We really enjoy teaching woodworkers the very best ways that we have found to make handtools work they way they were designed to work: with speed, precision, and a surprisingly low demand on muscle power.
Hand tools force you to have a different relationship both to the tool and to the wood itself. The grain direction forces you to use the correct cutting direction and you can feel the tool react to any change of grain direction. You are also aware of when the blade dulls and the effort to use the hand tool increases. Sharpening and keeping a tool tuned are core skills needed by every woodworker.
We argue that if you can do all the woodworking operations using handtools you will have a much better understanding of how to do the same operation using power tools.
Taking any or all of these classes will help you become a better woodworker.
News:
(1/25/2012) We've just made a major upgrade in the hand tools at the School. A combination of a gifts of old hand tools and purchases of new tools means that each workbench now has a full complement of jack planes, fore planes, carcass saws, mortice chisels, mallets, marking gauges and hold downs! We've expanded the range of teaching tools to include floats, plow planes and a range of hand saws. Get to experience the full range of traditional hand tools.
Handtool Woodworking with Jim Tolpin & Faculty
After the very positive reaction to Jim's new book - The New Tradtional Woodworker - we're expanding our range of weekend hand tool classes. These classes build the fundamental skills you'll need to start working with hand tools.
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Handtool Heaven - May 7-11, 2012 and August 6-10, 2012
Jim Tolpin's signature course. Discover the joy of working without dust and noise. Learn to use a handsaw, chisels and planes to dimension, finish and join wood while making bench tools.
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Hand Tool Joinery Essentials - May 14-18, 2012 and August 13-17, 2012
Learn the joinery techniques and construction principles to build furniture using only hand tools. Dovetails, draw-bore mortics and tenons,
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Trestle Table - May 21-25, 2012
Develop and hone your hand tool skills building a medium sized trestle table. Learn the traditional methods of proportional design and layout which are quick and math free!. Heavy duty mortice and tenon joinery, laying up and surfacing the table top can all be a challenge. Let Steve and Jim mentor you through the process.
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Hanging Wall Cabinet May 28-June 1, 2012
Develop and hone your hand tool skills building a hanging wall cabinet. Learn the traditional methods of proportional design and layout which are quick and math free!. This project focuses on the use of dovetails for the carcass, draw and shelf joinery and inroduces frame and panel techniques to make the door.
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Beginning Furniture Making June 11-22, 2012
This class is our most comprehensive introduction to furniture making. This class blends hand tool skills for joinery, final dimensioning and finishing with machine based stock preparation. We use math free, proportional design techniques to build a tool tote or small step stool.
Hand Tool Furnituremaking with Garrett Hack
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Demilune Table -July 16-27, 2012
Garrett's signature furniture making class. Whether you are an intermediate or advanced woodworker Garrett can coach you to new skill levels. The ten day class format gives you plenty of time to tune up your skills and your tools.
Japanese Woodworking with Dale Brotherton
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Japanese Timberframing - July 30 - August 4, 2012
Learn how to tune and sharpen Japanese planes and chisels. Then use the tools to build a small timberframed Azumaya.
Handsaws with Mike Wenzloff
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Build a Handsaw - June 11-12, 2011
Build, sharpen and learn to use a traditional western handsaw from master saw maker Mike Wenzloff. Choose from seven different types of saw.
Hand Tool Intensives with Chris Schwarz
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Chris will be teaching at the Port Townsend School of Woodworking in 2013. Dates TBA.
Help us develop a Handtool Woodworking Curriculum
We're starting to build a hand tool woodworking curriculum. This will help us to develop and offer classes that continue to grow your skills as a hand tool woodworker and allow you to assess your progress as you develop as a hand tool woodworker.
There's a tip of the hat to some the traditional European notions of apprenticeship in this curriculum and we'd welcome your thoughts and comments. You can read it and email us or you can help us write the document. Click on the link:
Towards a Hand Tool Curriculum
(Takes you to Google Docs)
Testimonials
"I can now do by hand many of the things I have been doing with noisy, dusty machines.
And I can do it better.” -- Don Stromberg
"I am delighted by what we learned, a practical understanding of how to build something using mostly hand-tools, and I am deeply pleased by how we learned, in a safe and supportive environment without pressure or constraint." -- Deborah Rosenberg
"This is truly a class that anyone could take—whatever your skill level learning will happen! I am looking forward to practicing all I have learned at home. I experience great joy as I put together my first joint—Lots of fun and very rewarding!" –Kristi Schroots
"Well timed instruction with clear explanations and lots of demonstrations. Rather than showing all the steps at once, the instructors showed each step after completing the previous step. The pace was fast enough to hold interest, but slow enough to allow for “corrections”. We were able to correct mistakes without feeling bad or incompetent—this is an art in teaching!" --Greg Hoerner
"The course was perfect: Careful, detailed instruction; superb individual attention; and the facility couldn’t be better (and the cookies were great too!)." –Gene Trobaugh
