Essential hand tool skills (Course No.1)

March 15th-18th 2025

Total cost $965 per person

This 4-day workshop is suitable for beginners with little or no experience and hobbyists who want a refresher on maximizing their skills and getting more from their tools. 

Create a bench hook which allows you to learn how to:

• Precisely mark up your work to consistently get accurate edges
  
• Saw smooth straight edges
  
• Plane a flat stable surface
  
• Use a chisel and router for perfect 90-degree rebates
  
• Gluing and clamping techniques
  
• Securing the joins with a dowel
  

Create your unique wine box. The wood we use is smooth on one side and rough on the other, creating the challenge of only accurately measuring from the inside.  The techniques required to craft your wine box are:

• The use of story sticks and marriage marks for accurate alignment
  
• Pencil and knife marking before sawing and chiseling perfectly identical sides to the box 
  
• Creating accurate miter joints
  
• Techniques to align and glue your work once without any glue seepage
  
• Aligning the lid to fit your box allows for the expansion and contraction of the wood
  
• Using different types of wood to creative effect
  
• Securing the joins with Japanese nails, how and when to angle and insert them
  
• Creating shadow lines on the lid and bottom of your box
  

As you work and learn, you will also gain general knowledge from our instructors:

• The many different tools in our workshop - the variety of saws, planes, chisels, scrapers, measuring tools, and hammers, what they are, how and when to use them.
  
• Wood - Types and grains, types of cuts, how wood behaves - expanding and contracting, and how to cater for its effects.
  
• Sharpening - When and how to grind, hone and polish your tools.  The importance of precision when creating precise angles for chisels, planes, and scrapers, as well as how to use jigs and guides for consistent repeatable results.