My advanced courses were designed for those experienced woodworkers who wanted to extend their range of skills and techniques beyond the basic woodworking tasks.
This could be complex shaping and compound angled joints on the chair making course, the challenge of creating piston fit drawers on the dovetailing and drawer fitting or opening new design possibilities by adding veneering and laminating to your woodworking repertoire.
Although these courses are no longer offered click through to the course page where you can find online tuition on many of the skills covered in the course via my online videos.
Back to woodwork courses.
Chair Making
Most chair making courses involve making a turned chair. My course was unique in teaching a jointed chair and allowing you to work at your own pace.
Chair making is rightly known as the acme of the furniture maker’s craft. Not only must the chair look good from all directions it must also be strong and comfortable. On this course we looked at these issues when making a copy of the famous chair made by Vidar Malmsten in the seventies. Whilst making the chair we learnt many skills with wider applications; forming complex curves, cutting compound angled joints and using a detailed workshop drawing to control a project.
This was an unusual course as it combined teaching sessions with work in your own workshop.
Dovetailing and drawer fitting
This course was designed to take your dovetailing to the next level. It was for those seeking extreme accuracy in both jointing and also drawer fitting. The aim was to make a set of double drawers with a piston fit. The sort where one drawer springs out as the other is pushed in!
Veneering and laminating
Developing the techniques of veneering and laminating enables the woodworker to create strong curved forms and decorative surfaces, thus opening up new design opportunities. On this course we learnt how to joint and lay veneers, including decorative burrs, and also how to create and use curved formers in lamination.
