Here’s another great, naturally dark white oak mantel beam with original old character and history. The clean lines on this one also compliment new, modern environments.  The color on this beam is natural. Yes, natural. White oak has tannins in the wood that interact with ammonia in the barn creating this natural dark color that is up to 1/4inch deep. On the end photos, you can see how deep the coloring has penetrated over the course of a century or more. Gustav Stickley used an ammonia tent on his original white oak furniture to achieve this great warm color. Oddly enough, the sapwood (the layer just below the bark) does not have tannins and does not naturally darken. The upper left of this mantel has a tiny bit of sapwood remaining.

The beam was one of a dozen or so posts in the lower level milking parlor that supported the rest of the barn. As such, it has lots of nail holes and character to attest to its history. The bottom of this mantel has fantastic quartersawn oak tiger striping. Usually the heart of the tree is in the dead center of a beam. On this particular mantel beam, the heart of the tree is beyond one of the corners. To make this beam, sawyers cut the tree in quarters,this the name quartersawing.

This mantel beam came from an early 1900s vintage barn near Southwest Wisconsin — out in the beautiful rolling hills. It is always nice to head out to this part of the country. You still see lots of small family farms with animals still out in the pasture. It is a welcome relief from the industrial farming that we see in our parts.

We have applied one coat of hardwax oil. We’ll apply another coat of finish on this mantel beam before it ships. It will turn the gloss up just a notch, but keep a nice natural feel.

This beam is priced at $100/LF. We can cut the beam down to any length and reduce the price by $8.33 per inch, up to a maximum discount of $100. This beam ships via FedEx for our flat rate price of $65.

The tag on this one is from the Minneapolis Ledger around 1930. It is Vicks VapoRub — snuff up nose also melt in hot water and inhale vapors — for head colds.