This is a dining table I made for a client in southern California out of salvaged Port Orford cedar. I’m also making coffee tables with P.O.C. and claro walnut (juglans hindsii). inquiries welcome. west coast deliveries available.

Live edge dining table with stainless steel legs, satin varnish finish

Port Orford cedar (chamaecyparis lawsoniana), also called Lawson’s cypress and “hinoki” in Japan
is actually a cypress, rather than a true cedar. P.O.C. only grows in coastal southern Oregon and far northern California. It’s rare to have a slab of old growth P.O.C. this big. Years ago, the Japanese fell in love with it because its light color and straight grain reminded them of their sacred hinoki (chamaecyparis obtusa), which they used for their temples and traditional baths. A close relative to hinoki, P.O.C. has become valuable due to heavy buying, along with the small supply of quality logs.

Now you can only really get the old growth from salvaged dead logs. P.O.C. has high oil content, so the dead logs are preserved and the wood is usually in perfect condition. The wood is also highly regarded by boat builders because it’s so stable and highly resistant to rot*.

Cleaning up the live edge outside Les’s shop

This particular slab was salvaged from a log that came off the beach in Gold Beach, Oregon, that had floated down the Rogue River after a big storm. It was milled by guitarmaker Les Stansell of Pistol River, Oregon who uses P.O.C. to make incredibly beautiful flamenco guitars.

I used myrtlewood (umbellularia californica) for the brace. It has tiger-striping in it. That gives it the figure. Tiger-striping happens when water gets into the wood, maybe from a broken branch, and then stains it. You have to mill the wood and dry it before it rots. Myrtlewood isn’t rare, but tiger-striping is.

Bookmatch top with satin varnish finish

*I have a bit of personal history with P.O.C.. When I was about 3 years old, my parents, brother, sister and I lived in a Mercedes cargo van for a year. We moved out of a home my parents owned in Santa Barbara and into the van because my dad wanted to build a sailboat and live in it. We made road trips down to northern Baja, and up to British Colombia. On our way to Vancouver we stopped in the small town of Port Orford, Oregon—near to where I live now—and my dad had some P.O.C. milled for his sailboat. The boat was never made, but that’s another story.