-used from a first generation barn into a second generation barn. We see this fairly often where it is clear that they took down one building, and re-used the wood in the next building. Because this one is hand hewn, it dates back to the late 1800s around here. However, we found it in a barn that dated back to probably around the 1930s.

The original barn was located near New Ulm, Minnesota – a strong German community. In fact, some German POWs were housed near the town in World War II. Based on the style, the use of round nails, machine turned pegs and pine beams, this barn was probably built close to 1930. It did have a few reused timbers from a previous 1800s vintage barn.

This mantel is priced at $115/LF. We are happy to cut this down to any length and reduce the price by $9.58 per inch, up to a $115 discount.