Giving New Life to a Vanishing Resource

When most people think about recycling, they usually think of the glass, plastics, paper and metal cans they set out at home or put in containers at work. But there is another kind of recycling that has been going on at The Joinery Co. in North Carolina, for a lot longer than most curbside collection programs. For more than 50 years, The Joinery Co. has been recycling one of America’s oldest and most beautiful natural resources – The Virgin Forest.

Reclaiming 200 year old Timbers

When abandoned factories and textile mills across the country are taken down, The Joinery Co. reclaims the old timbers from these massive structures. From these timbers, Joinery craftsmen create beautiful, long-lasting products that range from floors to fine furniture. “We painstakingly handcraft many of our products with mallet and chisel in much the same way the wood was originally worked by master craftsmen hundreds of years ago,” says President and Founder of The Joinery Co., Dewey Hudson.

Hand-milling and hand-building unique Products

The Joinery creates handmade products from more than 20 antique and rare woods. Flooring, staircases, moldings, and doors are all enhanced by careful attention to detail. Color and grain matching, balance, and symmetry are the hallmarks of each and every Joinery product. To process the timbers, Joinery craftsmen remove all metal and foreign debris and then cut away all defects before the timbers are sawn into fresh new planks. Then, all of these boards are straightened with laser-guided saws.

Two of The Joinery’s success stories include the authentic heart pine floors for the King’s Arms Tavern and other buildings in Colonial Williamsburg, Va and the heart pine materials and mahogany planks for the Rose Hill Plantation Conference Center near Nashville, NC. The company constructs these items in much the same way the originals were made centuries ago. The Nashville project has continued over a ten-year period and includes the addition of a major wing with windows, doors, raised paneling, and even a custom-designed pool table in solid mahogany.

Largest Reclamation Project

Considered the largest reclamation project of its kind in the 20th century, The Joinery’s most ambitious undertaking to date is the purchase and reclamation of more than 12 million board feet of the highest quality antique pine from the massive framework of the venerable Sears, Roebuck and Company Catalog Building in Chicago. The wood was originally harvested at the turn of the nineteenth century from virgin forests near Bogalusa, Louisiana. At 5 million square feet, the Sears complex was the largest post and beam building ever built.

“By recycling these rare, magnificent old timbers, we are giving a second life to the beauty that once was the virgin forest. And, by holding to the hand-building traditions of our forefathers, we are preserving the beautiful art of fine craftsmanship for future generations to enjoy,” said Hudson.

Potential customers who look over The Joinery’s full-color catalog and sample kit containing Reclaimed Heart Pine and 20 other unique reclaimed species will probably agree with the brochure’s concluding statement: “Let us show you the beauty of recycling. Once you see it, you’ll never look at wood the same way again”.

For more information about The Joinery Co., contact us at 1-252-823-3306.