Tom Baker is a third-generation Gunnedah farmer who put his tractor-driving days behind him to build a thriving reclaimed timber furniture-making business.

Not that he ever imagined a career off the farm, let alone in carpentry.

“No, before then I'd never touched a hammer,” said Tom, whose interest arose only after seeing old farm shed timbers being razed and burned.

“I was working on a corporate farm and they started pulling down all the shed and just burning everything,” said Tom, who decided he couldn’t stand by and let it happen.

“It was just the potential; you could do things with it — and there was masses of it. So, I just started taking time off work and taking the timber out.”

Tom started to build a few tables on his days off and it wasn’t long before someone asked him to make one for them.

“I got one order, then the next and it just kept growing and getting bigger and bigger… I didn't even mean to start it! It just took off and I was really lucky in a sense, because it was at a time when the farm was selling and it was dry, we were in drought and there wasn't much work to do on the farm.”

Four years later, Tom has relocated his business, TK Reclaimed, to a workshop at Spring Terrace and the orders keep coming in.

“It has doubled every year since I started,” said Tom, who is now considering hiring someone to help him out in the workshop.

“I think there is a throwback; people are over consumerism and that turnover of products... they want something real that you can touch and feel as opposed to something made only to last a couple of years and then throw away so I think there is a big call for it.

“People want to recycle more and that's a big part of it… people want a real product and something Australian made.

“And it is satisfying when I see a finished table, making something out of nothing. Here was something that was going to get burnt down, wasted or torn down and all I did was spend the time just to go and get it.”