Summer 2025
August 11-15

In this five-day class, students will learn the process of building a wall cabinet with groove joints, dovetail joints, and mortise & tenon joints. This project class follows the program from our 3-month course, Foundations of Woodworking I. Skills learned in this class will include material assessment, layout and drawing, and plenty of time with hand tools. Tools used include saws, planes, chisels, and various layout tools, including dividers, story sticks, and marking gauges.

In this five-day class course, you will build a cabinet designed to be wall-mounted and can be used to store anything from woodworking chisels to your favorite keepsakes. In constructing this cabinet, you will enter into the world of the pre-industrial artisan in which nearly all the dimensioning, joinery, and smoothing was done with hand tools.

Materials for this class will be pre-dimensioned for thickness & rough width. We will discuss the 6-square process of dimensioning, but the supplied stock will have that step done. The crafting of the cabinet will focus on proportions and geometry with the students’ hands as the defining unit of measure. Skills practiced will include above mentioned dimensioning, sawing materials to length, practicing simple dovetail joints, practicing lap joints, and mortise & tenon joints. Keeping the joinery simple is the basis of making this project a successful week-long class. Other skills include surface preparation with block planes and smoothing planes, driving fasteners, installation of hinges, hasps, and traditional finishing.

Concepts and skills covered:

• Material assessment

• Layout practices

• Precision hand sawing

• Joinery production

• Case assembly and glue-ups

• Hardware installation

• Decorative detailing

• Bench plane use and adjustment

• Use of various types of fasteners

• Finishing

Tools 

PTSW will provide all necessary hand tools for this course. Each student will be provided a bench equipped with layout and edge tools.

Recommended:

• Any personal hand tools such as chisels, saws, and planes

• Any personal layout tools such as squares and dividers

• Personal protective equipment

Prerequisites 

Some skills required. A general understanding of hand tool operation such as sawing and planing is required. Completion of a PTSW Weekend Essentials course or the Beginning Hand Tool Woodworking course would be sufficient. Please let us know if you have any questions about your suitability for this course at info@ptwoodschool.org.

Class Information and Registration

Class runs from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm Monday to Friday 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.
Sign up for the waitlist if the course is full.

Class size: 10
Cost: $940
Materials Charge: $100