Old Barnwood Beam

[agrieco]

The house needed a new mantle and so I went in search of something appropriate. I ended up at 'The Barn Side of a Broad' who has been mentioned here previously. Debbie and her husband were great in helping me get something that suited our needs, were great to work with and the price was right!

My question-
I've had to trim up the ends and I wonder if there is anything specific I need to do to prevent cracking (especially on the ends). It is old and dry and I intend to put a coat of oil based poly on it.

Thanks!

 

[Dave Richards]

That sounds like a good find. An old dry beam like that has likely don't all the splitting it's going to do. Probably all you need to do is finish it as planned.

 

[Mike Davis]

I have heard of antique wood figures from Africa splitting when brought here due to the extreme change in humidity. In some areas it is very dry there and we have fairly high humidity at times. They eventually solved that problem by soaking in pentacryl.

Since this is very old wood from the local area there should not be any problems with moisture differences.

You may want to watch for wood boring insects though.