Five Days - Friday—Tuesday

Mar 3-7 or May 12-16, 2023

Your five-day workshop of traditional hand tool joinery and cabinetry is a concentrated introduction to classic bench work. Roy Underhill, former master craftsman at Colonial Williamsburg, conducts the full course along with author, teacher and artisan par exellence Bill Anderson. You’ll have proper vintage tools to work with, including both wooden and metal planes as we begin with rough-sawn seasoned timber and conclude with the ready to finish cabinetry.

The historical processes that you’ll learn in these five days at the Woodwright’s School will build a visceral connection with the timeless tools, techniques, and traditions of the craft (no matter how you work when you get home!) In the mornings and early afternoons, we’ll have demonstration instruction mixed with hands-on learning at our benches. The individual project is a dovetailed benchtop toolchest with molded skirt and paneled lid to take home.

This little chest gives you solid instruction and practice in:

• Through dovetails for chests.

• Edge to edge joinery with tongue and groove planes.

• Beading planes

• Complex moulding planes

• Hot hide glue and rubbed joints

• Miter ended skirt fitting

• Cut nail work

• Mortise & Tenon frame construction

• Plow planes for panel work

As work progresses, we'll add in lessons in techniques such as stock dimensioning (from the log), sharpening, plane tuning, dovetail variations, panel-raising, and any requested topic that we can fit in.

Materials fee including all prep work on poplar for tool chest (but exclusive of hardware) approximately $75 - $125 payable to instructor during class. This varies with the market price of top-grade poplar stock.

Five Days - 9:00 AM - 5:30 PM