It’s been several months since we had our last Weekend Workshop, so we’re overdue. This time, we’ve got something for the advanced woodworkers in the group. And many of you who think you do only intermediate work are actually doing advanced stuff, so give yourself credit where credit is due and give yourself a challenge. The Port Townsend School of Woodworking is offering a three day workshop on “Curved Wood in Furniture Making” on Friday April 25- Sunday April 27. In our most recent survey, many of you indicated an interest in learning more about the various methods of bending and shaping wood, so here’s a great chance to learn from a couple very well known woodworkers who specialize in this form of woodworking. To see some of the work done by the two instructors for this course, check out www.sethrolland.com and www.timlawson.net . That’s another big plus for this course. There are two highly successful woodworkers presenting this workshop, not just one, as in most courses.

Take a look at the course description below for details. And here’s the deal. The 3 day workshop normally runs $395. When they had their grand opening for their new workshop space last month, they offered a 20% discount to students who signed up for classes in the month of March only. They’ve extended that for EWWG members for this class only, since I’d been talking to them about doing a bending class last fall. So the $395 comes down to $316. But wait, there’s more. As we did last fall, EWWG is offering to cover $75 of that cost for guild members who sign up for this class. We want members of all skill levels to have the opportunity to get good quality education in new methods of woodworking. So that brings the cost of this outstanding workshop down to just $241 for three full days of hands on training. Yes, there’s hands on too. That’s another thing you said you wanted more of in your weekend workshops. What can I say, we aim to please.

If you’re ready to sign up, contact Tim Lawson at info@ptwoodschool.com and tell him you’re with the Evergreen Woodworkers’ Guild and would like to sign up for the Curved Wood in Furniture Making course. He’ll arrange to take your discounted payment of $316 for the class and give you any additional details you may need. Then contact me (George Knutson) at gak512@comcast.net and I’ll generate a check to you for $75 from EWWG. That’ll bring your cost down to $241. That’s all there is to it. So, here’s the description of the course…….and if you have any questions at all, please feel free to give me at call at 425-753-4476. (We need to have a minimum of 6 people for the workshop, and there’s a maximum of 12)

George Knutson

425-753-4476

Course Description:

Curved components add real drama and life to a piece of furniture. When curved components are combined, the transition to sculpture has started.

In this course, you will learn the primary techniques for making curved pieces: Lamination, Steam Bending, and Shaping. We’ll cover stack lamination, simple lamination, tapered lamination, and how to make a proper form for bending.

We’ll cover design, how to draw curves and make templates to repeat them, and joinery that allows for wood movement. We’ll cover the shaping and profiling of curved pieces with hand and power tools.

How do you join two curved pieces? We’ll show you how to scribe and fit joints, (including some surprisingly simple ways to join curved pieces), which glues to use, and we’ll review clamps and clamping strategies.

We scale this course to what can be achieved using the tools in a home shop with reaonably priced suggestions for the various jigs and fixtures you’ll need.

As part of this course, you will design a piece with curved parts and make a mockup of it in cardboard. As the final part of the course, you will make a wood prototype of a curved leg and stretcher.