Sold to Dan and Rebecca in South Dakota (SD) – October 14, 2018
We have a few others remaining from this same batch. Contact us with your specific requirements.

Looking for a monster-sized, authentic hand-hewn mantel? This might be the one. This is the real deal. 1800s vintage hand-hewn work back when folks swung axes to mark round tree trunks square. It has original work where one can see the kind of chop-and-peal approach that they used for the hewing. The finish on this is a medium-dark with some lighter area showing through. While we don’t normally like to stain, this one seemed to be asking to be darker. We used an old secret recipe from woodworkers 100 years ago.

There tend to be two types of hand hewing — rough and smooth. Oftentimes, you’ll see beams that are “choppy” looking. To get beams smoother, they work the beam several times with different tools. For example, they may do the first pass with a broad ax or even a felling ax. Then, they would do a second or third pass with an adz. This mantel is the former — a single pass with a felling ax. They might have cleaned this one up a little as well.

This mantel beam came from an early 1900s vintage barn between Waconia, MN and Cologne, MN. This particular beam was almost 20 feet long and resting in the milking parlor. It was probably recovered from another nearby barn. These towns are about 40 miles SW of Minneapolis downtown. This is the current edge of modern farm country in these parts. Once upon a time before the suburbs, farm country was much closer to Minneapolis downtown. The soil here is still rich and runs black as deep as three feet. This was also the Western edge of what was once referred to as the Big Woods. If you have ever read Laura Ingalls Wilder books, you’ll see references to these very woods. The original beam had traces of hand hewing. This barn may be older than I thought or the material was reused from a previous barn.

This mantel beam is priced at $125 per LF at 110 inches. We can cut this one down in length and reduce the price by $10.42 per inch up to a $125 discount. This one is big and will need to be shipped truck freight. Usually, that runs about $250. If you’d like it cut down, please contact us at antiqueww@gmail.com or call 612-281-9330.

The Tag — Underwood Deviled Ham — Zestfully Seasoned. From a 1951 magazine, the drawing looks a lot like the Archie comics. I’m not sure if it was one in the same artist or not. And let’s not forget the Good Housekeeping seal of approval.