Full Mantel

Rennie Heuer

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Constantine, MI
This project starts in a few days. It is for the same customer here in MI that I did the mantel for last year.
This one:
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As a reminder, he is restoring a 1913 craftsman of a little over 3,000 sf. Amazingly all of the original woodwork and floors survived. That constitutes a challenge for the next mantel because, although we went with QSWO for the library and used a red dye to get the color closer to the red oak used in the original trim, (I know the pictures look like there is a huge difference but in person they appear much closer) the living room must come much closer as I will be duplicating details that already exist. To my eye this is all red oak and a good portion of it is quarter sawn. The most notable exception being the tall baseboard which appears to be flatsawn.

Here are the drawings for the Living Room mantel
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Although the drawings don't show it very well both the upper and lower columns are tapered on both sides and the lower columns also taper inward.

And here is the setting

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I had initially thought I would build the bulk of the project with plywood and pocket holes and applied moldings. Kind of like a kitchen cabinet. As I got a bit deeper into the design it became clear there was a better way. Now I plan on making the entire project using a matched rail and stile router bit set and 1/2" rabbeted plywood panels. The inspiration for this change came from a close inspection of the pillars and newel post that I needed to match.

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You will also note a slight Greene and Greene influence in the proud finger joints at the corners of the mantel shelf, the cloud lift detail of the mirror frame, and, of course, the ebony plugs. I wonder what Gustav would say.

I found the exact profile for the bit at MLCS. Fortunately Menards has the crown profile in red oak available special order. The baseboard cap and shoe molding I am sure I can fabricate in the shop. My local lumber supplier has QSRO available and I found a source for quarter/riff sawn red oak plywood - at $100 a sheet. o_O

It all begins in just a few days with the demo of the existing shelf!
 

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Rennie, looks like this will be yet another beauty. It will be interesting and fun to follow along. I do have to say ... all of your posts/projects (living room tables, entertainment cabinets, mantels, etc) .. are really keeping me busy reading/following along. It is no wonder I'm not getting much done myself ... too tired just watching you stay busy.
 
The first order of business was to demo the old mantel and bring it home. I'll be reusing as much of the wood as I can. I also needed to spend some time matching the finish as this needs to fit right in and look like it was original to the house. Thanks to Dave Hawksford for setting me on the right path. What I finally came up with, after about 40 tries, was General Finishes antique cherry oil stain applied per instructions on the can followed by an application of MinWax hickory gel stain, again per instructions, then 3 coats of a 1.5 lb cut of dewaxed garnet shellac.

I had initially thought that I would put on a final coat of Target water based lacquer, but I am really pleased with the look of the shellac. The shellac finish on all the woodwork in the house has lasted 117 years so, as long as its given reasonable care, I don't see a problem.

The original mantel is on the bottom, my effort to match it on the top. I don't think I'll be able to replicate the 117 years of dust, grime and soot, but it comes pretty close. It might be a teeny bit shy in the orange department but I'm thinking one more application of shellac will fix that.

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How did they get away with this?

I took the old mantel shelf apart today as I want to reuse as much of it as I can. I was very surprised to find that the top of the shelf, one board about 9’ long and over 10” wide, was built with bracing every foot or so - cross grain, screwed and glued! Isn’t that a big no-no? The screw holes are not elongated. How did they account for movement?

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I did amass a stash of 117 year old screws!
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I love finding old screws. I have a few types in my collection. I use them on period or 'steam-punk' kinds of things where the more lowly hardware is on display.

On the wood movement question . . . it's obvious that we've been lied to all these years by our mentors who, it turns out, were just hazing us!!!
 
Kaking slow progress on the mantel project. I had one of the pillar panels glue up out of square and spent a half day replicating it. :bang:

Anyway, the lower pillars are about done. Just need to glue them up and attach them to the plinth/base then it will be time to pay a visit to the customer and do a test fit of the work so far. If the test fit goes well the next step is the freeze (I think that's correct) and the mantel shelf.

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