Mantel Shelf from an Old Barn Floor Joist (ALKA-SELTZER)

Additional information

Weight 48 lbs
Dimensions 72 × 3 × 8 in
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Texture:

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Size Category:     

Mantel Type

Product Description

— SOLD to Jerry O in New York (NY) 10/31/2016 —
— We have other similar ones in raw format that could be finished quickly for you —

It is amazing what it hidden in these old barns. In the last picture, you can see a piled of wood covered in white wash. That’s how we get a lot of our wood. They use a lime mixture (think chalk) painted on the wood. This was a method approved by the USDA to keep the milking parlor of a barn clean and sanitary.  (when you are actually in these old barns, they seem anything but sanitary, but I’m sure the farmers always washed the cows and equipment well).  I can see how many people would dismiss this material as junk.

sawmill-02But underneath all of that whitewash, in this case, is white oak. We found this one floor joist that was slightly larger than average. We cleaned it up to reveal this stunning warm, brown oak. But this piece has great color, great grains, and great character. It is a really nice piece. The front is mostly clean with some interesting grains. There is a little ding about a foot from the left. Just a little testament to its original life. The top has more great grains, some ghosts of saw marks, and interesting knot with lots of movement around it. The real winner is the bottom side. It has a interesting crack running through what was once the heart of the tree — the oldest wood in the tree. In addition, there’s all kinds of tiger striping as a result of the quartersawn nature of this piece. This side also has some ghosts of the original circle saw marks from, most likely, an old portable sawmill. Back in the day (early 1900s), they would cut the lumber on-site using trees from the farmer’s lot.

Because of its small size, this beam is priced at $80/LF. We can cut the beam down to any length and reduce the price by $6.67 per inch, up to a maximum discount of $80. (i.e. $400 final price for 5ft or less).  This one can ship via FedEx Gnd. We use a flat rate of $65 for all mantels that ship via FedEx.

 

Our website here only contains a small number of all of the mantels that we have in stock. Please contact us via email at antiqueww@gmail.com or call 612-281-9330 for a list of more mantels that are available. We are a small mom-and-pop shop and don’t usually find enough time to update this list. We have nearly 100 finished mantels and another almost 500 unfinished pieces in stock at any time that can be viewed with other links.