Category: Woodworking Classes

I just finished up teaching seven days of classes at the Florida School of Woodwork in Tampa, Fla., an urban school in a rapidly gentrifying area of the city that has an excellent facility and an enthusiastic, knowledgeable and hard-working owner, Kate Swann.

The Florida School of Woodwork is officially about two years old, though Kate ran her professional furniture-making business there for many years along with Carl Johnson.

I’ve always thought that Florida – with 21 million residents – didn’t have its fair share of woodworking schools. Lost Art Press has thousands of customers in the state, and the blog receives significant traffic from the Sunshine State. We also get a lot of questions from beginning woodworkers in Florida who ask: Where should I go for instruction and community?

Now they have an answer.

The school is located in a renovated motor-winding plant just north of downtown Tampa and near the new and bustling Armature Works and blocks and blocks of renovated Craftsman bungalows.

The front bench room and machine room is illuminated by enormous storefront windows. Each student works at a Benchcrafted workbench and with a wall-mounted kit of hand tools. The machines are well-maintained and safe (SawStops). There’s a nice break room, an overflow machine room at the back and a covered area to eat your lunch back by the local meadery. Oh and the floor of the shop is a sprung wooden floor – it’s great for your back and knees.

And there’s Kate. Affable and hand-working, Kate spent the seven days making sure the students had everything they needed, built jigs for my class, greeted the curious who stopped by and kept each day running smoothly.

Also impressive is the programming. The classes run the gamut, from a one-day class where you turn your first cup to multi-week advanced seminars with Michael Fortune. Project classes span a wide variety of styles, from period pieces to Arts & Crafts, Mid-century Modern to pieces with a serious artistic bent.

About half of my 10 students were from Florida, with the rest from states as far as Iowa and Texas. Many out-of-staters brought their families – February in Florida is about as nice as it gets. Also interesting – many of the students were repeat customers, which is remarkable for a young school.

I’ll be returning to the Florida School of Woodwork to teach in 2022 (my 2021 is already overbooked). But don’t wait for me. Check out the complete list of upcoming classes here. Florida finally has the woodworking school it has long deserved.

— Christopher Schwarz

All my classes at the Covington, Ky., storefront are full (I highly recommend you join the waitlist here – people’s lives can change dramatically in a moment). But I now have classes in Germany and Florida that have opened their registration for 2020.

All of these are classes that I’ve never taught before (always fun). Here are the details:

Japanese Siding-lid Box, Feb. 22-23, 2020
Florida School of Woodwork, Tampa, Fla.

In this class we’ll make a reproduction of a Japanese sliding-lid box I measured while I was overseas. It’s a fun project to make. Though the joinery is simple – finger joints and steel dome-head nails – the real challenge is keeping all the details crisp and producing beautiful surfaces.

Staked Worktable, June 30-July 4, 2020

Dictum, Niederalteich, Germany

The Staked Worktable from “The Anarchist’s Design Book” is one of my favorite original designs. And I’m excited that Dictum has agreed to run this course. It’s a bit of a challenging project because of the sheer scale of the materials – large legs, large compound-angle mortises and some big sliding dovetails. The class takes place on the grounds of a beautiful monastery in Niederalteich, Germany.

Introduction to Chairmaking, July 5-8, 2020

Dictum, Munich, Germany

This four-day class is a solid introduction to making contemporary chairs using traditional methods. We’ll get into basic steam-bending, compound-angle joinery, tapered mortise-and-tenon construction and saddling a seat. Because we are building a side chair (instead of a more involved armchair) the pace will be less brutal and we’ll be able to explore alternative methods throughout the week. The classroom is in the heart of Munich, right by a large train station with lots of places to eat and things to do. So bringing your family might be a good idea.

In the coming weeks, I hope to announce three more classes for 2020 – two in the United States and one in the United Kingdom. We are still working out the details, and then I’ll announce them here.

— Christopher Schwarz

I’m teaching two classes at the Florida School of Woodwork in Tampa in February 2020. Registration began yesterday, and let me repeat the two most important words from my first sentence: Florida and February.

The Tampa school is relatively new and has been the location of Fine Woodworking’s Hands On events, and I’ve heard nothing but good things about the school and its facility. Here are some details on my classes.

Chair Making, Feb. 17-21, 2020

We’ll be making the American Welsh Stick Chair that is featured in “The Anarchist’s Design Book.” It is a great introduction to chairmaking – no previous experience required. And the emphasis is on using mostly common woodworking tools and processes. No steam bending or green woodworking is required for this class.

Japanese Siding-lid Box, Feb. 22-23, 2020

In this class we’ll make a reproduction of a Japanese sliding-lid box I measured while I was overseas. It’s a fun project to make. Though the joinery is simple – finger joints and steel dome-head nails – the real challenge is keeping all the details crisp and producing beautiful surfaces.

I hope you will consider joining me. I don’t teach many classes these days, and I’ve never taught this far south.

— Christopher Schwarz

I’m not teaching much in 2019, just a few classes here and there. But I couldn’t turn down an offer to teach in London. Yes, the famous London, with the clock. Derek Jones (aka LowFatRoubo) has arranged to run some courses at London Design & Engineering UTC, which has an excellent shop.

Here are the classes and the links. If a class is sold out, you can get on the waiting list here. There is always churn in woodworking classes.

Welsh Stick Armchair — Oct. 21-25, 2019
I probably wouldn’t call this a true Welsh chair; it is more Welsh-ish than anything else. We’ll be building this chair from materials available to a city-dweller, as opposed to a sheep farmer. You don’t need a lot of tools to make this chair, just a few magic tricks.

Staked High Stool — Oct. 28-30, 2019
This class is an excellent introduction to chairmaking principles, including learning to drill compound angles without trigonometry (or even numbers). These stools are built entirely by hand and will introduce you to tapered-tenon construction. You’ll walk away with a completely finished stool and the skills to make 100 more.

— Christopher Schwarz