Semester 1 assumes nothing and will take a small kit of tools and walk the woodworker through all the fundamental skills to build furniture. Each lesson lays out a technique, provides practice exercises, then applies that technique in a simple shop project.
These projects require little wood and don’t have to be of museum quality. They are jigs and appliances that the hand tool woodworker will reach for time and again while working in the shop. Each lesson builds off the previous until the end of the semester when every small project and technique work together to build an heirloom tool cabinet to store all your new hand tools.
Lessons:
Winding Sticks
Setting Up Shop and Getting Started
- Learn how to set up your workspace
- What tools are needed
- Introduction to milling boards by hand
- Make a pair of Winding Sticks used for check twist in a board
- Watch this entire lesson For Free by joining our email list
Sawing Fundamentals
- Learn about the various types of saws and cuts you can make by hand.
- How saws cut and tooth geometry
- Learn to saw to a line
- Correct your cut when it goes awry
- Apply these skills by building a handy Sawbench.
Planecraft 101
- How a plane works
- Essential techniques to go from rough sawn board to flat on 6 faces
- Learn to create square and parallel faces
- Apply these skills by making 2 bench hooks for sawing and for paring.
Tool Rack, Miter Box, Miter Shooter
Dados, Rabbets, and Grooves
- Establish your ability to make straight and square cuts using very few tools
- Alternate methods to make them using more specialized tools
- Apply your new skills with 3 projects:
- benchside tool rack
- miter box
- miter shooting board.
Layout Square
Half Laps
- Build on basic sawing skills by learning to cut 3 types of half laps:
- Standard
- Dovetail laps
- Hidden laps
- Apply the skills by making a useful Layout Square
Shop Bent
Mortise & Tenons
- Learn to cut this iconic joint well and you can build just about anything
- Covers standard, through, and wedged mortise and tenon joints
- Sawing and Fitting Techniques covered
- Chopping and Drilling mortises both covered
- Apply them all to building a style of sawhorse called a Shop Bent.
Stone Pond
Miters
- Lesson shows how to cut miters and refine their fit
- Learn to strengthen the joint 3 different ways.
- Use the Miter Shooter from lesson 4
- Make a sharpening stone pond with mitered corners.
Saw Til
Dovetails
- Dispels the myths and lays out a simple method to quickly make air tight dovetails
- Covers standard and half blind dovetails
- Put you skills to use making a hanging Saw Til.
Dovetail Marker
Sliding Dovetails
- This lesson illustrates 4 methods for making sliding dovetails:
- Tapered, Untapered, Stopped, and Through sliding dovetails
- Discuss multiple methods for shaping tails and pins
- Apply the lesson by building a dovetail marking aid.
Wax Well
Basic Inlay
- This lesson turns to embellishment and shows how to inlay patches to cover mistakes and to add a decorative element to your work.
- Apply the skills by making a small wax and rag til to keep your tools running smoothly and rust free.
African Mahogany Planing
Planecraft 102
- Review of planing techniques
- Apply them to 3 real life board scenarios to teach you how to:
- Create panels
- Wide, and long boards
- Live, unedited video of flattening a 12/4 x 18 x 102″ difficult grained African Mahogany slab.
Panel Gauge
Building By Hand Without a Plan
- Discusses the philosophy behind building by hand
- N more cut lists and exacting measurements of the power tool work
- Relative dimensioning and changing designs to accommodate the inexactitude of hand milled pieces.
- We put this methodology to the test and build a panel gauge
Final Project: Hanging Tool Cabinet
This piece is a monster with plenty of storage to accommodate your tool kit now and long into the future. During construction every technique from semester 1 will be put to the test. Build this piece and consider it your graduation gift and a testament of your newly won hand tool skills.
What Does it Cost?
- Semester 1 contains: 12 lessons, 14 projects, over 40 hours of video!
Only $200!
