Aesthetics of Reclaimed Scaffolding Boards
The reclaimed scaffolding boards which we use for some of our commissions are super quirky and no two are ever the same.We make furniture from all sorts of traditional furniture making timber (which need no explanation)… but the reclaimed scaffolding boards, which have become a big trend recently, are unusual and need a bit of explanation, so here goes….They are always warped and twisted… no board is ever the same and they are never the same thickness or depth throughout their length… this is their characteristic because they were never sawn in the timber mills to be made into furniture… no cabinet maker wants to work with them for this reason, but a trend has arisen where they have become desirable for their quirks despite the challenges they present in working with… this is one of the reasons the cost of the furniture made using them can be expensive (the other, in our case, is that everything we make is bespoke)…Their are countless examples of warped and twisted features in the reclaimed scaffolding board furniture we produce (and in the samples we send out), but we ensure that everything that we make is fit for purpose and in our eyes beautiful… if you want something perfectly consistent we wouldn’t advise you to commission reclaimed scaffolding boards as the substrate for the build… we can, and do, use traditional furniture making timbers for commissions and you can see examples of oak, walnut, birch, ply etc on our website and in our online stores…We believe that this non-uniformity is the beauty… but we never allow the non-uniformity to overstep aesthetic and functional boundaries…
They have had a colourful life on building sites and often display some of the following “imperfections”. We think these are actually “perfections” and the reason the timber has so much character and appeal! We know that some of these may or may not be to everyones’ taste though so we ask our clients to read this page and indicate which characteristics they love or hate…
Remnants of paint the scaffolding company use to identify their boards…
Metal bracing which is pneumatically applied to the ends of the boards to guard against them splitting… it’s almost flush with the surface of the wood, but not quite, so we don’t use boards with this strapping in it if it would be likely to affect the finished products performance eg on a table where it would make a plate or glass unstable…
The marks left in the wood once the metal strapping in the photograph above has been removed…
Distressed metal ‘End Band’ used by scaffolding yards to identify their boards…
Nail holes in the end of the boards once the ‘End Band’ has been removed…
Splits in the wood…
‘Biscuit Stitching’ We use this to strengthen splits in the boards or just for decorative purposes !
Rust Stains…
Chunks of wood missing !
Saw marks…
Variations in colour…
Burn marks…