Michael Black holds a plank of wood that came from his grandparents' old barn in Ohio. His fingers dance along the weather-beaten surface.

Black's grandmother had planned to burn the board, along with the rest of the barn, after a heavy snowfall last winter ended its useful days on the family tobacco farm.

Black had a better idea for the Eastern black walnut. When he heard his grandmother's 150-year-old barn was about to be burned down, he merged his passions for building and conservation into Black's Farmwood, a new company that reclaims old wood for building. "Our main purpose is to intercept barns taken to landfills or burned," explained Black.

A 29-year-old UC Santa Cruz graduate, Black was working part time as a carpenter when he noticed the waste of resources in building projects. He launched the business in January and has since provided rustic wood for remodeling jobs in the San Francisco Bay Area. Black lives in Marin County, but his vice president, Lance mcCardle of Aptos, is building a presence in Santa Cruz County. "The stuff we use is recycled and reclaimed," mcCardle says. "We encourage sustainable sources. We're not chopping trees."

mcCardle thumbs through the pages of design magazines showing Santa Fe-style homes and mountain cabins that use hand-hewn beams for unique interiors. The men say it's their market niche. The authentic old barn wood is not only naturally beautiful, but also often longer and wider than today's lumber cuts. It is used more for decoration than structural purposes.