# Need advice rying a 5-6" thick oak slab for a mantel



## AuSable Junkie (Apr 28, 2009)

To save me some time posting and uploading a pic, i've put a link where my question has been posted on a sportsman's website. If you need more info to give an answer, please post here and I will give any addtional info needed. I'd like a rustic look to the fireplace mantel, so some splitting and checking is a good thing! 
I planned on having it cut to 5-6" thick to dry it, then plane it to 4" or so after the drying process. I know the stickering leaves permanent marks, so how much thicker should I rough cut it to make sure the sticker marks can be planed out??
Thanks alot.

http://www.michigan-sportsman.com/forum/showthread.php?t=286402


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*More dimensions please (d)rying*

OK we've got the thickness, 5"-6 " what about the width and length? If you don't mind splits and checks why bother drying? It'll take 1 yr per inch to dry 5"> air dry. Do you want to wait? You could laminate 3 pieces of 2" and it would be more stable. Is this for a cabin and that's why a more rustic look is OK? What wood would you want? Cedar, Pine, Oak, other native species? Walnut maybe?Just a few questions! :yes: bill


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## Julian the woodnut (Nov 5, 2008)

Stickers don't always leave stains in wood. Use a hardwood sticker. Just about anything will work , but I would shy against oak for stickers.

I'm with Woodnthings on this. Why dry it if you want a rustic look anyways? If you are going to plane it to 4", then plane it and mount that thing on the wall.


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## AuSable Junkie (Apr 28, 2009)

I'd like the finish dimensions to be 6-7' long, and it looks like I can get a piece about 9" deep/wide from the log. I might just bite the bullet and take it to a local mill and have 'em cut it an inch or so bigger on the thickness. I can put it in my shed and sticker and get some weight on it. I won't try for the multi-year dryout. Maybe 6 months or so. 
We'd like rustic but not falling apart. Somewhere in between. Three of the sides will be milled with one of the 4" sides left as a live edge. I've seen other logs on the net where they wire brush them to take the aged color off and expose similar grain color as the milled edges. 
I'm looking for other logs to try out also. Cedar is the next species i'd like to try.


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## Julian the woodnut (Nov 5, 2008)

Cedar will dry out much quicker. Oak will end up checking quite a bit inside if it's not dried properly, but for a rustic mantle it works fine. 

Last summer I cut an old white oak 10x10 barn beam with a chainsaw to use it for a mantle in a 10 million dollar house. It turned out great. I drilled into the stone face, and epoxied rebar into it, then drilled into the beam, and epoxied the rods into it. The mantle ended up free floating across the 8' face of the fireplace. It now has some checks in it, but it's still holding tight.


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