![]() “You can hardly count the rings,” he says. When artist and craftsman Bill Long runs his hand along the edge of virgin cypress recovered from the bottom of a Lowcountry river, there’s reverence in his touch. Precious few remnants of that bygone era can still be found, and those that can are mostly preserved at the bottom of rivers way down deep where the currents run strong and the only light is the light you bring with you. The trees that made it were changed by the experience, made incredibly strong. Saplings fought to find the sunlight, shedding lower limbs to break through the canopy. There was a time when the bottomland forests of the southeastern United States were vast and dense. Preserving what was once lost and special appeals to Long, who often fashions furniture around a signature feature of the wood- even an imperfection, like a knot or a pecky (a pecky is a hole in cypress caused by a fungus).īorn Again Heartwoods transforms lost wood into exquisite art Long uses only period techniques to create furniture that could fool even the most vigilant experts on the Antiques Roadshow.Įvery piece of furniture he creates is one of a kind, because every piece of wood has its own unique history. He has been creating and restoring “pieces of art that happen to be furniture” for 40 years. Partner Bill Long traded his suit and tie for the life of a craftsman. Having come of age in his dad’s farm equipment business, he knows how to fashion an apparatus that will hoist timber from river depths and how to dry wood that’s been soaking up water since before George Washington was born. He also does his homework to learn where the old sawmills once stood. ![]() Growing up hunting and fishing these parts, he knows the byways that support his habit. His dingy, sawmill, pontoon boat and winch-not to mention hundreds of drying pieces of lumber-sit on the 10 acres of property where he was raised and his parents still live. It turns out that Justin Herrington was just the man for the job. So what would possess a college-educated native of Meggett, South Carolina, to search the ribbons of water around his home for “sinker logs” and wrestle them onto shore? Why would he invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in equipment and permits to dig up these sleeping giants? And how did he learn the techniques? “People come for the story but leave with quality and beauty,” Herrington says. In Herrington’s and Long’s hands, the timbers have new stories to tell as they become tables, cabinets, bar tops, flooring and paneling, artwork and more. They were here when Romans ruled the world and Jesus was crucified. Some were around when East Asians marched across the land bridge from Russia to Alaska. After all, these trees date as far back as the Bronze Age. But the unique value of these reclaimed timbers might lie in what we think about when we view them. ![]() Soft or hard, old-growth lumber is strong, and, having been preserved underwater for centuries, it emerges from the depths prepared for a second act better than new-growth or farm-raised timber could ever be.īecause trees aren’t being harvested, Born Again Heartwoods is the ultimate green business. Because old-growth trees competed fiercely for sunlight, they grew slowly and their annual rings crowded together. Yet, Herrington’s resurrected wood is just as durable. Old-growth virgin cypress siding covers historical Charleston homes, and heart pine beams continue to support the roofs of homes south of Broad Street- homes that have weathered devastating winds and war over the years. So begins the life of the wood that Herrington and his partner, furniture maker Bill Long, fashion into gorgeous furniture, floor planks and more. Those virgin forests have been wiped out, so the wood Herrington dredges is irreplaceable. In the process of felling old-growth trees with axes and lashing them together for their trip downstream, loggers left hundreds of sections to roll away or sink, only to be discovered and retrieved by an intrepid and enterprising 21st-century entrepreneur. Early European settlers used the tidal flows to transport their quarry to the many sawmills that dotted the waterfront in those days. ![]()
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