Looking for that next conversation piece? Want to make something together? Drop Heff a line @ heffhardwood@gmail.com.
Hand Crafted Wood Tables and More
Feature: Custom Wood Cribbage Board
(click this image for more)
Summer 2020 Heff’s First Big Dining Table. At first it seemed like a colossal project, two nearly 9 foot long slabs, more than 2 inches thick and a heavy dense wood (black walnut) to boot. Have you heard of Janka Hardness? We engineer’s appreciate cool engineering properties of wood. In terms of density (weight per volume), and denting resistance (pounds per square inch) this one is UP there.
Summer 2022 - A great example of how primary color (Silver) mixes with secondary colors (gold, white) to create a unique flow. Want to see a video? Click this photo and scroll to the bottom.
Despite the color contrast it is all the same wood species. Fun fact: the wife’s original ring was made from black walnut. See the proposal story in the banner above.
October 2022: Ironically this kitchen countertop island was inspired by Heff’s Purple Island Table.
Winter 2021: Featured in a Lake Washington home, this table follows a familiar pattern: Fully coated with epoxy for a glossy shine and durability and featuring primary silver colors.
Made in December 2020: What makes this majestic? It’s spalting which is another term for mold. Sometimes mold is a good thing. In hardwood it leads to stunning colors. A great table starts with a beautiful slab. There are no fake live edges here. All natural beauty and my favorite color: blue!
June 2021: Building off the theme of a beautifully spalted slab, this client wanted a square table. With epoxy, just about every shape is possible. Similar to most others, the table top is flood coated with epoxy (durable, spill proof, hard to photograph).
November 2021: The “cookies” for this table came from a ravine, and a dead snag of a Big Leaf Maple Tree. The odd octagonal shape came from a desire to make this round without wasting too much extra product. But then Heff fell in love with the shape. Afterall the word Octagon is cooler than the word “Round”…right? Click to see more about the origins of the Purple Island Table
In October 2021 Heff’s first customers from Portland, Oregon came for a few hour visit to settle on a design, pick a slab and color. Big thanks to these folks for taking excellent final photos, and bonus points for including dogs in the photos. A+ for effort. More neutral colors were intended to match the decor. The table CAN match the drapes.
Is your hardwood table in need of a refinish? Heff can do this too. Are there old cracks that fill up with food, and bits of crayons and gross stuff? Lets clean them out, bedazzle it with epoxy and create a cleaner, cooler surface. Sidenote: Madrone is my favorite firewood. Its high on another engineering property list - BTUs per kilogram.
https://worldforestindustries.com/forest-biofuel/firewood/firewood-btu-ratings/
Did you know that firewood is one of the most sustainable and greenest resources for home heating? It’s carbon Neutral.
March 2022: A smaller dining table with a slight wrinkle. One side straight/square, one side live edge. When a live edge is fairly straight its common to leave it as is but round off the sharp edges for a comfortable and natural table edge.
Summer 2022: This personal side project was a fun demonstration of symmetry, use of smaller slabs that would otherwise just be shelves, and was an opportunity to learn what happens when thin (1”) slabs are used to make a small dining room table.
This is part of Heff’s example pieces you can come see.
What better place for art than a bathroom? :)
This was a personal side project for one of Heff’s Rental properties. A lot of Heff’s sourcewood comes from his trees that need to be cut down. This elmwood came from a tree that was leaning hard in the front yard at this Mountlake Terrace property. Now its in the commode :)
June 2021: Borrowing off the original concept from the diagonal elm table, this round table also used Heff’s own personal source of milled, stacked, dried elmwood from a tilty tree in Mountlake Terrace. Rest well old tree. Your beauty is on display in about a half dozen tables.
The second river table Heff ever made for a client. Lots of lessons were learned. Including the 2D vs. 3D effects and opaque vs. transparent nature of river tables. It is connected to the thickness of the slab, concentration of mica powder (coloring material) in the epoxy, and how it is all layered together. This early work, along with the blue coffee table have a distinct 2D pattern which appears somewhat flat and without depth when you glance at it. Thicker slabs have more potential for depth and character.
2018 to 2022: The original adirondack chair Heff used for the pattern was rotting away, neglected in a grove of laurels in Mountlake Terrace. Heff took the old chair apart and traced it onto the elm slabs from the downed Elm in MLT. Since that original Adirondack, Heff has also built a half dozen Adirondacks from Black Walnut, and Pine (which was salvaged from bathroom walls).
Sometime in One Nine (2019) An awesome DJ and friend collaborated with Heff on a small desk. This was one of his first tables.
September 2024: Heff’s second Combo finish table. What does that mean? The wood is not flood coated with epoxy and is instead finished with an oil based finish (e.g. Osmo Polyx Top Oil). The epoxy portions are sanded/polished to a higher grit to bring out their shine.
Slabs/tables can be mounted on top of your old standing/sitting desk frame just like this client did.
2020 - Another Live Edge Elm Table - from that famously salvaged tilty elm tree in Snohomish county. Heff learned a lot about the Do’s and Don’ts of making coffee table Legs. The blue version has that simple 2D pattern that comes with a solid heavy color. The purple version is semi transparent and has a thinner river color letting you see the live edge of the river and gives more of a 3D feel to the table.
June 2024: New concepts here: Make the river table looks like river (or seabed). The base of the table used pea gravel (a fine medium or should I say “fine gravel” as a geotechnical engineer?). The client wanted to display a variety of sea creatures to go with the table.
These slabs came from a Mill in Duvall, WA. The leg brace was also BLM, but was salvaged and milled by Heff with his electric chainsaw, and pro style big-boy woodpecker 1HP router. As it started to spilt he bowtied the leg brace for more stability. Coolest Leg brace ever.
November 2024: Heff and the wife embarked on their first indoor furniture project. Black walnut bowties emphasize the anisotropic nature of wood. The bow ties provide much needed tensile strength perpendicular to the direction of the rest of the grain. Cracks open up as slabs dry. These slabs can still be used if properly dried. Heff filled the cracks with copper epoxy for maintenance ease. The Table top was finished with Osmo Polyx Top Oil
https://osmocolorusa.com/product/topoil-high-solid/
Engineering properties matter: Though Heff wouldn’t normally recommend a coffee table using a softwood (WHAT?!) Heff had (and still has) a lot of Deodar Cedar slabs from two large trees which needed to be turned into something beautiful. With a little care this kind of wood can be used (use coasters).
What is anisotropy? How much time do you have? Don’t get me started on friction angles either.
2019 and Beyond. In the world of wood, Heff’s passion for dead hard wood (slabs) is only exceeded by his passion for LIVE hardwood (trees). For its within his urban forest, holding a beer, next to a fire that he feels most at home. Experience if you will the transformation of one Man’s yard into his microforest. See the videos of bees mating, Bark Beetles walking and yes…..amphibians crawling! I regret that I couldn’t find the video of the solitary wasps stinging prey and laying eggs in the cavity of deadwood, but you’ve got other nature channels for that.
June 2024: Enough about nature. Back to scintillating photos of wood (wood porn?). This cherry coffee table was new in the sense that 1) its the 1st cherry table Heff has made and 2) Its a tinted glass or single simple color throughout with the intent to mimic solid glass. Lots of learning lessons here, and a beautiful table.
Early 2018? One of the first coffee tables, made for a dear friend. A wonderful man extremely generous, and smart. He was instrumental in the creation of some awesome video games you’ve probably played.
