Using hardwood logs for decorative purposes in a fireplace?

[SPinonit]

Does anyone have any experience or knowledge of using hardwood logs in a fireplace purely for decorative purposes?

We have a fireplace in a modern house, which does not lend itself to a proper wood/log fire and I want to stack logs in the space to make it look better than the empty space it currently is.

I've seen a few places and pictures where this has been done, but I [think I] know that you can't just use any old log and that it has to be properly dried and free of bugs. So, I am guessing that I can't just nip down to one of the large forests near here and collect some logs, but I'd appreciate any steer in the right direction.

This is the type of thing I'm looking for, but I don't think I can justify the cost these would work out at (or am I being incredibly naïve / tight?).

 

[andersonec]

Have you any saw mills in your locality, I got 4 oak trunks 4m long by 120mm (ish) for a fiver each from one near me (Lincolnshire)

 

[SPinonit]

A search on Yell (dot com) shows a couple of saw mills only a few miles away. They look as though they can supply the type of wood & log I'd be after, but what about dryness and bugs? Can they usually supply kiln dried or will I need to check with each?

Thanks, Steve

 

[clewlowm]

hi, i used to do the same thing in my shopfiting days. we used to fix the logs to an mdf backing board, that way you only need small sections of log.