It all began with an on-the-spot decision during the COVID lockdown. One fallen blue gum tree and a chainsaw purchase later, we officially considered ourselves lumberjacks. Well, in our minds, anyway. Our feelings of manliness skyrocketed. Fast forward to the huge Western Cape storm of September 2023, and we started thinking that the massive tree trunks we were too lazy to chop into firewood held potential beauty and a higher purpose. We quickly progressed from manhandling these large trunks into a bakkie one or two at a time to deciding that crane trucks needed to come into the picture.

Add in some large-scale lumber milling, experimentation with various treatments, shapes, and sizes, and the Vokken Heavy Block™ (VHB) was born. Yes, we are rooinekke who thought it was spelled with a “v”. Our brand evolved to Solid Block Designs ™ (after a brief stint of “The Titan Wood Boyz”) with the VHB™ reserved for certain blocks. When two solid okes with Voortrekker blood running through their veins pick one up and exclaim, “Jussie, hierdie ding is vokken swaar!”, then the block gets the VHB™ tag.