A craftsman inspired mantel for a woodstove.
I built this mantel from quartersawn red oak.
The planning phase is the most important step in the building process.
I put together this mock up with framing lumber and a piece of the tile.
A cut list gives me guidance through the initial phase of rough cutting and milling the lumber.
With the lumber planed to thickness and cut to rough length, it's time to glue up the sub assemblies. The columns are each two pieces of oak rebated and glued together with biscuits. This allows both the face and side of the column to have quarter-sawn grain.
Gluing and clamping the columns doesn't take long. The shelves are also glued-up sub assemblies with a flush trimmed face frame that allows for quartesawn grain on the bottom, face and top of the shelves.
Trimming the face of the column flush with the side with a hand plane.
This is a photo of the bottom of one of the column sub assemblies that shows the rebate joint.
The corbels are all cut from a single piece of oak. I jigsaw out the concave surface after making a few relief cuts.
Cross cutting the corbels.
Sanding the corbels is a snap with an oscillating belt sander.
The decorative through tenons are cut from a larger piece of oak. The miter saw creates the pyramid end grain detail and a sled on the table saw creates the shoulder of the tenon.
Hand mortising the columns for the decorative through tenons with a chisel is satisfying work.
Dry fitting the decorative tenons. Ideally they compression fit without requiring much force to seat them.
The stain for this project is a reddish brown, water borne stain custom mixed to complement the tile. I like to stain and seal the components and sub assemblies before final assembly and fitting. The parts are easier to sand individually and the seal coat keeps the grain free of glue squeeze out.
Assembling the frieze with glued in loose tenons. The end of the frieze is simply a cut off of the column.
Gluing and clamping the frieze. the bar clamp holds the parts flat to the workbench while the end vise clamps together the tight fitting domino tenons.
Scribbing the side of the columns to the wall with a spacer and a razor blade will allow me to hand plane the column to seamlessly rest against the drywall.
Hand planing to the scribed line.
The column matches the contour of the wall. This means I won't have to caulk the seem.
The frieze sub assemblies and the shelves are notched to allow air to flow behind them. The cement board backing of the tile is spaced 3/4" away from the drywall in order to protect the wall assembly from over heating and combusting.
I coped the fillet with a jigsaw. This will look better than a miter joint.
Cleaning up the saw marks with a rat tail file.
The corbels are glued and screwed to the frieze sub-assembly.
Fastening the corbels from the back of the frieze. Always pre drill oak as it can split or break the screw.
Topcoats of polyurethane will protect the mantel for years to come. I sprayed three thin coats of polywhey furniture finish on the sub assemblies. This is on top of two coats of oil modified polyurethane that I brushed on prior to assembly fitting the parts.
Blocking made from dry framing lumber will support the base of the columns. This blocking is screwed to the wall framing.
I screwed a piece of dry framing lumber to the backside of the top of each column.
A framing screw through the blocking attaches the column to the wall framing.
A little wood glue will hold the decorative tenon in place.
The decorative through tenon hides the screw that holds the column to the wall.
A trim screw holds the base of the column to the wall. I'll hide this fastener with some wood filler tinted with the stain.
The frieze, fillet and shelf are all fastened together into one assembly with hidden screws. This assembly is, in turn, fastened to the wall studs via toenail screws through the top of the mantel.
Now it's a matter of waiting for the tile sub-contractor to complete his work.
All three visible surfaces of the shelves are made up of primarily quarter sawn grain.
The two frieze assemblies are fastened together with two massive dominos in the shelves and some trim screws through the back-side of the frieze and fillets.
