Learn Woodworking Techniques from the Best

The best way to learn hand-tool skills is to have someone teach you face-to-face, which is how it was done for hundreds of years. No amount of reading or watching television can replace someone in the shop showing you how it's done, guiding your hands and then making minor adjustments to your techniques. These days, the best way to get that sort of training is at one of the many woodworking schools.

In 2007, Christopher Schwarz, a friend of WK Fine Tools, will be teaching two classes in fundamental hand skills you might be interested in. One is at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking in Indiana and the other is at Kelly Mehler's School of Woodworking in Kentucky. Registration begins this fall and space is limited. If you're interested, take a look at the descriptions of the two courses below.

About Christopher Schwarz

Registration for classes listed here is closed. We appreciate your attendance and invite you to the Workbench Design Seminar.


Hand Tool Fundamentals with Christopher Schwarz Marc Adams School of Woodworking Franklin, Indiana May 21-25, 2007 For more information or registration, visit marcadams.com or call 317-535-4013. About the Course: Skill level: all levels

In just five days, you'll learn everything a woodworker needs to sharpen, tune and use hand planes, chisels, scrapers and the wide arsenal of edge tools available today. This class is for anyone who has ever been curious, frustrated or intimidated by hand work. It begins with the absolute basic principles of cutting wood and ends with you becoming the best sharpener in your hometown. Here's what you'll learn: Sharpening: Even if you've never sharpened anything before, you'll learn to put a keen edge on any tool – chisel, knife, plane blade, scraper – without spending hundreds of dollars on equipment. You'll learn all about edge geometry and how to pick the right angle for a tool every time, plus the little tricks that aren't in the books (back bevels and triple micro-bevels). Plus, you'll learn to sharpen a scraper using the simplest and most effective method around. Chris has studied more than 15 different scraper sharpening methods published during the last 125 years and found the one that works every time for everyone. Tune-up: With your edges sharp, you'll fine-tune and modify your hand tools so they behave predictably and beautifully. You'll tune your planes to do the job they were intended to do, without spending hours and hours ridiculously lapping their soles. You'll learn the real working differences between the traditional bevel-down planes and the newer bevel-up planes and get a chance to try both to compare for yourself. You'll learn a 100-year-old trick for modifying your card scrapers that has been almost – but not quite – forgotten. And you'll learn to modify the grips of your tools to suit your work, your workbench and your hand size. Use: Once all your tools are properly sharp and tuned, you'll discover how they work almost effortlessly if you understand just a few principles, including how to properly read the grain of any board and that not all tools are intended to be used "with the grain." Application: On the final day of the class you'll put your new skills to the test to build a marking gauge this is unlike anything sold in stores today. This gauge, circa 1796, beats the pants off anything you can buy today at any price.


Hand Tools: Saws, Chisels, Handplanes and Scrapers with Christopher Schwarz Kelly Mehler's School of Woodworking Berea, Kentucky Sept. 3-7, 2007 For more information or registration, visit www.kellymehler.com or call 859-986-5540 About the Course: Skill level: all levels

In this intense and fast-paced five-day class, you will learn all the principles and skills needed to become a skilled hand-tool user – even if you've never picked up a chisel, plane or handsaw before. Acquiring hand-tool skills is important to the education of every woodworker at any stage in the craft. Hand tools allow you to rapidly produce fine details that power tools cannot – once you understand the principles. You'll also learn how hand tools and power tools can (and should) co-exist in a modern workshop. Using both hand and power tools together will improve your speed, your accuracy and (most likely) your enjoyment of the craft. The class is hands-on. Short lectures throughout the day are followed by the students immediately putting these ideas into practice at the bench using their set of tools. The class is small so there is lots of one-on-one time with the instructor to help guide your efforts, which greatly speeds the learning process. Here's what the class covers: Most important: You'll learn to sharpen all your tools using inexpensive equipment and fast techniques that will produce a world-class cutting edge. You'll learn to set up and tune any handplane and understand what it is designed to be used for, and exactly how to use it. You'll unlock the enormous power of chisels to chop, pare, shape and scrape your work with remarkable speed and accuracy. You'll learn to saw accurately to a line – the single most important skill in cutting joints by hand – be they dovetails, mortise-and-tenon, lap joints, whatever. You'll learn how to quickly prepare wood for finishing without power sanding using bench planes, scraper planes, card scrapers and just a little bit of sandpaper (or rush). And finally, you'll build the simple jigs that transform your hand tools into precision equipment: shooting boards, bench hooks and a planing board.