I have a barn beam mantel that fits snugly between the ends of a brick recessed fireplaced. This beam is about 8' long by 10" by 8", or about 3.3 Cubic Feet of wood, assumed to be pine as it came from some loal barn in central New Jersey. I suppose it could be fir as well.

I am thinking about removing this very rustic beam and installing a more finished looking mantel, still I hate to distroy the barn beam, that is I will try to remove it in one piece.

As it is rather large and as I will have to pull it out from the recess, I will suddenly be confronted with holding the beam in the air, more or less by myself. This makes me wonder how much it may weigh. From a web reference I see Pine is about 30 pounds per cubic foot, or the beam weighs no more than 100 pounds.

Any comment on estimate of the weight would be very welcome.

Thanks,

Jerry