What "Reclaimed Timber" Should Actually Mean in a Lighting Spec
"Reclaimed timber" shows up on a lot of spec sheets, and it means very little on its own. Offcuts, pallet wood and demolition salvage all qualify under the term, with wildly different implications for grain, stability and finish. It's worth asking what's actually behind the claim before it goes into a client-facing document.
Where the Wood Actually Comes From
In our case, the timber is turned from the legs of old charpai, the traditional woven daybeds found across Pakistani households, sourced by Anwar, a wood turner based in Mandi Bahauddin. These are frames that have already aged out of household use, not offcuts purchased specifically to satisfy a sustainability line item. As Anwar puts it: "Wood is in your blood — let it feed your family, and the future."
What Charpai Timber Means for Durability
A charpai leg has typically already spent years bearing daily weight and seasonal humidity changes as furniture before it ever reaches Anwar's workshop. That means the wood has already moved, settled and stabilised in ways that green or recently milled timber hasn't. Each piece is turned on the lathe, sanded and reshaped, then hand-painted: a process that works with the wood's existing character rather than forcing it into a uniform factory profile.
The Maker Behind It
Anwar works from a small workshop in Mandi Bahauddin, rescuing what would otherwise become waste and turning it into the structural core of our Char Pai pendant lights. The relationship is a straightforward economic one: continued demand supports his family directly and keeps the specific hand-turning skill viable for the apprentices working alongside him, rather than treating the craft as a one-generation novelty.
What This Means for Specification
Practically, this means every piece carries slightly different grain and colour, worth flagging to a client as a feature of the material rather than an inconsistency to correct. It also means the sustainability claim doesn't need qualifying: the timber was reclaimed before it was ever a lighting product, not repositioned as reclaimed after the fact.
If you're specifying for a project and want to discuss finish variation, lead times, or bespoke sizing, our trade team can talk it through directly.