Red Oak Faux Mantle

Hey all! its been quite a while since ive posted anything so here is my latest piece. My sister-in-law was in need of a shelf to hang stockings for Christmas so my brother asked me if I could make something. Here is the result.

Made from Red Oak with through mortise and tenon joinery. Wood came from a big box store and i got pretty lucky with some good straight pieces. I used a cleat to hang it on the wall. I wanted the cleat to be hidden from view so I decided to take a piece 3/4” by 3.5” and cut the cleat out of that piece. It is .5” thick by about 2.5” tall. Since the curf of the blade was about 1/8” the bottom of the cleat will naturally sit above the bottom inside edge of the mantle as you can see in the 3rd picture.

The turned supports on the inside are both cosmetic and structural. When i cut out the cleat I was left with an 1/8” by 2.5” piece that decided to curve in. So to correct that warping I turned 4 vertical supports and 3 horizontal pieces to go between them to give me a good straight edge. The mantle came out to be 4 feet long by 9” high and 7.25” deep. Finished with General Finishes Brown Mahogany Gel Stain and Minwax semi gloss poly.

This project was a challenge in getting everything in proportion to each other and in practicing hand cut joinery. All in all Im happy with how it turned out and so is my brother and his wife :) Questions, comments, critiques are welcome!