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.
"It took everything from me," Brown said, inside of the shop area where he now makes his popular tables. "I just want anyone struggling with any addiction, whether it's pills, or alcohol, or whatever, to know that God can save you. I know because he saved me."
Brown will celebrate nine years of sobriety in December.
Six years ago, he approached the owner of the old cotton gin and asked about renting the place. He set up shop, finding things that had been discarded and giving them new life.
Two years later, he began to make tables out of repurposed wood.
"This doesn't feel like work to me at all. I just love it, whether it's making tables or searching for junk, I just can't believe this is work," Brown said as he set about putting his next table together.
Contact Troy Stolt at tstolt@timesfreepress.com.