A few pictures of an oak mantle in the works!

[chevytaHOE5674]

Hey guys a few weeks back a friend, my brother and I cut up a 30+" red oak that had blown over a few years back. I wish i had before pictures because the log was huge. My brother wants the slab for a mantle in his new house. Lots of work to move it around without the tractor but it looks to be worth it. 85* day, luckly there was a breeze off the lake.

The saws, 066 and 32" bar on the mill, and 361 for some trimming and other cutting.

The log with straight edge,

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

Finished up and ready to dry for a few more years before we resaw it and plane it down.

Got a few boards out of it also but didn't get many pictures.

 

[woodshop]

Make sure cants that size dry real slow... something that large usually develops a few large cracks here and there as the outside dries faster than the inside can, nature of the beast. Nice lookin cant though, beautiful hunk of wood. Thanks for posting.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

Thanks, it already has 1 crack in it, but it should be at the back. I figure a few years in the garage and it will be good and dry, about the time his house is ready for a mantle.

 

[Adkpk]

A friend of mine has several oak post and beams that hold up his house. They are all exposed only ten years old and have quite a few fat cracks. I think it adds to the character of the house. Nice job and nice view.

 

[dustytools]

A few nice cracks will give that Oak mantle a lot of character. Nice job!!

 

[hazard]

Cool pics. Milling is just a blast!!

You might want to think about sealing the logs on the flat parts where you think you will have cracks with end grain sealer. I would think this would slow the drying process some on the flat grain.

Is your mill homemade. I have a granberg with a 36" bar. Looking at mine, I could of made it from scrap very easily.

Thanks for the pics. It inspires me to blow the dust off of my mill and get out and make some boards.

Chris

 

[Backwoods]

Spray the whole thing with a good end sealer and tuck it out of the way till you are ready to use it.

 

[irishcountry]

Very nice!! I was just up your way on the 4th of July our friends have a cottage up there, Houghton is beautiful we hung out at "the island" with the kids and they had a blast! Looks like alot of wood and it would make a very nice mantle.

 

[TNMIKE]

Nice

That is one heavy duty looking mantle. Good work

 

[buzz sawyer]

One way to reduce cracking is to saw the pith out of it. Leaving the center of the tree results in stresses all around as it dries, resulting in many cracks. Pretty hard to prevent in something that big though. Dry it slow. Even if it does crack, it will only add character to the mantle.

 

[nrguenth]

One way to reduce cracking is to saw the pith out of it.

Yeth, I agree. Thaw the pith out of it.

Seriously though, nice cant. That's gonna make a beautiful mantel.

 

[Backwoods]

This is a Myrtlewood block, which I cut the pith out of. As you can see by the crack on the end that it did not relieve all the stress but enough stress was relieved to control the cracking. This block was sealed and left for a year then sent out to the kiln to finish drying and to kill the powder post beetles. The three sides were then remilled and the block was cut length wise twice to produce three 4"x 8"-10" eight foot long mantles with live edges. I do not have any pictures of them after this stage to post.

After your mantle dries, it may be necessary to remill the edges to square it up again.

 

[slabmaster]

Real Nice! Oak makes a Great Mantle.Should last a lifetime. Looks Heavy.