Courses
Hand Tool sharpening
This short evening course covers the sharpening, maintenance, and setup of straight edged tools.
We will cover, how to prep and sharpen a chisel, a hand plane, or a hand saw upon request. (although saw sharpening will require the whole evening as it is quite a long winded topic.)
If you are new to hand tools, I highly recommend taking this course before any other. Blunt chisels and badly set planes seem to be the number one reason that people give up on woodworking, so get that right first!
Sharp tools are the only way to achieve good results by hand. The method I will teach you is fast and repeatable. Once mastered it takes no more than a few seconds to achieve an edge you can shave with.
As with all courses, email me for availability and your own requirements. If you have anything in particular you want to learn, then let me know, I will make it happen! an evening course for sharpening starts at £120 per person. We will of course have tools of my own here that we can use for the course. But if you have your own tools that you’d like to use, then please feel free!
I do also have a selection of appropriate hand tools for sale here, which you can purchase if you wish.
Fine joinery
Fine joinery is the thing that stands out as a marker for high skill craftsmanship, particularly small pinned dovetail joints. They do require practice, a great deal of repetition and patience. but once you have the method down, (of which there are a few) it will become second nature.
I would highly recommend taking the sharpening course before you take on fine joinery, unless you already have good sharpening ability.
I also cover mortice and tenon joinery, and discuss the various types and applications.
Other joints we can go through are simple housing joints, and half lap joints. these are seen as very simple to cut, and dismissed by a lot of woodworkers, but it does require a good amount of skill and knowledge to cut these accurately by hand.
If you have any requests for different types of joinery please email and ask, I’d be happy come up with a class to suit your needs.
Materials are provided and included in the price.
Evening courses start from £120 per person.
something to take home
This is the really fun course, where we all get to take something home at the end of the day!
We will each be making a dovetailed tool tote, just big enough to keep our fine edged tools away from the dreaded DIY bucket. It will be fine in its construction, with through joinery to show off your newly acquired skills.
Of course, other projects can be built on request, but remember time is a big factor. We need to be able to complete within a day.
Some experience with fine joinery is necessary for this course, I recommend at least taking the fine joinery course first.
The materials will be provided and prepped ready to go on the day.
This 5-8 hour course starts at £300 per person, including materials for your tool tote.
Email me for more information, and book your day!
