Because of a cancellation, there are two spots open in my “Hammer in Hand” class at The Center for Furniture Craftsmanship on July 16-20 in Rockport, Maine.
The class is $695 and we will build three (yes, three) projects: A Moxon double-screw vise in maple, a very useful shooting board and the dovetailed Schoolbox in Eastern white pine, my favorite project from “The Joiner and Cabinet Maker.”
For more details on the class, or to sign up, click here.
The class is during a particularly fun time to visit Maine because the awesome Lie-Nielsen Open House occurs during the Friday and Saturday before the class. The factory is a short drive from the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship. I’ll be at the open house, as will people far more talented, including Chuck Bender, Christian Becksvoort, Tico Vogt and Matt Bickford. (Speaking of Mr. Bickford, we will be showing off the galley proofs of his upcoming book “Mouldings in Practice.” Yes, it’s done.) Get all the details on the open house event here.
So do what I did: Blow off your job and come to Maine next month. Or as Evelle Stokes says in “Raising Arizona”: “H.I., you’re young and you got your health, what you want with a job?”
I’ve been teaching in Germany for the last seven days – three long classes followed by four beers each evening with the students. My liver, and the rest of my internal organs, have requested a holiday. As Lost Art Press doesn’t really have a benefits package, however….
On the last night of class, one of the students named Brian Eve drove me to Munich and I helped him move his completed workbench into his shop. It’s tiny. I’ve seen bigger dust collector bags in my time.
But he makes do. After moving his bench off of the car, I took the short video above so you can see what a really small shop really looks like.
Oh, and in case you don’t read my blog at Popular Woodworking Magazine, that’s where I’ve written about my Bavarian adventures this past week. Here are some links.
I’m in Munich now (it’s Monday, I believe). And this morning I had the best Bavarian breakfast ever with Peter Lanz of Dictum GmbH, and then he took me over to the new Dictum workshop and school in Munich. It’s a third-floor space where Peter is now teaching classes in handwork and machine work, along with another teacher.
Dictum is also planning on opening a store across the hall from the workshop, which will sell tools and be a local hangout for woodworkers. All in all, it sounds like a pretty cool plan.
I fly back to Cincinnati tomorrow and then immediately board a plane with my family for San Diego (sorry spleen, no vacation for you). Somehow day and night will resolve themselves. Someday.
“Imperial units should only be used when measuring general levels of rebel scum.” — Fake AP Stylebook
I leave for Germany on Thursday to teach three classes at the workshops of Dictum GmbH, one of Europe’s leading supplier of hand tools.
The hardest part of the trip might surprise you. It’s not the food or the beer (duh). It’s not the time difference, the language barrier or even dealing with the completely different cultural woodworking tradition (bowsaws, horned planes, pins-first dovetails, etc).
It’s the metric system.
I don’t dislike the metric system. Far from it. After three years of teaching at Dictum, plus many years of dealing with readers from metric countries, I appreciate its base-10 elegance. But it really jerks around my brain switching back and forth between the two systems. Especially when I get the occasional student who uses Imperial. And don’t get me started on the one who spoke Esperanto.
This year I’ve been getting a jump on the switch to the metric system by spending the last four days writing up all the materials for the class in metric and not using a conversion calculator. It’s like I can almost “speak” metric. Almost.
Now if someone could explain what the German Burger King’s “Long Chicken” sandwich is, I think I’ll have assimilated.
— Christopher Schwarz
P.S. This blog entry is also a reminder that if you e-mail me or post a comment on the blog that I might not be very responsive. I won’t be back in Kentucky until June 28. And if you are seeking to burgle us in the meantime, you’ll have to deal with the ferocity of Lucy and her four attack pussies.
A trip to North Carolina would not be complete without visiting Roy Underhill at the Woodwright’s School and the black hole of my disposable income, also known as Ed Lebetkin’s tool store.
I came to drop off some Lost Art Press Books to for Ed to sell in his store, but I walked out of there owing him money. It happens every time.
The highlight of the visit was the corncob curved drawknife/scorp-like tool that Ed picked up at auction recently. I shudder to think of what dirty job it was relegated to.
I picked up a box of hardware – old brasses and iron chest handles. Plus a complete box of Jennings augers, an old center-finding tool and a homemade layout triangle that was too cool to pass up – I’m a sucker for shopmade layout tools.
Ed’s store is completely full of stuff at the moment, as you can see in the photos. And if you need a corncob scorp (or any other hand tool), drop him a line at edlebetkin@gmail.com.
When I wasn’t giving Ed all my money, I was taking pictures of carver Mary May for an upcoming feature I’m writing on her for Popular Woodworking Magazine.
By request, here is my teaching schedule for the remainder of 2012. If a class is sold out, it is always worth getting on the waiting list. Life has its crises, and so spots always open up – usually in the week before the class begins.
June 11-17: Dictum Workshops, Metten, Germany
I’ll be making my third trip to Germany to teach handwork at the Dictum workshop, which is located in an uber-cool pig barn in a monastery (no sarcasm — it’s awesome). I’m teaching three classes — one on planes and saws, a second on building wooden layout tools and a third on building a French-style workbench.
July 7-8: Lie-Nielsen Toolworks, Warren, Maine Shaker Wall Cabinet. This is a fun two-day class in hand joinery. Learn to surface boards by hand, cut rabbets and dados and learn the joys of cut nails. The new Lie-Nielsen classroom is outstanding.
July 16-20: The Center for Furniture Craftsmanship, Rockport, Maine
By Hammer & Hand: The Dovetailed Schoolbox. This class is based on the 1839 book “The Joiner and Cabinet Maker” – a fascinating look into the life of an apprentice in an English joinery shop. In this class, we build a Moxon double-screw, a shooting board and the Schoolbox from the book. This is an intense class in dovetailing and hand casework. This is the first time I’ve been asked to teach at this school. Hope it goes OK.
July 30-Aug. 3: Kelly Mehler’s School of Woodworking, Berea, Ky. The Anarchist’s Tool Chest: Build the Anarchist’s Tool Chest in five days in the hills of Berea, Ky. Kelly runs an excellent school with a great vibe and tremendous workbenches. I’ve been looking forward to this class all year.
Sept. 4-8: Marc Adams School of Woodworking, Franklin, In. By Hammer and Hand: The Dovetailed Schoolbox. I bring the Schoolbox class to Marc Adams’s excellent school. There’s a reason this is the largest school in North America. Everything is top-shelf, from the workbenches, the new engineered floor to the ice cream machine (yes, it makes swirls).
Sept. 17-21: The Woodwright’s School, Pittsboro, N.C. The Anarchist’s Tool Chest: Yes, you can build this tool chest entirely by hand. And eat ice cream for lunch. And be 10 steps from an awesome tool store and bar. It’s Roy Underhill’s school for gosh sakes. This is a fun class with lots of crazy hand- and foot-powered tools – including a Barnes mortiser.
And that’s it for 2012, except for speaking at both Woodworking in America conferences. For 2013, I’ll be traveling to a lot of new places to teach: Rosewood in Canada, Alaska and Australia. Plus, I hope to be teaching the following two classes, which I am pitching to some of the schools I frequent.
Design & Build a Campaign Chest
Campaign chests are one of the most rugged and masculine pieces of furniture ever made – and their simple lines fit in with almost any decor. In this class, you will learn to design your ideal campaign chest using guidelines culled from old military records and the archaeological records. After spending a day designing your chest with the help of SketchUp and the instructor, you’ll spend the next four days building the upper unit of your chest using a variety of hand- and power-tool techniques. In this class you’ll learn:
1. How to speak the language of campaign chests so you can execute your design and it will look as good as an original.
2. How to design the joinery for these cases, which were designed to survive war.
3. How to surface very wide boards with ease using hand tools and home shop equipment.
4. How to cut full-blind and half-blind dovetails.
5. How to cut rabbets, dados and grooves by hand and by power.
6. How to make the special tight-fitting recesses for the brass hardware that is typical size – both by hand and power.
7. How to age brass and steel hardware to make it look ancient.
8. How to fit drawers toa piston fit.
9. How to use high-angle planes and scrapers to deal with the exotic woods common to campaign chests.
Design & Build a Traditional Trestle Table
Trestle tables are one of the most ancient forms of furniture and appear in Medieval dining halls, Shaker dwellings and in the portfolio of George Nakashima. In short, they are one of the most elemental and enduring forms of furniture in human history. They use a minimum of material and excellent joinery to produce a table that is lightweight and incredibly strong. In this class, you’ll take a historical trip into the furniture record to understand the trestle table, from its beginnings in castle life to the present day. Using this knowledge, you’ll design your own trestle table using SketchUp and the assistance of the instructor. You’ll be able to design your trestle table in any style and in any size. Then you’ll spend the next four days executing your design under the eye of the teacher. In this class you’ll learn:
1. How to make beautiful tabletops that stay flat and are easy to assemble.
2. How to make the wedged through-tenon – the joint at the heart of a trestle table.
3. How to make your table knock down for travel using bed hardware.
4. How to surface large tabletops using power tools, hand tools or scrapers.
5. How to cut and assemble breadboard ends by both hand and power.
6. How to surface all your parts using handplanes.
7. How to make large-scale bridle joints to affix the top braces and ribs of the table.
8. How to use a fore plane or scrub plane to remove material quickly and provide authentic texture.
