Join us September 22nd for our next On-line Workshop!
Dovetails are the signature joint of fine woodworking. Learn how to hand cut these beautiful and strong corner joints in this two day Online Workshop.
The Online Workshop concept goes like this: For the first half hour or so on Tuesday evening I will introduce the concept of a dovetail joint and demonstrate how to cut a simple through dovetail. This is my notorious five minute dovetail. It is a wonderful warm up exercise, dovetail primer, and a chance for me to watch the students work.
I will then take some questions and after a time move on to sawing techniques. I will demonstrate a practice exercise that improves everyone's dovetail joinery. Simple exercises like this are the key to getting past the mystique of how to put angled joints together. Then to finish the evening, I will discuss how to lay-out through dovetail joints and how to cut them the tails and make them right.
The second evening on Thursday students will have a chance to work on the techniques learned Tuesday as well as ask questions about the issues they ran into when cutting tails. From there I will demonstrate how I mark out the pins and cut and fit those. Students will get a chance to try these techniques themselves and ask questions throughout the evening. We will finish up with some simple tricks and fixes for less than perfect joints.
A few comments about our Online Lectures and Workshops.
"I just wanted to drop a quick note to say thank you for the class this week. I really enjoyed it and learned a lot! Hoping to sign up for another one soon. This morning I threw a Hock blade and breaker in my Bailey #4. Wow, you weren’t kidding about the difference. It’s a whole new tool now." Zach
" I loved the inlay class, and was amazed how quickly those skills could be learned in the online format." Colin R.
" I appreciated the “close up” photos that you showed a couple times during the 5 machines episode. I especially like your insights and tips. Keep them up!" John K.
“This was my first virtual Woodworking class and I had my doubts as to how it would work out. I was pleasantly surprised that the class was interesting and useful, well worth the time and 25 bucks. Also, good to have a look inside your shop.” Dale T.
"I wanted to give a personal thank you to Gary and everyone involved in the hand planes webinar. I was learning and smiling the whole way through. Truly an amazing job!" Casey T.
"Thank you Gary for the fine session. I really enjoyed it. I thought the online training via Zoom really went well, like I had a front row seat. I love hand planes and learned some good tips last night. Your use of props was good and like I said, I found it very informative and organized. You know your stuff." Rick W.
Studio is Open!
There will be protocols in place for the Studio at large: daily disinfecting before and after classes, social distancing for each student at their own bench, class size limits, and a camera on the teacher's bench with a feed to a television screen so everyone can see close up work. Students will be required to bring a mask to come into the Studio.
The Northwest Woodworking Studio understands the concerns we all have about safety. No student or staff member with COVID-19 symptoms are permitted access to the Studio. We will do everything we can to keep our students and staff safe. We also hope that everyone uses good health practices not just in the Studio but elsewhere as well: twenty second hand washing, covering coughs & sneezes, avoiding personal contact, and plenty of rest.
Do what you can to be a model of calm in a stormy sea. Come and work at the bench. It will do you a world of good. Let's all get through this together.
New!
Join Gary on a Question & Answer Session on YouTube
Methods for Taming Tear Out
Gary answers a reader and student's question about taming tear out by changing the angle on a chip breaker. Sometimes you have to also adjust your hand plane to accommodate this modification. Change your plane's frog position, file a wider mouth opening or file the chip breaker to adjust to the blade better.
The Northwest Woodworking Studio Podcast! If you like what you hear, please check out our Ko-fi page to lend your support.
Shea Vollstedt Mastery Bench
Matthew Kanomata Inlay Work
Gary's new book is out: Handmade: Creative Focus in the Age of Distraction.
It is part narrative and part discourse on the value of mastery, practice, and creativity in this time of attention disorder. The book argues for the need to create, for using our hands to help us engage with the world, and the value of failure and forgiveness in our work.
Please check out this link to our merchant site to order your signed copy of Handmade.
"Dear Gary, Just a quick note to THANK YOU for your book, Handmade. I enjoyed it so much that I read it twice, and extracted even more wisdom on the second reading! The only other 2 books I have ever read twice are Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and Catcher in the Rye! I have also gifted it to several friends and recommended it to many. Thank you for enriching my life!" Mary Ann Carmack
Handmade argues for the need for individuals and for cultures to remain creative, to stay curious, and to keep engaged with the physical world as a means of thinking more clearly.
Gary Rogowski: Master of Joinery
Our Studio Director Gary Rogowski has received much acclaim for his book The Complete Illustrated Guide to Joinery
. It is now in its 18th printing and translated into German, Korean, and coming in Chinese. Here's what the website "The Best Things" has to say:
There’s no more thorough and readable guide to joinery than this new book from expert woodworker Gary Rogowski. The Complete Illustrated Guide to Joinery uses full-color, step-by-step photo essays to show you how to make every practical woodworking joint. Over 1,400 color photos and drawings illustrate the methods, from simple butt joints to angled tenons and complex scarf joints.
UPCOMING MASTERWORKS CLASS WITH GARY
Joinery Concentration: Mortise and Tenons
Joinery Concentration, June 15-19, 10am to 5pm, Monday through Friday.
Joinery is a mixture of accuracy and patience. Come and learn how to design and lay-out and make great mortise and tenon joints. Get practice every day at the bench making hand cut joints. This will improve all of your work at the bench. Work with hand tools, band saws, and routers as you make a small table with leg and apron construction. This class counts as a prerequisite toward applying for our
Mastery Programs
The Mastery Study Program
Invest in Yourself
Mastery Graduate Chair by Paul Barker Signature Table by Peter Stevens
The Mastery Study Program is your best opportunity to learn the art and practice of fine woodworking. Learn techniques for design and building that will last a lifetime. Join any of our Mastery Programs, spend time at the bench and invest in your education. Invest in yourself.
Request a Prospectus for any of our Mastery Study Programs.
Mastery Program Graduate
The Studio is located at 1002 SE 8th Ave, Portland, OR 97214 503-284-1644
Meet Gary Rogowski
Trained as a writer and teacher, Gary decided right out of college to learn the craft of woodworking. His life had changed when he found an old hand plane and a chunk of fir outside his place in SE Portland. He made his first piece of furniture with that wood. You can see that hand plane sitting on top of one of his tool cabinets still. When he bought his first Yates American band saw, his work changed. Sharing his passion for the craft and his love of teaching, join us at the Studio to study with one of this country's finest educators.
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