Fireplace remodel

[Foxtrot1]

Been in the middle of a complete house remodel for awhile. The fireplace in the greatroom is giant and is the most prominent feature of the room. You can walk all the way around it. Its 10' wide and about 18' tall. My full plans for it have not been reveal to Audra. Finally a place to hang my euro elk and some others.

We started by removing the wood burning insert and the black pointed mortar joints. Everything has been remortared, a new top mount damper, chimney cap, and some repairs to crumbling fire mortar where the insert didnt go deep enough into the fireplace. Masonry is ready to go.

We wanted a new mantle that was more substantial and would match the new tongue and groove ceiling. So I cut a hickory log, milled 3 sides with my alaskan sawmill, and hewed the front with a broad axe. I think it turned out nice. Looks old, but is smooth enough to dust. It needs some tung oil, then will be ready to hang when I find enough volunteers to help.

I'll be glad when the remodel is complete.

 

[mtmuley]

Nice job on those timbers. mtmuley

 

[Pucky Freak]

Nice work!

 

[Gellar]

Wow, my fireplace is jealous.

 

[Dave N]

Wish I HAD a fireplace...

 

[Red Fox]

Working on removing the rock that is on mine now. hope that it turns out as nice as yours

 

[tarheel]

Love that broadaxe, still have my GGrandfather's.

Back when I was doing stonework I had a lady who wanted a freestanding one like yours and every bit as tall if not taller but she wanted it to be made with round river rock (potato rock) and I wasn't willing to risk my neck and reputation as well as their safety on a chimney built that massive and tall with rounded stones. I tried to explain that it was gravity and friction that held stones together, not mortar but she was adamant so I bade her good day and went looking for another customer.

 

[mdhunter]

Someone once told me in the middle of a house remodel “you can build anything with time and money”. Truer words never spoken...

 

[redwoood]

Nice work!!!

 

[geetar]

Looks great! Just needs a mountain goat on them rocks!

 

[ZBB]

That looks awesome! I got a wild hair up my ass one day and went out and hand hewed a log. I didn’t have a broad axe, just a regular axe. My knuckles and patience wished I had one. I did it in pine, I couldn’t imagine it with hickory. Again it looks really good.

 

[Hilljackoutlaw]

Looks great! Thanks for sharing the handy work.

 

[Hem]

Man, so lucky to have available Hickory....

 

[hank4elk]

Nice!

 

[noharleyyet]

Well done.

 

[LuketheDog]

Good stuff, its amazing how the right color mortar or grout can make masonry look better

 

[BlakeA]

Awesome!

 

[noharleyyet]

Made my lower back sore....

 

[Foxtrot1]

Man, so lucky to have available Hickory....

Here, it's pretty much firewood or BBQ wood. Its really hard to debark so the only sawmills that will touch it are the cross tie and pallet mills. The pulp mills won't touch it because of the bark either. Our little farm has a woodlot with some nice logs and the light wood let me finish it to match the existing beams, so I decided to cut one and see how it would turn out.

 

[Foxtrot1]

View attachment 129868

Made my lower back sore....

It really wasn't as bad as it looked. It took a little while to figure out how to do it properly and how to notch the round edge to make hewing easier. Once you got the technique down and let the heft of the broad axe work it went fairly quickly. That said, I would not want to hew a cabin or barn out of a stack of logs.