Advice on pegs for mantle needed

[Rick Schubert]

I have a fireplace mantle that is a 6"x6" pine beam 12 feet long. The installer bolted it into the stone and wall by drilling eight 5/8" holes in the beam. I'd like to fill those holes with pegs to make it look rustic, but I think 5/8" pegs would look too small. (It is a large granite firplace at my cabin.)

I could insert 5/8" pegs into the holes flush with the beam and then drill 1" holes for large 1" pegs, but I'm wondering if there is a better way. Any ideas how to reduce a 1" dowel to 5/8" part way so I would have an inch of 5/8' diameter to insert in the hole and 3/8" of 1" diameter to stick out of the hole and look like a 1" peg? Does this make any sense??

Any other ideas? Could I just glue a 5/8" dowel piece to a 1" piece? These are strickly for appearance.

Thanks, Rick

[Jamie Buxton]

The obvious answer is to put the 1" dowel on your lathe, and turn part of it down to 5/8", but I'm guessing you don't have a lathe...

If you just glue a piece of 1" dowel on the end of a 5/8", the glue surface is all end-grain. Most wood glues don't stick well to end grain, but it your case it just might work. There is no stress on the glue line, and it is strictly decorative. Make a test case, and stress it to see if you like the result.

A way to make the above joint much stronger is to drill a 5/8" diameter hole into the back side of the 1" cap. Then you get face-grain to face-grain glue surface around the perimeter of the hole. Use a forstner bit with as short a pilot spur as you can find to avoid going through the front. You should be able to get .1" depth, which will help a lot.

A third approach is to use a Miller dowel to connect the 1" piece to the 5/8 piece. It would be very strong. If it is the same species as your pegs, it wouldn't be very noticeable. If it is a different species, you'd have a dot of contrasting color in the middle of the 1" peg. Don't know about Miller dowels? They're fairly new. Check any online woodworking catalog.

[Rick Schubert]

You're right. I don't have a lathe.

Rick

[Mike Alagna]

how about inserting the 5/8 dowel into the mantel hole so that it sticks out an inch or so, then taking a 1 inch dowel and drilling a 5/8 hole in one end about an 1 1/4" and slide it over the 5/8 dowel.

[Dave Richards]

Rick, do you mean plugs or do you want them to stand out to perhaps hang fireplace tools on?

If you want plugs that are flush or nearly flush, I think your idea of plugging with 5/8" plugs and reboring for the 1" makes sense.

If you want pegs that stick out, Tyler's got a lathe he isn't using. Maybe he'd let you break it in.

[Dave Richards]

By the way, if you are putting in plugs, make sure the grain is oriented the same way as in the mantle.

Another cool thing would be to chop square holes and insert square plugs. They'd probably look great and if you set them in so the end grain shows, they'll look like pegs driven in to hold the mantle up.

In any case don't glue whatever you use in the holes. Use a bit of varnish to hold them in. They'll stay just fine but can be removed if you need to get the mantle off the wall.

[Rick Schubert]

Thanks all so far. Yeh, Dave, I'm trying to make this appear like the pegs are holding the mantle up. So they will be sticking past flush 3/8".

You think square pegs would look better than round? I hadn't thought of that.

Tyler probably wouldn't even notice if I borrowed his lathe for a few months.

Rick

[Dave Richards]

I think square pegs would be pretty cool. They'd look more like tenons. If the mantle is a bit on the rustic side, you might give them a few whacks with a mallet to make it look like they've been driven in.

Say, you don't happen to know a young doctor up that way who owns a Cape Dory do you?

[Wes Bischel]

Rick,
If you go with square pegs, you can whittle down the one end to the 5/8" diameter needed, then drive it in- kinda like they did in the old days.

Wes

[glenn bradley]

I like Mike A.'s idea. Easy and strong.

[Frank Fusco]

As suggested, do it the Neanderthal way, whittle. You can use a coping or hacksaw to start the tenons then just whittle away what you don't need. Precisness of the tenon is not a requirement, nobody will see them.

[Rick Schubert]

I think square pegs would be pretty cool. They'd look more like tenons. If the mantle is a bit on the rustic side, you might give them a few whacks with a mallet to make it look like they've been driven in.

Say, you don't happen to know a young doctor up that way who owns a Cape Dory do you?

Dave, Sorry I don't. I assume you mean in Grand Marais?

Rick

[Doug Shepard]

Dont know how rustic of a look you're going for, but I saw a similar fireplace once where the guy got some really big antique railroad spikes and cut an inch or so of the heads off to cover up holes where the lag bolts are. Cant remember how he fixed them in the holes, but the whole thing has the look of being driven onto the wall by John Brown with a sledge hammer. The guys kids hung their Christmas stockings from the spike heads.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Rick........if you decide you want something turned......Give me a drawing and if you'll pay or provide the material and shipping....I can turn them for you.