I'm Aaron. This is what I do.

I started Wabash Lumber in 2013 after moving home from the Navy.

I’d already spent years around job sites, sawmills, and old houses that were built to last. Working with wood wasn’t a hobby — it was something I kept coming back to because it made sense to me: real materials, real consequences, honest work.

Over time, I worked in reclaimed lumber, commercial millwork, and custom fabrication. I learned what holds up, what fails quietly, and what ends up costing people twice.

Mantels kept standing out — the one piece in a room that isn’t just decorative. It’s structural, visual, and permanent. You notice when it’s right. You really notice when it’s wrong.

Today Wabash Lumber is small by design. No factory. No overseas sourcing. No layers of management. Just carefully selected white oak beams, traditional hand-hewn work, and finishes done properly.

It’s still my name on the line for every order.

This isn’t decorative woodworking.

That slab weighs more than most finished mantels.

Working with material like this teaches you fast: grain matters, moisture matters, internal stress matters. Mistakes don’t show up right away — they show up months later, when something twists, cracks, or pulls itself apart.

That’s the side of woodworking most people never see.

I’ve spent years handling large timbers and heavy stock where tolerances actually matter and failure costs real money. That experience quietly shapes how I choose beams, how long they rest, how they’re machined, and how they’re finished.

A mantel is smaller than this. But the standards are the same.

From barns and beams to one simple product.

Wabash Lumber originally built its name on reclaimed lumber, custom flooring, paneling, custom furniture — the whole catalog.

Customers loved the story. They loved the material. But the mantel was always the centerpiece.

So I simplified.

Now we do one thing: hand-hewn white oak fireplace mantels, in a few proven sizes and finishes, done properly.

No distractions. No trendy junk. Just a product I can stand behind.

Built on Craft, Community, and Service

  • Indiana Based

    Wabash Lumber is operated in Lafayette, Indiana — not a dropship brand, not a faceless warehouse. This is a small, real shop serving customers across the country, with roots planted firmly in the Midwest since 2013.

    Local pickup is available. Real phone numbers. Real accountability.

  • 13 Years in the Trade

    Since 2013, I’ve worked hands-on in the wood world — sourcing material, breaking down heavy timbers, machining, sanding, finishing, packing, and shipping real product to real customers.

    That daily repetition teaches you what lasts, what fails, and what “good enough” actually looks like when it has to survive installs and real homes.

  • Veteran Owned Small Business

    Before Wabash Lumber existed, I served in the U.S. Navy, including boots-on-ground deployment to Iraq.

    That experience shaped how I work: show up prepared, finish what you start, take responsibility when things go sideways, and don’t hide from hard problems.

    This business is run with the same mindset.