Working the Fireplace

To complete the trim on the fireplace I need to add a cap and a stoop/seat cover around it. The cap is needed because this is a pennisula fireplace and there will be a TV located on top of it.

The stoop/seat will allow people to sit in front of the fireplace, on the great room side.

These items will need to cover the top of the stone veneer that has been applied.

With the types and colors of wood in the house we have decided on a darker wood for these pieces. I explored going with the native/natural beetle kill Ponderosa Pine, but the blotchy nature of stains applied to softwoods made me hesitant. We also looked at a stained Maple, but we have three Maple varieties already in the house.

So we started to look around.

Then another idea presented itself and that was to have a "live edge" on the seat portion versus a sawn finished edge. Live edge means that the natural edge of the slab is used. In this case minus any bark.

So the search was on, to find a live edge slab of a "darker" wood variety that would be large enough to encircle the fireplace. I check out a couple of places in southern Colorado; Collector's Wood specialties, near Gardner and The Wood Works in Canon City. CWS had what we were looking for but the price was way out of our ballpark and WW didn't have the type of slab we needed, but I will think about them for a future road gate arch project.

So I turned to a couple of sources used many times in building this house; Craigslist and EBay. After a few weeks of mining their sales and auctions I found some intriguing wood being offer out of Crescent City California. The slabs were gleaned old growth curly redwood. It seems that Dan at Curly Woods would remove wood and stumps left after the areas redwood groves were cut in the late 1800's-early 1900's. This was before today's forestry techniques and practices had come in to play, where virtually every part of the tree would be used and the area cleaned up before re-seeding.

After talking with Dan a number of times I ended up buying a large slab of curly redwood and the a 5' slabbed log, all 3" thick. Dan loaded it on a pallet and shipped it to me.

Once it was transferred to the pickup I was surprised that it still had an aroma.

Because of its age it has darkened to a nice color, but should lighten up a little after it is smoothed and sanded.

Now the work begins.

I will need to edge glue two slabs in order to form the cap mantle. These slabs will be edge finished on the outside with a few degree undercut.

Once it is the proper size and smoothed it will be set on the fireplace and the stone veneer outline will be scribed on the bottom. I then plan on routing out the scribed area to a 3/4" depth, that way it will sit around the top of the stone veneer.

The seat slab will be where I think most of the work will take place. The slabs measurements are in line with what I need, but the nature of a live edge presents the challenge to see if there is a better way to display it and if that way will cover the needed area.

After looking at it in the "flesh" versus a picture the best layout may bring it up a couple of inches to narrow. If that's the case I plan to cut the fireplace slot narrow and then scarf joint it on the exposed edge to gain the needed width. At least that is my plan now. This weekend I will template the seat area and then overlay it on the slab to see what works.

Once I get it to the right size, it too will be set, scribed and routed to sit down and around the stone veneer.

The plan right now is to finish the pieces with a Tung and Linseed oil mixture, that I tend to use on everything. I will keep you all posted as to my progress.

I will also use pieces of the redwood to trim the vertical fireplace to wall area.