Custom Rustic Fireplace Mantels Made In Valley Mills, Texas!
Cedar - Mesquite - Walnut - Oak - Pecan and More!
Mantels up to 12 feet long - Made To Order!

For questions or a quote please use the email below.

Mon - Thur 9-4
Fri - Sat 9-3
Sunday 1-4

Aubrey Stringer is an "Old School Woodsmith". He creates custom, one-of-a-kind wooden fireplace mantels and other fine objects from a variety of wood native to Texas. He doesn't use a computer. In fact he doesn't own a computer or a smart-phone. If you want to communicate with him you'll have to Email Aubry, stop by his shop, write him or call him on his flip-phone. Most of the tools he owns and uses are so old that he probably couldn't sell them if he wanted to. He is lucky enough to be doing something he loves and that love shows in his work. His fireplace mantels are amazing in their quality and workmanship.

Valley Mills Mantels - How It All Began

Valley Mills mantel-making enterprise draws customers
Written by Ken Sury of the Waco Tribune

It was as a young boy that Aubrey Stringer first remembers being fascinated with sawmills.

Today, after years in construction, he owns a sawmill in Valley Mills and the fireplace mantels he creates have become a burgeoning business.

The Woodway resident said his early memories of the noise and smells of a sawmill in action came in 1948 when he was 6. He was spending two weeks with his grandmother in Linden in East Texas.

His uncle, Jerome Eller, owned a warehouse that supplied oil and diesel to sawmills in the area. His uncle let him ride with one of his drivers in a truck as it made its deliveries throughout Cass County.

On their stops at sawmills, Stringer said he had to have a rope tied around him to keep him from wandering too far from the truck . He was fascinated by the noise of the diesel engines powering the machines and the sawdust flying through the air.

“I wanted a sawmill when I was 6,” he said. “Now I own one.”

Stringer has been making mantels for the last five years as he’s been getting out of the construction business.

The 1960 Waco High School graduate’s love of woodworking dates back to his school days and classes with Fritz Linnstaedter.

Though he had Linnstaedter for regular shop classes, his study hall coincided with Linnstaedter’s conference period. He used that time to get one-on-one instruction on power tools, such as a 48-inch band saw, that the other students couldn’t get.

But now he gets to indulge that woodworking passion at his own sawmill, located just off the intersection of Highways 6 and 56. A large circular saw blade helps visitors spot it quickly.

It’s about the location

Stringer, 71, had owned another sawmill on Highway 6, but that didn’t have the traffic that his current location does.

He said he can thank Interstate 35 construction for the current uptick in business.

To avoid much of the interstate construction around Waco, drivers from Dallas and Fort Worth are exiting I-35 around Hillsboro and going west to Whitney on State Highway 22. From there, they can pick up Highway 56 and head south into Valley Mills, then connect with Highway 317 through McGregor and Belton before reconnecting with the interstate.

That’s been great for business, Stringer said, because a number of drivers, while sitting at the stop sign where Highways 56 and 6 meet, often would spot Stringer’s shop. Intrigued, they would turn around and check out his shop, often striking up a conversation with Stringer.

“I’ve met some pretty interesting people this way,” he said, adding that he enjoys the conversation, though it slows down his work.

On one occasion the pilot for billionaire Ross Perot stopped in, and they got to talking, Stringer recalled. The pilot ended up buying a countertop.

He jokes that he better catch these drivers now before that stretch of construction is completed and they won’t use that Highway 56 detour anymore.

“I probably have two good years before they finish the (highway) work,” he said.

Mantel-making and more

While making fireplace mantels is his priority, he does make different items from time to time.

He recalls a woman asking he could make centerpieces — 2-inch-thick blocks of wood about 12 inches in diameter — for a wedding reception. He was hesitant to do it, wondering if it was worth his time. Stringer decided to ask how many she would need.

When she said 138, “I rethought about making centerpieces,” he said with a laugh. She told friends about it, and he’s done subsequent orders of 30 to 40 centerpieces per request.

Many of his mantels have been in demand for larger, expensive homes.

The largest he’s ever made, a 10½-foot-long mantel out of red oak, came from a tree out of Cameron Park.

It’s going in the homeowner’s $1 million trophy room that he’s adding to his house, Stringer said.

But he’s also had buyers who didn’t even have a fireplace in their home.

“I had one lady tell me, ‘It’s looks so pretty. I’m just gonna put it on the wall,’” he said.

Likewise, he had another mantel find a place in a mobile home of all places.

Stringer’s mantels are custom-made, and the process begins with a trip to the back of his shop. There, logs of different woods — mesquite, cedar, pecan, walnut, red oak and white oak — are lined up along the ground to be chosen for the project at hand.

Among the logs sitting in the back of his shop on a recent visit, the most impressive is a black walnut 34 inches in diameter.

He’ll work with nearly any type of wood, except live oak, which splits too easily, he said.

Mesquite and cedar are the best, he said, because they are softer and are the most forgiving when making cuts.

The log is rolled onto the bandmill, and after it is secured, Stringer pushes the bandmill’s blade across the log for the initial cuts. After that, the piece goes through a planer to smooth it out. It is then sanded, making the surface even smoother before getting a hand-rubbed oil finish applied.

Stringer said he can turn out one to two mantels a day by himself, though it could take longer to achieve the final product until the finish cures completely.

One-stop shopping

He likes to call what he does a “vertically integrated business.”

“It goes from tree to final product under one roof,” he said.

Stringer stresses that the logs at his business are delivered from tree services, mostly from Waco and Woodway.

“Some of the prettiest logs come out of Woodway,” he said.

Occasionally, an individual might sell him a log that came from that person’s property, but Stringer said he would never cut down a live tree for the purpose of creating one of his mantels.

Stringer likes to keep a supply of mantels in stock for those drivers stopping by his sawmill. He wants to create a showroom there to better display his mantels.

“People like a showroom,” he said. “I think they like to see the possibilities for how a mantel can look.”

One thing missing from his sawmill business is a name, he said.

“I need a good, snappy name,” he said. “It needs to be something that people won’t forget.”

The reason?

“My goal is to make Valley Mills the place to buy fireplace mantels,” he said.

You can read the original article here: www.wacotrib.com

Contact Information

For questions or a quote: Telephone: 254-722-4881

Valley Mills Mantels by Aubrey Stringer
Corner of Highways 6 and 56
108 South 4th Street
Valley Mills, Texas

Map to Aubrey Stringer's Sawmill & Valley Mills Mantels in Valley Mills, Texas

Valley Mills Mantels Showroom

Unlike many businesses which sell mantel and only carry a few mantels for you to view, Valley Mills Mantels has a huge selection of mantels to choose from in their rustic showroom. If you don't see what you want talk to Aubrey and he can make it for you. Choose your mantel size and wood then let Aubrey create it for you.

Custom Rustic Fireplace Mantels Made In Valley Mills, Texas!
Cedar - Mesquite - Walnut - Oak - Pecan and More!
Mantels up to 12 feet long - Made To Order!

 

This website was created by Jim Radcliffe as a "Thank You" to Aubrey Stringer for his time, knowledge and a few good pieces of wood.
Besides, these days a man of his talent needs a website so others can find him and enjoy his mantels in their homes.

Thanks to Ken Sury of the Waco Tribune for allowing the use of his original article to be reproduced on this website.