Incredible Hand Carved Mantels

Lounging around the fireplace on a frigid evening is simply wonderful. The roaring fire helps take the cool air out of the room while creating ambience. Although fireplaces are meant to be practical, they should also be attractive, establishing a unique focus. This has become as true in the South where winters are limited as well as in the long cold blustery winters of the North. Fireplaces, with alluring mantel shelves and surrounds have become as much or more about artistic design than a source of warmth.

Wooden mantel surrounds and shelves have long been a popular choice for hundreds of years and have not lost their popularity among homeowners. If anything, their appeal has increased. Cabinet manufacturers and millworks companies, as a result, have become accustom to crafting unique custom surrounds and shelves for their clients. The advantage of a custom piece is to meet the design and size requirements for every client.

In the past, cabinet builders and millworks companies were unable, however, to build a hand carved mantel shelf or surround. Most homeowners are unable to consider the possibility of a hand carved mantel due to the problem of locating a capable craftsman and because of the cost associated with crafting such a piece.

Engineers have designed machinery that will carve wood (as well as other materials). Much of the current methodology is based in CNC (Computer Numeric Controlled) technology - essentially, router robots that mill wood following computer generated three-dimensional drawings. Even as technical as these methods are, they can never completely reproduce hand carved work. The subtle nuances and imperfections of a professional artisan are not possible in today's impersonal mass production based manufacturing. Master carvers have the ability to carve undercuts and minute details and shapes not possible with the steel tooling used in CNC machines. The differences between the two approaches - CNC and hand carving - are apparent even to casual observers.

The good news is that there are master carvers in other countries that continue to engage their incredible skills and make available to the US markets their wares at reasonable prices. And though these are not custom made for each and every circumstance, they are crafted to fit most fireplace openings. If a particular fireplace opening requires additional height, hand carved mantel extensions can be added to increase the height of the mantel surround. Of course, this is not an problem with a mantel shelf since it rests above the fireplace and does not continue to the floor. Mantel shelves will accomodate most fireplace openings and can be customized further with hand carved corbels and other hand carved embellishments. So if you are going for a genuine hand carved mantel surround or mantel shelf, they can still be found for an affordable price here in the USA. If you appreciate not only the warm glow a fireplace in Winter, you can also appreciate a beautiful hand carved work of art whether the fire is burning or not.