WOOD SPECIES

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Featuring a variety of color and grain options, our selection of wood species is sure to have the right one to match with your home. And all of our log mantels come unfinished, giving you the creative free reign to paint, stain, and varnish to your heart's desire.

Click on the image of a wood specie you like to browse all available mantles in that species! 

Basswood

 

Also known as American Linden, Basswood is a soft, lightweight wood with a fine but indistinct wood grain. Often it is very pale in coloration, nearly white, but the heartwood near the center of the tree can be a reddish brown.
 

 

 

 

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Butternut

Butternut is sometimes called white walnut because of how similar their grain patterns are. In fact, if stained brown, butternut can look identical. When it is fresh cut and dried, butternut can have dark and light bands. As the wood ages, it turns a consistent golden color.

Because butternut is soft and fibrous, it doesn't work well with industrial machinery which causes deep tear out. To avoid this, our butternut mantels are hand planed and carved with razor-sharp tools. Butternut dents very easily, so keep this in mind when setting things on top of a mantel. Because the wood is so porous, butternut can absorb stain almost too well. It can come out look blotchy if the surface wasn't sanded evenly. It is recommended to use a wood conditioner before staining to help with this.

There is currently a fungus causing cankers in butternut trees, which eventually ends up killing the tree. It has become such a problem that, in some areas, healthy butternut trees are no longer permitted to be cut for lumber, and they are listed as a vulnerable species in Canada and protected. Here in the States, most butternut lumber is cut from diseased trees.
 

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Cherry wood is widely known for its lovely red/ reddish brown coloration. Depending on what part of the tree the wood was cut from, unstained cherry starts out light, golden pink. As it ages and is exposed to light, it will darken to its characteristic rich red. This process can take anywhere from 6 months to several years.
 

 

 

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Eastern Red Cedar

The combination of the red and white stripes of wood in the Eastern Red Cedar makes for a strikingly beautiful mantel. Also known as the Aromatic Cedar, it has a very distinct and pleasant fragrance. A number of small knots are present throughout the wood.
 

To keep cedar mantels remaining fragrant, do no coat them with a finish but rather with oil. However, as the oil hardens over time, the cedar will lose its sent. It can be brought out again by sanding down the surface with some fine grit sandpaper.

 

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The unique interlocking grain of the light brown Elm makes it very resistant to splitting and gives it a very distinct pattern. This wavy, heavy grain pattern makes Elm a good candidate for clear coat finishes.

 

 

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Walnut

 

The dark chocolate wood of Walnut is the only dark wood species native to North America. But unlike most typical wood that darkens over time, Walnut will actually lighten, but only slightly. The sapwood, the wood near the bark of the tree, is a contrasting color of golden white.