Timber mantle

[30WCF]

Tractor saw mill.? Wrap a belt around a tractor wheel weight and drive the blade.

 

[Ashful]

Think blade type, not power source!

 

[30WCF]

Im betting it was a large circular blade. All the marks have a curve to them, and a deeper mark is spaced evenly, like one tooth was knocked out wider than the rest, or the blade had some wobble in it.

Th reason I said tractor was going back to the dynamite box thread about my wife’s great grandfather clearing his own land with dynamite, he also cut his own lumber for the buildings. I have a blade I snagged from there before it was too late. It’s maybe 30” across and there was a mill the would hook to the tractor to turn the big blade.

I don’t think the marks would be as consistent with a 1 or 2man saw, and they would also not be curved if done with a large band saw.

 

[Ashful]

Im betting it was a large circular blade.

Ding, ding, ding! You got it! Timber sawn in the 1700's has straight-line kerf marks from a reciprocating saw, whether that was man, steam, or water wheel-powered.

The first circular saw blade mills were produced right around 1800, but since saw mills were large capital investments in comparison to the cost of labor involved, you really didn't see them proliferating until maybe 1830'ish in more industrialized areas. More rural areas, such as the then-mostly agrarian south, might not have seen a proliferation of circular saw mills until after the civil war, more likely buying and putting back into use the reciprocating mills discarded from the more industrialized northeast prior to that. So, if you see circular saw marks, you know it's likely after the mid-1800's.

Another interesting thing is when you come across hand-hewn beams in old houses. I've had more than one supposed "authority" on old houses come thru my place, and make the stupid claim that the basement is older than the rest of the house, because the basement ceiling beams are hand hewn while all floors above have milled beams. But hand-hewn beams continued to be a normal building product used long after saw mills came into use, anytime you needed a beam longer than the local mill could process, so one cannot always assume a hand-hewn beam is something truly old.

 

[30WCF]

Ok. Here it is.
There are some wet spots of paint on the wall where I had to put some wood filler in old nail holes and the screw holes from the cast iron brackets.

 

[Ashful]

Love it! Not just the mantel, but the whole feel of the place. Very nicely done.