Barn beam mantle

[Swamp_Yankee]

I finally found time to start a project that I've been meaning to tackle since the day we moved in.  At some point, a very talented mason lived in our house, as we have a beautifully done stone fireplace and chimney, lots of brick work, and a dry stacked stone wall outside all made from granitic gneiss found on the property:

I never liked the bluestone mantel though.  In my mind mantels should always be made of wood.  It also only juts out from the wall about 5 and 1/2" which doesn't give a whole lot of room for the two hurricane lamps and other stuff we have up there now.  Across the valley from us there is an old farm with a barn that fell down a couple of years ago.  I did some digging and found a phone number for the owner and made contact with a nice older lady who had immigrated from Brazil to Maplewood and then moved with her husband out here about 50 years ago.  She's not sure how old the barn was but the beams are rough sawn, not hand hewn, so probably not more than 150 years old if that, more than likely 100 or so.  However, the tight grain of the old growth pine, saw marks, and nail/worm holes give it a lot of character.  I cut a little over six feet with the chainsaw and then brought it into the basement to dry (dehumidifier on constant run for about two weeks) as it had been sitting out in the weather for some time:

After notching the backside using a circular saw and a sharp chisel in order to fit it over the existing mantle, I began working it with a drill mounted wire wheel.  The wire wheel removes the weathered and weakened outer layer of wood to reveal the hardened wood underneath, and pronounces the grain and machining marks:

Did a test fitting in the living room over the weekend:

The beam is 8" by 10" and I have it oriented so that the 10" is on the horizontal.  It protrudes a little too far out from the wall so I'm going to shave 1" off of it and see how I like it at that point.  More to come.  

[Buck154]

Looks good 

[bushden]

Great looking fireplace, the wood mantle will look good.

[B B]

Thats going to awesome when it's done.  Hell that's already a beautiful fireplace.  

[Bearhunter]

Looking good. I like the mantle made from wood also.

[Swamp_Yankee]

1 hour ago, B B said:

Thats going to awesome when it's done.  Hell that's already a beautiful fireplace.  

Thank you-the only order of business left after this is to get rid of that awful 1970s gold accent trim!  It appears to be anodized aluminum so I'm planning on hitting it with acid to etch it and then spray the whole thing with flat black BBQ paint.  

[LPJR]

Looks absolutely awesome. Well done, accents that room perfectly. 

[BowhunterNJ]

Very cool and very neat looking house!  Nice to have a mason as the former owner!

[Swamp_Yankee]

5 minutes ago, LPJR said:

Looks absolutely awesome. Well done, accents that room perfectly. 

Thanks-it's not done yet-will post pictures once it is.  

Just now, BowhunterNJ said:

Very cool and very neat looking house!  Nice to have a mason as the former owner!

Thanks-I'm just assuming that was the case because the work was done well before the previous owner bought it over 45 years ago.  Since its just an old farmhouse, I would doubt that whoever was living here way back when would have paid someone to do all this work-they likely did it themselves.  One of these days I will take a day off to spend at the County Clerk's Office in Flemington to trace the property all the way back to when it was subdivided from a neighboring farm.  The original part of the house was a barn on that property-I know this because my neighbor has a copy of the deed and survey which shows my house as part of his land.  I want to find all of the names of the families that lived here over the years after that point.

[Rusty]

Looks great Yankee.  

[Live to Hunt]

Love it 

[Swamp_Yankee]

Still not entirely done, but basically secured.  Need to do some finish work on the ends and permanently secure it with two large lag bolts so that it can withstand my two (soon to be three) little monkeys who will inevitably end up hanging from it:

You can just see a 3/4" board underneath the beam that I used to cover the old bluestone mantel for a clean look.  That board came from our barn when a tree took out the back corner following the string of Nor'Easters last spring.  It was nice to be able to incorporate it.  

[tjfslaughter]

Once you get a fire going check the temps under that beam.  You might need a small heat shield or deflector.  Most likely not but play it on the safe side.

[Rusty]

Cool looking room Yankee.  

[not on the rug]

Looks great!