Resourcefulness and thoughtfulness: The Canberra business giving salvaged timber a new lease on life

For the love of timber, you must read on. Thor Diesendorf has dedicated his life to rescuing, recycling and reimagining timber for the masses; a modern-day superhero of sorts and the man behind Canberra business Thor’s Hammer.

From his British roots to the pavements of Lyneham, Thor’s put his hammer to use building benchtops, tables and furniture, crafting cladding, decks and doors, and artfully making architectural products, all the while using that faithful old material – timber.

“I first started learning about timber as a kid, watching my grandfather in his shed and passing him tools, sweeping up sawdust and holding boards steady for him,” Thor says.

“I bought an old Kombi ute with a friend and we started in business together, while I was at ANU, doing a bit of everything – gardening, landscaping, painting and carpentry, all with a sustainable ethos.”

Inspired by his father’s altruistic outlook on life, Thor put his mind and career to sustainability long before “eco-friendly items” entered mainstream discourse. He learnt to work with salvaged timber on a large scale in the 1990s, fossicking for unused timber from house demolition sites and local demolition companies.

Once liberated, Thor’s pieces not only get a new lease on life, they stop good wood going to waste and ending up in landfill. Resourcefulness and thoughtfulness are key pillars of the Thor’s Hammer brand, and everyone in the ever-growing team is committed to retaining some of the old patina and character of the original form.

“When we first started recycling timber, we used to put a lot of effort into hiding the nail holes by plugging the timber and choosing pieces carefully,” Thor says.

“That really started to change in the early 2000s and it’s great now how so many people are into the history of the timber and love to know about its past life.”

Take the recycled timber beams and cladding at Pialligo Estate. The mixed dense browns and tallowwood that make up the open-form terrace pergola you see in the gardens were sourced from old bridge timbers and re-sawn telegraph poles.

The pitched roof inside and arches outside are enmeshed with recycled blackbutt from re-milled house roof timbers salvaged from Sydney demolitions.

We asked Thor what it’s like to build his way into the history of our city and see his work on display across so many of Canberra’s iconic outposts, from a recycled kitchen in O’Connor to a leafy suburban deck in Canberra’s south and across to Weston to form a striking Japanese-inspired exterior.

“I think everyone in the Thor’s Hammer team gets a lot of satisfaction from that. There’s nothing like being out on the town and having a beer at a bar top or table you have made,” Thor says.

“There is also the fun of just saving something other people have been treating as waste and turning it into a beautiful table or kitchen benchtop. I think it’s a bit of a return to older-school values.”

If you’ll allow this one small pun, Thor’s hit the nail on the head with his approach to sustainable design. Now, more than ever, we need to be looking back to the past in order to see the future. By utilising practices of a time gone by, Thor’s work can be used and appreciated for as long as possible. And that’s why, after 25 years in the business, Thor’s Hammer is still standing strong.

Oh, and if you’re wondering about the name, no true Thor could ever be without his trusty hammer. You never know when or where some salvageable timber needs to be reduced.