Class Description

Custom furniture, timber frames, doors…the common denominator they rely upon for structural integrity and durability is the mortise and tenon joint. In this class, you will lay out and cut this joint, using a saw, chisel, and mallet.  You will then use these skills to build an attractive bench collaboratively.  At the end of class one student will have the opportunity to own the bench for the cost of materials. 

  Here is a bit of woodworking philosophy: the demands of your workpiece force the development of skill.  We are not simply cutting a series of arbitrary joints to practice a set of techniques, only to be forgotten before they are needed.  We can see our desired outcome, and will develop the requisite skills to achieve it.  It's purposeful, challenging, and ultimately, a far more efficient way to learn and apply foundational woodworking skills.

  This particular bench, a design that emerged from a live-edge slab of walnut that wound up in my workshop, brought me joy when I prototyped it around 12 years ago.  It features through-tenons that are wedged in the benchtop, blind tenons to join the rails to the legs that are draw-bored and pegged, and keyed tenons to hold the curved stretcher to the rails.  This combination of mortise and tenon joints taught me a lot about accurate layout, furniture design, and the pure satisfaction of hand-tool joinery to create a durable, useful object that pleases the eye. 

April 18-20 9am-5pm and July 11-13

$375 Instruction fee

The bench will be raffled to the students for the price of materials ($130)