When we were in Texas this time last year, we made one of the greatest finds for the new house to date, which was promptly overshadowed by the stress of driving for two days across the country in a truck that had no air conditioning carrying donkeys in the back.
After we survived that little fiasco adventure we were focusing on things like getting walls in the house and it seemed a little premature to be getting excited about stuff like this:
MysteryMan’s aunt knew a guy who ran a back-yard lumber mill, and after winding our way down some long Texas dirt roads, we came to a little place I like to refer to as Mesquite Heaven.
And if all of this beautiful wood wasn’t enough…
There was also one really big saw to play with.
Okay. I didn’t get to play with it, but I would have if I’d been able to tear myself from the wood-slab-shopping-extravaganza I was in the middle of.
Originally we wanted to use these two for the kitchen island, which may still work out for us. If it doesn’t I’m thinking they’d make a lovely coffee table.
And this 5″ slab with a live edge?
Gorgeous, isn’t it?
It will eventually be the mantle over our main fireplace:
There is actually a fireplace there, I swear. It’s just hiding behind the scaffolding. These days the better part of my life is hiding behind scaffolding, if not actively falling off of it. Which, by the way, hurts exponentially more the older you get. Apparently.
Anyway, even with these new self-contained gas fireplace units, there are still rules about the height and depth of a mantle over the fireplace, so the large slab will need to be ripped down by six or eight inches. We’re still pondering how to tackle that, exactly.
I’m thinking it might involve a chainsaw.
Yeah. I know just what you’re thinking… I haven’t been this close to losing a finger since crushing my hand under a piece of flagstone.
7 Responses
Very pretty. For the slab just use a regular circular saw guided by a straight edge and either cut about half way through and then flip it and finish it on the other side.
Or cut as deep as the saw will cut and then finish it with a hand saw.
Ron, that is a fabulous idea. I may have come up with it myself if I didn’t want to live a little dangerously with the chainsaw…. I think we’ll try it your way first!
I asked Mr. Man what he wanted for his birthday and he said in all seriousness, “A concrete mixer attachment for my Bobcat.”
He would like that saw.
A lot.
Omigosh I want a 5″ slab for furniture / mantle and that saw is just plain WANT.
http://www.woodmizer.com/us/
I believe the model shown is around $6200 new
Just borrow a bow saw – turn the blade sideways, slice it out
human power
no risk of kickback
I like this post, enjoyed this one regards for putting up.
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