An interview with Roger Heitzman Northern California woodworker combines mechanical ingenuity with contemporary design

The resume of Roger Heitzman contains a long list of awards, exhibitions, and publications that have complimented the products of his woodworking labors over the last 20 years. From his first award in 1980 from the Santa Cruz, Calif. County Fair to his inclusion in several furniture design books by The Taunton Press, Heitzman has received a steady stream of acclaim for his unique designs using long, flowing curves in sometimes subtle, sometimes striking arrangements.

But the Scotts Valley, Calif. woodworker is humble about the origins of his designs, preferring to define them in terms of the influences he considered during their inception rather than calling them his alone.

"It's difficult to pigeon hole my design style," he said. "Each design is different. This piece owes a bit to the deco style, that piece is more nouveau, the other is similar to things by Sam Maloof."

But all the pieces have one thing in common- flowing lines and graceful curves carved out of solid wood. While this kind of work is usually the sole realm of handtools, Heitzman makes use of machine tools to the greatest extent that he can for the sake of their speed, accuracy, and efficiency. One corner of his shop has a wall covered with various handplanes, chisels, spokeshaves and the like, but right next to these is a tray with over 100 router bits in it. And all about the shop neatly arranged on walls and tucked into corners are numerous jigs and fixtures Heitzman uses in conjunction with his machines to achieve what he desires.

The next thing the observant woodworker will notice is that most of his machines appear to be shop-made, too. And indeed the majority of them are. From a band saw, still in use, that he built while a student of industrial arts about 25 years ago to an intriguing octopus-like router carving duplicator of Heitzman's own design, all machines in his shop were at least partially constructed by him except the jointer, planer, and drill press.

"People are intimidated by metal working. I've spoken to accomplished woodworkers who look at a simple piece of metalworking with an amazed look on their faces, and they say, 'You made this?' If you can make things in wood, you can make things in metal. The skills are different, but not all that difficult. I've saved a lot of money by building tools myself, too."

Heitzman's metalworking abilities have also contributed to his furniture in more ways than just the machines that he uses to cut wood. Many of his pieces incorporate metals such as aluminum and brass.

But wood and metalworking were not his original career intentions. In 1973 he graduated from Grossmont College in San Diego with a degree in architecture, and started his own drafting company making plans for permits in residential remodels and the like.

"But I wasn't happy sitting at a drafting board. I was always a hands-on person, but I wasn't guided in that direction, even though I was always making things like minibikes, etc."

This band saw is one of many tools Heitzman built himself.

Then he happened upon an exhibit of fine woodworking at the San Diego County Fair in the mid 1970s, and saw an unusual music stand made by Bud Tullis, as well as other pieces.

"I was drawn to this exhibit. My girlfriend who was with me wanted to go on and look at the rest of the fair, but I kept going back to that exhibit just to look. It was a seminal inspiration, and from that point I knew what I wanted to do."

After the exhibit he went to the library to look through college catalogues for a program that taught his new-found craft. He enrolled in the industrial arts department at Humboldt State University in Arcata, Calif. with a major in woodworking, from which he graduated in 1977.

"The program there was oriented toward teaching, and I got a teaching credential and taught in high schools in Humboldt. But it began to look like I was more of a policeman than a teacher. When a student was disruptive in other classes, they'd send him to woodshop. Well, then he was disruptive in woodshop."

"College woodworking programs, where I'd have found motivated students, were closing because of budget cuts. I decided to pursue furniture making because of this and because I wanted to be hands on, to do things."

He had been building furniture and kitchens while in Humboldt, and decided to move south to the Santa Cruz area (where Scotts Valley is) because, simply, it was his favorite place to be. And the place favored him with a high complement right away, when he entered a silver chest in the County Fair and won first place.

"That was a real boost for me. It showed me that, hey, woodworking is the right thing to do."

Since then he has produced furniture in this area for a wide variety of clients. Most are in the northern California area, but many are from states all over the country. Most of his clients hear about him by word of mouth, but he also shows his pieces in a variety of galleries around Calif.

Heitzman has incorporated his previous experience in structural design and industrial arts into his woodworking career with good success. Along with having built all or part of many of his standard woodworking machines like his band saw, table saw, shaper, sanders, etc. he also built an amazingly complex router carving duplicator to address specific needs. But the needs that the machine addresses, as well as the design of the machine itself, evolved simultaneously and the resulting applications are different from those he originally intended.

"I originally conceived of this machine as a way of carving out chair seats. I had seen other router carving machines, but wanted one with more capacity, so decided to build my own. But as I built the machine I began to see that there were many more things I could do with it than just chair seats. The irony of it is that I have used it for making very few chairs, and much more for other things."

"I ended up designing certain aspects of my furniture with the capabilities of the machine in mind. As well, I designed certain aspects of the machine with specific furniture applications in mind. The machine has given me the capability to do things that I normally wouldn't do by hand because it would be too time consuming."

The machine incorporates a series of levers, chains, and counterbalances to guide a router along a parallel path to a stylus. The stylus follows a three-dimensional pattern, and the router cuts a duplicate piece to the pattern.

"I thought about patenting the machine, but gave the idea up eventually. The machine is very complex to use, so it would not be of interest to most woodworkers. Also, it would be very expensive to buy. Large-scale production operations are better off with CNC machines. So the machine gets used for what I designed it for- one off and limited production use. I'm still thinking up new ways to use it in my furniture making."

Clients come to Heitzman for his ingenuity with form and ability to execute it well. They also come to him with specific desires regarding species of lumber, often requesting tropical species because of their exotic beauty.

"The fact is that tropical species, generally, are more attractive than domestic species, and when a client considers an expensive project they don't want to compromise on the kind of wood. I try to steer people away from tropical lumber, but people want it and I can't refuse."

In his shop at the moment is a large desk made of cherry, maple, and bird's eye maple veneer for a doctor in San Francisco. The veneer covers most of the outside of the desk, and was applied using a vacuum setup. Heitzman finds the vacuum process particularly advantageous for applying veneers to curved surfaces, where otherwise elaborate cauls would be required. And he believes strongly in the use of veneers.

"Wood needs to be grown and used more conscientiously. I'm trying to work with veneers as much as possible because it's a more efficient use of the wood."

"There is a lot of information that needs to be gotten about how tropical species are harvested. There is a need to collect the right information. Groups like the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) and Woodworker's Alliance for Rainforest Protection (WARP) are doing that. That's good, because often people get inflammatory and accusatory when they don't know what they are talking about."

Over the years Heitzman has explored a variety of styles with his furniture. Often a client will come to him with an idea, maybe just a few lines drawn on a cocktail napkin, and together the two of them will hammer out a design. Or a client comes to him because they like what they have seen of his, and they ask him for ideas. Heitzman wishes he could explore all the notions of sculpture and form that he sees in his mind, but necessity plays its hand in the process of creativity too.

"My designs have evolved, but they have always been tempered by the reality of making a living. I very rarely have total freedom to make what I want. It would be nice to be able to do so, but that's dreamland."

Still he feels very fortunate to be able to explore the ideas that he does in his furniture.

Local alleycats shudder in fear when Roger arrives wielding his rubber band machine gun.