When Ringgold, Georgia, carpenter Danny Brown makes a table at his store, Cotton Gin Antiques, he isn’t looking for lumber that’s been freshly cut.
He only uses wood that has outlived its original purpose.
“New wood hasn’t had a chance to harden up yet,” said Brown, as he pulled out a piece of lumber with nails sticking out of it. “I want to see where it was cut with a circular saw, I want to be able to feel the grooves.”
This is a mindset that is popular among many carpenters nowadays, but for Brown, it’s more than just a preference. It’s a part of his story.
Brown has been the owner of Cotton Gin Antiques on High Street in Ringgold for six years. Before renting out the place, which was a functioning cotton gin from 1929 until some time during the 1960s, he owned a car lot in Lafayette, Georgia. Then an injury that introduced him to pain pills left him addicted to opiates.