Revisiting Rosewood Studio

When I first visited Rosewood Studio, it was in Almonte, Ontario, and perched on the banks of the Mississippi River (no connection to the river of the same name in the United States). I was taking a chair class at another school that week and stopped by Rosewood to check it out.

I was impressed. For a small school, Rosewood attracted top-notch instructors, motivated students and had an excellent facility that was near a good pub and a great bakery.

In the last seven years, things have changed.

Rosewood is now in the town of Perth, Ontario, a gorgeous old stone village filled with nice places to eat and drink. The school is located in an Art Deco auto dealership building and still offers an excellent facility and great instructors, such as Michael Fortune and Garrett Hack.

What’s different? I’m an instructor instead of a visitor.

Ron Barter, the owner of Rosewood Studio, invited me to teach two classes there during the next seven days: a five-day class on “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” and a two-day class on building a Shaker wall cabinet.

Obviously, I said “yes,” and we just finished up the first day of teaching the tool chest class. So far, the biggest challenge has been that this is probably the most experienced group of students I’ve taught. We didn’t need to cover sharpening. We didn’t need to cover handplane setup. We just plowed into the work.

I hope I have some control of this crew when Friday comes. If I do, then good for me. If I don’t good on them.

— Christopher Schwarz

P.S. I can attest that Perth has some excellent pubs. I’ll report back later on the bakery situation.