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.
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.
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.
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.
I am teaching a few classes at the Lost Art Press storefront in 2019. I admit I’m a little gun-shy about teaching. I feel quite rusty as a teacher, and I am wary of classroom duties spiraling into a huge part of my life.
The year I quit teaching, I was on the road for 18 weeks and felt like a carney – unkempt, unshaved, grizzled, ragged out and a bit foul-mouthed. (So, not much has changed.)
Here is my completely sane schedule for the first half of 2019. Registration opens at 10 a.m. (Eastern time) on Oct. 12, 2018.
This class is designed as an introduction to chairmaking (except for saddling the seat). It is a crash course in sightlines, resultant angles and how to manage all the compound-angle drilling without any math skills. Plus, you get to build this stool and experiment with shou sugi ban if you like.
This armchair was created for the forthcoming expansion of “The Anarchist’s Design Book.” It is designed to be a class for first-time chairmakers. The only prerequisite is that you can sharpen your edge tools.
About the Storefront We did not set out to teach classes at our storefront, but it turns out to be a nice environment for it. Class size is limited to six. Everyone gets a massive, well-equipped workbench. The bench room has oak floors, lots of natural light and is climate controlled. Students also are encouraged to explore our Mechanical Library during their downtime. We have a lot of rare and interesting woodworking books.
Just as important as the building is where it is located. We are one block off Main Strasse in Covington, Ky., a small city adjacent to downtown Cincinnati. You don’t really need a car during your stay. Hotels and restaurants are a short walk. And downtown Cincinnati is nine blocks away, where you can pick up the streetcar and get anywhere in the urban center.
Plus, if you bring your family, there is lots to do – the zoo, aquarium, children’s museums, multiple art museums and all the other amenities of a mid-size metropolis.
A complete list of classes from Megan Fitzpatrick, Brendan Gaffney and a few guest instructors will be coming soon.
Tomorrow morning (Aug. 3, 2018) at 10 a.m. Eastern, registration will open for a handful of new classes scheduled through the end of this year:
To those we’ve added one from Joshua Klein: Restoring & Using Wooden Bench Planes. It’s a one-day class on Friday, Sept. 7, and Joshua is staying for the LAP open house on Sept. 8 to celebrate the release of his new book, “With Hands Employed Aright: The Furniture Making of Jonathan Fisher (1768-1847).” (Joshua and his wife, Julia, are making the long trek from Maine for the Open House and book release – they don’t often make it to this part of the country – it’s worth stopping in to say hello and check out a copy of his gorgeous book!)
Here’s the class description from Joshua:
“I do not think the tools such as were used in the days of my youth can be surpassed. Even admitting the excellence of the modern tools that are used by hand, the old joiner’s affection remains for the old style of tools. He feels a spirit of affinity in a plane made of warm beech that does not seem to exist for him in cold hard steel.” – Walter Rose (1937)
Wooden bench planes are more than quaint relics screwed to the walls of kitschy restaurants. In fact, the entire pre-industrial world was built using this ingenious tool that is little more than a block of wood with a cutting iron wedged into it. This is astonishing to modern woodworkers who assume newer is always better. But wooden planes have many advantages over their metal-bodied counterparts including: lightness, lack of sole friction, comfort in use, intuitive adjustment, tactile feedback and a matchless beauty.
In this class, students will bring their own grubby second-hand planes to learn to remove grime while preserving patina, repair broken components, fine tune the bed, wedge, and iron/cap iron for optimal performance, flatten soles, and finish with shellac. The remaining time in the class will be spent exploring the (intuitive and simple) adjustment method in practical use at the bench.
The goal of this class is to empower 21st-century woodworkers to give these time-tested, but often neglected, tools a new life.
There are 10 spaces available (not much space is needed for the work, so we’re able to share a few of the longer benches for this one). Registration for the class is free, then students will be billed $150 (which includes everything but the planes).
We have a full roster of weekend courses planned for the fall. Megan Fitzpatrick, Brendan Gaffney, Daniel Clay and Christopher Schwarz will lead these two day-classes in our storefront in downtown Covington, Ky.
The registration for these classes will open at 10 a.m. (Eastern time) on Friday, Aug. 3, 2018. See the descriptions below for details.
Classes are small – six people maximum. Each student is supplied with a heavy workbench with a full suite of workholding options. And the climate-controlled storefront is filled with natural daylight and features hardwood floors (which are kind to your back). The storefront itself is situated in the heart of Covington’s Main Strasse historic district. Students are steps away from great food, bars and lodging (most students park their cars on Friday and don’t touch them until they leave for home).
And if you bring your family, there are lots of activities for them to enjoy in Cincinnati, which is only eight blocks away.
Classes tend to fill quickly. If you are interested in a class and it is full, we definitely recommend getting on the waitlist. We do have spots open up.
Learn the fundamentals of chip carving – a decorative technique in which faceted “chips” are removed from a wooden surface to produce geometric patterns, stylized images, lettering and ornamentation. Through demonstrations, guided practice, skill-building exercises, and the completion of a decorative wall hanging, you’ll leave class with all the knowledge, experience and confidence you need to pursue chip carving on your own. One of the most attractive aspects of chip carving (especially for beginning woodcarvers) is that it can be accomplished at a high level with minimal tools and materials; all you need to become a great chip carver is a sharp knife, some suitable wood and a little practice.
This simple footstool is an easy way to learn two basic chairmaking skills – making a simple post-and-rung construction and weaving a Danish cord seat. The class is broken into two parts; on the first day, students will build the footstool using simple techniques (suited to non-chairmakers or chairmakers), and on the second day students will learn the “no-nail” method of weaving a Danish paper cord seat.
Alongside the techniques involved in this construction, students will also learn basic finishing techniques for chairs, using oil, soap or modern finishes.
There are no prerequisites for this class, apart from having a block plane and coming ready to learn!
Building this staked high stool is an excellent introduction to chairmaking. In this two-day class you will learn to calculate and drill compound-angle joints without trigonometry (or even numbers). You will learn to create a tapered mortise-and-tenon joint – the foundation of Windsor chairmaking. And you will learn to create the stout undercarriage that allows this delicate stool to support an impressive weight.
Students will finish their assembled stools with “shou sugi ban,” shellac or a number of organic hand-applied finishes.
The only prerequisite for this class is you are confident in your sharpening skills.
This simple footstool is an easy way to learn two basic chairmaking skills – making a simple post-and-rung construction and weaving a Danish cord seat. The class is broken into two parts; on the first day, students will build the footstool using simple techniques (suited to non-chairmakers or chairmakers), and on the second day students will learn the “no-nail” method of weaving a Danish paper cord seat.
Alongside the techniques involved in this construction, students will also learn basic finishing techniques for chairs, using oil, soap or modern finishes.
There are no prerequisites for this class, apart from having a block plane and coming ready to learn!
In this two-day class, students will build their own Cabinetmaker’s Sector, my modernized design for the ancient geometer’s tool, used for drawing, drafting and (in my shop) the layout of dimensions and joinery on woodwork. The class will revolve around the skills of modern hand-tool makers, including careful marking and measuring, mixing metal and wood, hand shaping, finishing and (of course) how to use the tool.
Each student will be provided the wood and the necessary brass hinges and pins, everything needed to produce the sector. The first day will revolve around affixing the brass and wooden tabs into the tools, riveting the leaves together, flattening and lapping the tools and reviewing the principles behind the geometry of the sector. The second day will revolve around shaping the sectors, stamping and inking the sector marks, finishing the sectors and learning to use them in the shop. Every student will leave with a completed sector, plus the knowledge of how it works and how to use it.
Build a Dutch Tool Chest in a weekend (working long, challenging but rewarding hours). Not only will you get a great introduction to hand-tool casework, you’ll leave with a small chest in which to store a core set of furniture-making tools – and the chest fits in almost any car. You’ll learn dovetails, dados, rabbets, cut-nail joinery and rules for carcase construction.
Tomorrow morning (Aug. 3, 2018) at 10 a.m. Eastern, registration will open for a handful of new classes scheduled through the end of this year:
Classes are small – six people maximum. Each student is supplied with a heavy workbench with a full suite of workholding options. And the climate-controlled storefront is filled with natural daylight and features hardwood floors (which are kind to your back). The storefront itself is situated in the heart of Covington’s Main Strasse historic district. Students are steps away from great food, bars and lodging (most students park their cars on Friday and don’t touch them until they leave for home).
Chip Carving with Daniel Clay
Høj Footstool with Brendan Gaffney
Staked High Stool with Christopher Schwarz
Build the Cabinetmaker’s Sector with Brendan Gaffney
Dutch Tool Chest with Megan Fitzpatrick