Rustic Wooden Picture frames

If you look regularly at my Website you’ve probably noticed I’ve become obsessed with using this lovely old boardwalk oak!

I was fortunate enough to come across a large amount of this old reclaimed oak at the start of the summer, it had been used for a boardwalk down to the sea where I live on Hayling Island.

After handing over rather alot of money to own it we piled it into our vans and then spent two whole days grinding off the metalwork that held the boards together and hours stacking it into my container which is now about to burst at its seams.

Unfortunately the oak is coated with a hardcore grit to stop people slipping when they walked over it, each board has to be blowtorched to remove the grit then I need to grind off the resin to get it back to bare wood, the end result is stunning however!

If you’ve ever wondered why authentic reclaimed wood is expensive then this is why, it doesn’t come ready to use, whether it's an old beam that needs to be milled up or salvaged floorboards, most of the timber needs to be processed, all of the metal work needs to be removed, nails that have been in the timber for hundreds of years have to be pulled out often snapping inside the wood, often the wood needs to be treated for woodworm, paint has to be stripped off and so on.

All of this takes alot of time, blades and chisels have to be repeatedly sharpened or renewed, one missed nail in a board can ruin an expensive saw blade, often the old wood has a mind of its own too and can explode while it's being cut, all adding time and frustration to your day!

It is a labour of love working with reclaimed wood but I wouldn't want to do anything else, the pleasure in seeing the end result when you’ve spent way too long on a single piece of wood is worth it, cleaning up a plank of wood that has been caked in dirt for hundreds of years never gets tiresome and knowing it's going off to hang on someones wall as a picture frame for years makes all the filthy backbreaking hardwork worth it. 😊