Sold 01/17/2019 to Bryan G in Odenton, Maryland (MD)
Please send email to antiqueww@gmail.com for pictures of more available mantels.

Unique, great oak barn beam mantel with mortise pockets. We find lots of beams with mortise pockets in them, but they rarely have this kind of symmetry and great color. It almost looks like there were metal plates or something on this beam. The black coloring is more like iron stains than a strong patina. This beam was already on its second re-use in this particular barn. In fact, if you look at the barn pictures, you can actually see this beam (or one of its mates) in there. You can that the pockets were empty and not being used for this building. By its unique nature, this beam might actually be reclaimed from a wagon, slay, or some other implement.

This mantel has an outstanding warm saddle brown color with lots of dark accents. Really, really neat color on this one. The texture on this one is also some sort of hand hewing. It is smooth hewn, so it barely looks like hewn material. However, it is definitely not sawn.

This mantel beam came from an early 1900s vintage barn between Waconia, MN and Cologne, MN. About 40 miles SW of Minneapolis downtown. This is the beginning of modern farm country in these parts. The soil here is rich and black 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 this very woods. The original beam had traces of hand hewing. This barn may be older than I thought or the material was re-used from a previous barn.

We can cut this mantel shorter and refinish the ends for an additional $50.

It can be shipped anywhere in the lower 48 states via FedEx Gnd for $75.

The Tag — 1 Cent Iron. This ad is from the 1930s. This iron is made by the Akron Lamp and Manufacturing company. It used 1 cent worth of Kerosene in 3 to 5 hours. Ebay has used antique ones listed for about $80. I couldn’t find the original price of the iron, but it certainly was not just 1 cent.