About

Hi I’m Shannon Rogers, you may know me from my podcast and blog, The Renaissance Woodworker or as one of the hosts of Wood Talk Online Radio. I have been woodworking for more than 10 years and dabble in anything and everything wood. By day I run the marketing for a large lumber company and by night and weekend you will find me in my shop. In the summers I volunteer whenever I can at a Victorian farm museum called The Steppingstone Museum in their cabinetry shop where I get to play with many vintage tools and explore period techniques.

I started like most of us with power tools and stumbled on hand tools during a trip to Colonial Williamsburg. The rest was history.  Within a few years I had sold my power tools and was building entirely by hand. I love 18th century styles of furniture, specifically the Queen Anne style, but I cannot just stick to that period. I have been known to build Shaker, Arts & Crafts, Greene & Greene, Asian, and Contempory pieces as well. As my blog says,

“so many projects…so little time”

The Hand Tool School is my attempt to share my love of hand work and to provide a vehicle for woodworkers to learn how to do things in the most fundamental way possible. A strong grasp of these basics skills will allow you to build anything with few tools and a whole lot of enjoyment.  As your skills and tooling grows I think you will find that these basic skills will continue to help you for the times when your machine can’t.  We all can’t have a 25″ thickness planer right?

I am extremely excited about the growth of The Hand Tool School and look forward to future semesters.  I have a lot of things planned!

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