Summer 2025
August 18-23

Build a table using pre-industrial artisan techniques in this six-day workshop. Get ready to break a sweat, learn to hand chop mortises, dimension stock with hand planes, and practice precision layout with minimal reference surfaces. This class is inspired by a class we ran with Joshua Klein in 2018. 

Please note: it is important to have reasonable hand strength and physical stamina to be successful in this course. Much of your time will be spent standing, chopping mortises, hand planing, and hand sawing.

Starting with a pile of rough boards, direct from the sawmill or lumber yard, we will work through the entire process of building a table using primarily hand tools in this six-day course. 

With so many woodworking courses, there are large barriers to going home and repeating the project you just built. The need for large, expensive machinery, dust collection, and endless gizmos and gadgets. For professionals, the investment in this equipment makes sense and leads to repeatable efficiency, but for the hobbyist who wants to build their own furnishings, it can be out of reach to have a large shop space and thousands of dollars of equipment. In an age before industrial-level machinery was available to the average consumer, people furnished their own homes with handmade goods that ran the gamut from rustic to refined. Think of this as a course in furniture of necessity or democratic furniture. Tables for the people!

Course Objectives

Working from a set of rough parameters, each student will build their own table. While the maximum size will be predetermined, you could choose to build a small coffee table, a side table, a hall table, a small desk, or an end table. This course relies heavily upon mortise and tenon joinery, which can be applied to a wide range of furniture types. 

For this class, we will be bringing in a bunch of 4/4 and 8/4 lumber. Many species work well, but in our area of the world, we like to work with alder, poplar, cherry, beech, and a few others. This table will most likely be alder but may vary based on supply.

Learning Outcomes

This class is going to be packed with lessons on hand tool woodworking, with a few other side topics introduced throughout. 

• Stock selection and considerations for breakdown 

• Rough breakdown with hand saws (option for bandsaw)

• Dimensioning with hand planes 

• Story stick layout 

• Hand-cut mortise and tenon joinery 

• Creating tapers, reliefs, and chamfers with hand tools

• Finishing surfaces with handplanes 

• Sharpening and tool setup 

• Discussion and demo of finish options

Tools 

Required:

PTSW will be providing all the tools needed for this course. However, if you have any of your own tools, it is valuable to get comfortable with them, and we can even help with set up and sharpening during the course. Bring along any tools you already have.

Suggested:’

Here is the bare bones recommended kit for this project. We’ll be using a few other shared tools, but these will be the most useful: 

• Fore plane or scrub plane 

• Jack plane 

• Block plane 

• 1” bench chisel 

• ¼’’ or 5/16” mortise chisel (STRONGLY RECOMMENDED) 

• Hand drill with brad point bits or battery drill 

• Marking gauge (double pin is helpful)

• Square

• Hand saw (large cross cut saw, western or Japanese)

• Rip saw (large rip saw, western or Japanese)

• Joinery back saws (rip and cross cut)

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to info@ptwoodschool.org.

Prerequisites

Open to All. This course will be fast-paced and physically demanding. It is recommended that you have some basic hand tool practice, such as one of our weekend hand tool classes, but mostly it is important to have reasonable hand strength and physical stamina. This course includes 48 hours of classroom time, much of which will be spent standing, chopping mortises, hand planing, and hand sawing. For the more experienced folks, it will provide an opportunity to deepen your knowledge and experience with hand tools. If you have questions about whether or not this course is a good fit for you, please don’t hesitate to reach out to info@ptwoodschoool.org.

Class Information and Registration

Classes run 9:00 am to 5:00 pm Monday through Saturday in Building 315 at Fort Worden. Map
Please read our What to Expect page for general information about the School.
Please also read our Registration Policy.
Please sign up for the waitlist if the course is full.

Class size: 10
Cost: $1,130
Materials Charge: $150