Next month, I head to sunny/warm/tasty Anaheim, Calif., to teach two classes – a four-day class on building Roorkee chairs and a two-day class on building a Dutch tool chest.
The classes will be held at the William Ng School of Fine Woodworking. This is my first teaching assignment in Southern California, though I have been there many times for woodworking shows, vacations and tacos.
The Roorkee chair class is March 17-20. This is one of my favorite classes to teach because it involves so many new skills for woodworkers, such as learning to make tapered conical mortises, spindle turning and leatherwork. These chairs are great fun to build, plus they travel extraordinarily well.
I’ll also be teaching a two-day class in building a Dutch Tool Chest (March 22-23). This is a somewhat brutal but effective introduction to hand-tool casework. You’ll learn dovetails, dados, rabbets, cut-nail joinery and all of the rules for carcase construction in just two days.
When I teach this class, some of the students end up napping on the bench. But they all end up taking home a tool chest that is portable, tough and useful.
Though I have been to England six times for work, sightseeing and research, I’ve never been asked to teach there (my wife says it must be because of my German last name). I love the country, and it has inspired a lot of my books and writings, from the Nicholson workbench in “Workbenches: From Design & Theory to Construction & Use” to “Campaign Furniture.”
So I am particularly pleased to announce I’ll be teaching two courses this July that have been organized by The New English Workshop, a group of woodworkers who are deeply concerned with handwork. The classes will be taught at the workshop at Warwickshire College in Leamington Spa. For Americans not familiar with England’s geography, that’s in the center of the country, a little southeast of Birmingham.
On July 21-25 I’ll be teaching The Anarchist’s Tool Chest, a traditional English chest that’s an intensive course on dovetails, handwork-based case construction, cut nails and bench planes. I won’t lie, the pace of the course is not leisurely, and it usually requires a couple of long days, which oddly always end up at a pub afterward.
During the class we build the carcase, lid and skirting of the chest. The internal structures are up to you at home. But we look at lots of examples so you’ll know what to do when you get home. I have been working out of a traditional tool chest since 1997 and have yet to find a better way to protect and organize your tools.
On July 28-29 I’m teaching the Dutch Tool Chest, a lightweight, portable and surprisingly durable chest. This is the chest I travel with and I am always pleased with how much the chest can carry and how easy it is to work out of. This chest is built using dovetails, dados, rabbets and lots of cut nails. It takes two long days, but we usually get everyone’s chest assembled and ready for hardware.
The organizers tell me the courses are already half full. If you are interested in attending or getting more details, visit The New English Workshop web site.
There are some other interesting components to these classes I’ll be discussing in the coming months, including the fate of the two tool chests I’ll be building during the classes. So stay tuned.
This trip is also an opportunity for me to do some research on campaign furniture, Gillows of Lancaster and a few other things I have brewing.
Compared to last year, my 2014 teaching schedule is a cakewalk. But that’s like comparing the various Boer wars, the First, Second and Third Reichs and Fried Pickles v. Lots-a-tots at Hooters. In other words: It’s all brutal.
I teach classes because I know that it’s good for my research and writing. I meet fascinating people, and I get to visit interesting places. But most of the time, I’d prefer to crawl under the sink unit at the Hampton Inn in the fetus position.
I am a natural hermit.
So here is my 2014 teaching schedule, with a promise that 2015 will be even more limited.
Jan. 18-19, 2014 Kansas City Woodworkers Guild I’m teaching a two-day class on building a Dutch Tool Chest and giving a presentation on Jan. 18 on something (relating to woodworking, promise). This club is very impressive. Well-organized. They have an excellent facility and passionate members. Contact them if you’d like to attend the free Saturday night program.
Feb. 22-23, 2014 Alabama Woodworkers Guild During this weekend seminar, I’ll build a six-board chest entirely by hand and attempt to do a massive brain dump on handwork in the process. Visit the club’s site for details on attending the seminar.
Mar. 17-24, 2014 William Ng Woodworking School I’m teaching two classes at this California school. The first is on making Roorkee chairs; the second is on making a Dutch tool chest. Both classes are lots of fun (for me, at least!).
April 25-28, 2014 The Alaska Creative Woodworkers Association It’s my first visit to Alaska, and I am very excited about it. During my trip there I’ll be teaching a class in making layout tools and the Dutch tool chest. Plus I’ll be giving a presentation to the club.
May 5-9, 2014 The Woodworkers Club, Rockville, Md. During my first teaching gig in this area, I’ll be teaching a class in building the Anarchist’s Tool Chest, and speaking to the local SAPFM chapter and doing some other cool stuff I can’t mention just yet.
June 9-13, 2014 Marc Adams School of Woodworking, Franklin, Ind.
French Workbench. If you want to build an epic French workbench, this is the class to take. We have lined up some excellent ash for the class and the facility and machinery make it an incredible week.
June 18-20, 2014 The Woodwright’s School, Pittsboro, N.C.
I’m teaching the Dutch tool chest at Roy Underhill’s school during these three days. If you’ve ever been to a class with me and Roy, then you know you are in for an intense session of teaching, gesticulating and eating of scones.
July 5-6, 2014 Lie-Nielsen Toolworks, Warren, Me. In my attempt to spread awesome Dutchness across our great land, I’m teaching an intense two-day class in building a Dutch tool chest at the inspirational Lie-Nielsen facility.
July 21-28 Mystery England Classes I’ll have a lot more to say about these two classes in England – my first teaching assignment in England ever. So stay tuned. Or take a liver holiday and sign up for them now.
Oct. 4-5, 2014 Marc Adams School of Woodworking, Franklin, Ind.
This is the annual handplane weekend class I teach at Marc Adams’ school with Thomas Lie-Nielsen. It is a fun on a bun – an annual ritual of indoctrinating new hand tool woodworkers that I don’t ever want to miss.
There are a couple of other club events and shows that I am still working on, plus a couple of Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool Events that I’ll be adding to this calendar in the coming weeks. But if you seek to abuse/amuse me in 2014, the list above is fairly complete.
One of the cool things about the Wortheffort school of woodworking is the workbenches. Shawn Graham, the brains and back behind the school, built enough for 13 students and the instructor. Almost all of the benches are very basic Roubo designs made from construction timber.
No tail vises.
Workholding is all done with leg vises (no garters!), small Moxon-style vises for the benchtops and holdfasts.
All the vises, including the leg vises, use wooden-thread screws, which I think Shawn made himself.
I feel right at home in this shop environment, and it’s fun to show students how versatile these simple benches are.
The only downside is the leg vises are all so new that they screech when you use them. When all the students started to clamp their work up simultaneously, it sounded like someone was clubbing the Vienna Baby Seal Choir.
— Christopher Schwarz
Today we will work like heck to get these chests done. This is a three-day class crammed into two days.
This weekend I’m in San Marcos, Texas, at the Wortheffort school of woodworking. Haven’t heard of the school? It’s new. But I hope you will hear more soon.
The school is the brainchild of Shawn Graham, who wanted to create a hand-tool school with a community focus. The storefront school is located in the small college town of San Marcos – halfway between Austin and San Antonio. It’s on the same strip with lots of tattoo parlors, locavore restaurants, boxing clubs and college bars.
Today I arrived at the school as Shawn was finishing one of the French workbenches for the school in order to accommodate 13 students in the classroom. It’s a big, open and airy room, with a digital projector, whiteboards and lots of benches.
And it’s all sourced from Craigslist.com, Shawn says.
After dumping my tools off, I headed over to the Root Cellar Cafe, an incredible little subterranean restaurant, for a late lunch. Then it was back to the school to help prep the stock for my class tomorrow while Shawn held a free open house for members of the community.
During the 2-1/2 hours, Shawn showed the residents (of all ages and genders) how to build a small Roubo bookstand suitable for a cellphone. He cajoled them with humor and geometry to understand the important lessons.
And I sweat like a pig in the corner while sawing up (by hand) the poplar and pine planks for the class on Saturday.
One of the locals looked over and asked Shawn what I was doing.
“He’s the teacher for the weekend class; he’s just sawing up sticks,” he said.
“A teacher? I thought he was just the hired help,” she said.
Well, I really am the hired help. This school is clearly Shawn’s baby. It has the feel of Roy Underhill’s The Woodwright’s School, but done in a Texas style. As I grew up just one state north (but a world away) we’ll see how I do when I start teaching in the morning.
Perhaps Shawn will see fit to send me back to the corner to saw wood. And I’m OK with that.
