Ridley native Tommy Knotts is always on the lookout for unique wooden logs that one day may become crown molding, a custom-built bar top, or a beautiful-sounding guitar, writes Pete Bannan for the Daily Times.

Knotts, also known as Tommy Worrilow III, runs Tommy Knotts Custom Woodworking and Sawmill in Aston.

“I’m looking for that very unique species that is the accent piece for your house,” Worrilow said.

The 43-year-old Cardinal O’Hara High School and Widener University graduate first got interested in trees when he cleared them from trails as a teen working summers at the Delaware County Parks Department.

He eventually hooked up with Joe Ball, a semi-retired high-end lumber buyer, who taught him the hidden secrets of wood.

Ball taught him to identify logs, how to find different ways to value the wood, and how to find people who would buy from him.

Worrilow has shipped Delaware County wood to California for a guitar maker, Idaho for table tops, and a guitar craftsman in New Zealand.

“The fact I can look at it and think it’s going to look like this when I put it on the saw. It’s like snowflakes. Each is unique”.

Read more about Tommy Worrilow in the Daily Times.

Here’s one way to use old wood.