This is a wonderful oak floor joist mantel with a real blacksmith hand-hammered iron inset. The top and bottom of this mantel are made of old oak floor joists from a turn-of-the-century house. The wood quality is outstanding — clear and almost knot-free. I think that they used better quality material in old houses than they did in the barns. The face shows lots of the old nail holes and stains from where the flooring was laid. You’ll even spy a few nails were left in.

The face also shows some nice quartersawn oak tiger striping rays. You can see the symmetric layout on the end-grains as the growth rings run almost perpendicular to the face.

The metal insert is nearly 1/2in deep x 1in thick. It is wrapped around a solid wood piece in the middle of the mantel. The metalwork shows the great hand-hammering and coal forged colors from WLB Blacksmith Shop.

About the Tag – I saw a post on Facebook for a collection of old National Geographic magazines for sale in town. I mildly inquired about their availability, but then didn’t follow up and went away for the weekend. When I came home, to my surprise, I found several boxes of magazines on my porch. All free. All delivered. I had not even discussed my address with the gentleman. So here’s one advertisement from the 1930s selling ocean liner trips to Japan, China, and the Philippines from San Francisco and Hawaii. To put the prices in perspective, the average cost of a house was around $6000.

We can make additional mantels like this in any size. We also have 3-in material to create larger pieces such as a 7×9.

It can be shipped for $125 via FedEx Ground to anywhere in the lower 48 states.