Make your stove or fireplace look even cosier
We supply solid hardwood mantel pieces in a range of homegrown hardwoods – oak, elm, beech, ash, and sycamore. Our mantles can come square, or with natural live edges.
Hardwood mantles can be cut to order and supplied fresh sawn, or bought at the timber shop from existing, part seasoned stock.
Our mantle pieces are supplied fresh sawn, or part seasoned. This means that when the mantel is brought into the heated warmth of your home, you can expect to see some changes in the timber as it settles into the new environment.
As timber dries, its fibres shrink and contract. Timber dries from the outside in – the fibres closer to the surface and ends of the boards will release their moisture faster than those at the core. This uneven drying means that the outer timber contracts more quickly than the inner timber, causing splits and checks to appear on the surface.
Over time, as the inner timber also dry, these splits will gradually be pulled back together as the outer timber layers settle around the dry core. This is a normal, and generally unpreventable, part of working with solid timber mantels, beams, and posts.
Part seasoned mantels will have already started their drying process, splits and checks are likely already visible in the end grain and they will take less time to settle into their new environment.
Fresh sawn mantles are cut to order. As the mantels are cut fresh, they haven’t had any time to season, and cracks may not yet have formed in the end grain. These cracks will open in time, especially once moved into the warm indoors.
