The fine art of chiseling timber

Woodworking was a dying industry in Hong Kong until shifting sensibilities and a particularly fierce typhoon prompted a revival. Faye Bradley uncovers what matters most to today's woodwork aficionados.

HK EDITION | Updated: 2022-03-05 17:20
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Ricci Wong (left), HK TimberBank’s founder and CEO, and Secretary for the Environment Wong Kam-sing survey the raw materials left by Typhoon Mangkhut in 2018. [PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY]

Hong Kong was famous for manufacturing furniture between the 1950s and '80s, but demand declined thereafter as factories moved their operations to the Chinese mainland. New technologies came in, and the convenient binding power of glue and screws pushed out traditional methods. "As the economic paradigm shifted, many sawmills repositioned themselves to focus on waste recycling and wood renovation in Hong Kong," Luk explains.

By the end of the '80s, woodworking was a dying industry. However, a revival began after September 2018's Typhoon Mangkhut uprooted tens of thousands of trees. These would have ended up in a landfill were it not for the HK TimberBank, created with the mission to recycle dead trees by turning them into furniture, with support from local artisans.

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