BRISTOL, Tenn. — Hunter Dannhardt puts his heart into the wood he works — wood that comes from the heart of the Appalachian Mountains.
Dannhardt, 27, has always called Bristol home. Craftsmanship runs in his family; he learned woodworking and metalworking at a young age from his father and both grandfathers. What he didn’t learn from them, Dannhardt has picked up along the way through experience. Now, he works out of his grandfather’s old shop, behind his grandparents’ former house, which is now owned by his mother.
After tooling around with wood and metal for years, Dannhardt decided to make his hobby a business. Just less than a year ago, he created Appalachian Reclaimed, a hometown business that creates unique works of art from lumber and metal salvaged from old barns and buildings across the region. Two high school friends, Blake Sneed and Josh Stewart, help him with the work.
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“The idea for the business started out when we helped a little old lady to take a barn down,” Dannhardt said. “She wasn’t sure if she wanted the barn down because it had been in the family forever, but in a few years the barn would have fallen down anyway. So we offered to take some of the wood and make her something that would last forever.”
From that project, a new business was born. Now, Appalachian Reclaimed has torn down old barns and outbuildings across the region, including Mountain City, Brumley Gap, Bristol, Blountville and more. They also sometimes purchase wood from local sawmills. The sky is the limit as to what they can create from the repurposed materials — signs, chairs, tables, frames, entertainment centers — anything the client can imagine.
“We appeal to a broad base of people,” Sneed said. “Everybody likes this stuff. Even if you have crazy ideas, even if you think they’re totally crazy, we can still make it happen. We’ll attempt about anything.”
Though the team does salvage some old metal — for example, they often reuse items like old table stands or hardware they find — a lot of the metal they use is new and purchased from local businesses. But Dannhardt says at least 90 percent of the wood they use is reclaimed.
“The old saw marks or just the color that comes out of old wood, that’s what I like about it,” he explained. “I love the character in old wood, the story behind each piece you make. The more character it has, the more I want to use it. I love things like knotholes and saw marks that most people avoid.”
Most of the work produced by Appalachian Reclaimed is commissioned — individuals and businesses give them an idea or a picture of what they want, and the guys turn it into reality. On average, they produce about 10 pieces a week, and they have pieces in many businesses across the Tri-Cities.
“His work is impeccable,” praised Brenda Borsch of Manna Bagel in Bristol, Virginia.
Dannhardt recently finished building all new tables for the State Street restaurant.
“Not only is Hunter a good guy with a good heart, but he puts his heart and soul into this wood and makes it his own. You won’t find anything else like it.”
One piece Dannhardt put a lot of heart into is the new “LOVE” sign located at Heartwood: Southwest Virginia’s Artisan Gateway in Abingdon. The wood-and-metal letters stand 7 feet tall and are 16 feet long; Dannhardt also created a similar “SWVA” sign on the other side of Heartwood.
The LOVE piece is the latest LOVEwork in Virginia; there are 65 artistic renderings in giant letters at locations around the state as an extension of the slogan “Virginia is for lovers.”
“We have really enjoyed working with Hunter and we love that his products are local,” said Jenna Wagner, marketing director of Friends of Southwest Virginia. “He does a great job handcrafting his work and really everything that he has created for us has been from wood and metal that are local to the Southwest Virginia region. It’s such a cool story that he is from Bristol originally, grew up here, and is now helping the community development all across the region by supporting local businesses through his artwork.”
Dannhardt says Appalachian Reclaimed has big plans after the first of the year with hopes to expand their shop, compete in the Washington County Small Business Challenge, and maybe even open a shop that would offer memberships allowing individuals to come and use the equipment and even take classes.
For now, a long list of custom build projects are on the immediate horizon, as this only 8-month-old business has already won the hearts of the people in the Tri-Cities.