–SOLD–

Here’s a nice warm saddle brown colored reclaimed mantel accented with original old holes, cracks, and sapwood accents. I really like the character in this beam. Fundamentally, this is a just a nice simple white oak beam. However, the front face has 3 unique features — holes, cracks, and sapwood. I can only guess that the holes were for the placement of ladder rungs. It is the only thing that makes sense to me for an upright post. We thought about filling the holes, but decided to leave them as character. They could be filled seasonally with stocking hooks or something along those lines. There’s also nice cracks running across the face. With this old wood, it has pretty much done all of the cracking and twisting that it is going to do. It is unlikely that the size of these cracks will change.

These old beams were obviously squared off from a round tree. Sawyers were pretty good about using the right size tree to make the right size beam. As you look at a round tree, the sapwood is just beneath the bark and it is where all the growth happens. The part of the wood from the center to the sapwood is call heartwood. When sawyers cut the square post, they did not always get just heartwood. So, we’ll often find sapwood on the corners of old beams. Oddly enough, in these old barn environment the heartwood will react to the ammonia in the air and darken. However, the sapwood does not contain the same amount of tannin as the heartwood and does not darken.

The top also has a “P” drilled into it. I really don’t have the exact story for that. I’d guess it was either some kids playing or perhaps it is a “P” for Pinkse.

The wood for this mantel beam came from an old barn near Green Isle, Minnesota. We think, but have not confirmed, that this is an old Pinske Barn. We know Pete Pinske, who was a 3rd generation barn builder. His grandfather started building barns in the late 1800s. The Pinske’s were early pioneers of doing hip-roof barns. The hip-roof allowed the farmer to store more hay in the building. Pinske’s were probably building the hip roof barns 20 years before they were popular. The Pinske’s were also very good about selecting trees for lumber in the winter time. This gave them an advantage to build more barns in the summer time with better lumber. Pete recently helped build a house for his grand-nephew where they reclaimed wood from one of the original barns that Pete’s grandfather built. They used old material for cabinets and other decor. So the wood ended up traveling 5 generations. A nice article about Karl Pinske’s house can be found on-line.

Note, this white oak is 100% natural color. There is a finish coat of a hardwax oil, but there is not any stain applied. This natural color change very pronounced in white oak in particular.

This mantel beam is priced at $100 per LF. We can cut the length down and refinish the end for a discount of $8.33 per inch, up to a $100 discount. If you would like this cut down, please contact us at antiqueww@gmail.com or call 888-226-5370.