Hand Tool Woodworkers

On November 8, 2011 I wrote a post titled Care To Watch Me Work. Oddly it was the most popular post I've written on the blog by a small margin. Today's post is the same and yet the opposite. This time after watching me work I'm going to watch you work.

There are still some details to be worked out but it's close enough that I'm comfortable sharing some information. I'm teaching a hand tool only woodworking class for beginning woodworkers or beginning hand tool woodworkers. Each student of the class will construct a Shaker inspired side table with a drawer, as represented by this Google SketchUp image.

The table will be made from cherry. Students, upon request, can select Northern White Pine instead. The table stands 27 1/2 inches tall. The top is 18 by 18 inches. The drawer face is 3 1/2 inches tall by 11 3/4 inches wide. The legs are attached to the aprons with mortise and tenon joinery which will be completely hand cut and fit. The legs are attached to the lower front rail with a mortise and tenon joints and to the upper front rail with a half-blind dovetail. The drawer is assembled with through-dovetails in the rear and half-blind dovetails in the front, all cut and fit by hand. Students may modify the dimensions to suit their use, however, only after discussion with me to avoid unpleasant surprises at the end.

There are still some details to be worked out so some details may change. The class consists of five sessions held at Woodcraft in Grand Rapids. The first will be March 28 from 6:00pm until 10:00pm. At this session we will discuss why you may want to use only hand tools, my tool kit, the difference in designing for the hand tool mindset and what you can expect in the rest of the sessions. In this first session we will also build the most common hand tool bench accessories; a long-grain shooting board, a standard shooting board and a bench hook. We will use each to build the next. These bench accessories will be used in almost every other session. The remaining sessions will be Saturday April 7 from 9:00am to 6:00pm, Sunday April 8 from 11:00am to 4:00pm, Saturday April 14 from 9:00am to 6:00pm and finally Sunday April 15 from 11:00am to 4:00pm. In those 32 hours you will learn to turn rough lumber into boards and boards into furniture without noisy machinery. If time permits, in the last session the students will learn to French Polish.

Dates and times may change so stay tuned, more information will follow.

Update 2/7/2012: The first class date has changed from 3/29/2012 to 3/28/2012

Update2/6/2012: The sentence "The table is represented in cherry, and while students can select that for their lumber, they will be encouraged to make the table from Northern White Pine." has been changed to "The table will be made from cherry. Students, upon request, can select Northern White Pine instead."

Update 2/5/2012: Some dates have changed.