Tuition: $1,465 Can
Materials Fee: Approximately 10 bdft of 4/4 material, available at current market prices
Please see our Calendar for dates (please note this is a 6-day class running Monday to Saturday)


Canadian musician, woodworker, and educator Tom Fidgen from Belle Cote, Cape Breton Island, has written for Woodworking, Fine Woodworking, Popular Woodworking, and Canadian Woodworking magazines, and is the author of Made by Hand: Furniture Projects from the Unplugged Woodshop and The Unplugged Woodshop: Hand-Crafted Projects for the Home & Workshop. We are delighted to once again have him join us at Rosewood for his 6-day hand tool intensive “It Starts With a Box”.

Tom writes:
90% of wooden projects share the fundamental skills involved in basic box making, so I think that this is a great hand tool only, six-day class. Students start with a plank of dimensioned wood, and proceed to design and build their own unique “boxes”.
Using less than 10 board feet of lumber, students will each design their own project, deciding whether theirs will hang on a wall like the cabinet in Made By Hand, sit on another surface like a jewelry box, or be designed to carry things with them, like the pochade box in The Unplugged Woodshop.

The orientation of the individual boxes may differ, but the joinery will bear a lot of similarities, regardless of its orientation. During this class, students will learn the skills of creating a full size drawing, assembling a cut list, choosing grain direction and how to lay out their components in order to wrap grain around the carcass for continuity. We’ll cut dovetails for carcass joinery, and rabbets and grooves to create frame and panel backs, bottoms and tops. Once the carcasses are complete, we'll look at fitting drawers and cover the techniques used in cutting traditional half blind dovetailed drawers.

This class has lots to offer woodworkers of a wide range of skill levels, from those just beginning to the more advanced looking to improve their hand tool skills.

Tool List
While student tool kits are available at the school, attendees are encouraged to bring along their own hand tools kits where possible, sharpened and ready to put to work. Tom suggests the following:

Layout Tools
measuring tape
pencil
12 to 24" metal rule
8 to 12" engineers/combination square
scribing knife
marking gauge
dovetail gauge and/or sliding bevel gauge
small layout square
set of dividers


Dimensioning Tools
Rip and crosscut cut panel saws
Jointing and/or Jack plane
Smoothing and block plane

Joinery Tools
Rabbet and/or plow plane
Shoulder plane
set of chisels
mallet/hammer
dovetail saw
carcass saw
fret saw