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There are three spots still open in the “precision sawing” class I’m teaching at Roy Underhill’s school this summer – July 18-20.

The classes I teach at The Woodwright’s School are a lot of fun for me and the students because Roy gets involved in the class. During last year’s sawing class Roy did some fun demonstrations of a one-man log saw and an explanation of frame saws (I actually learned quite a bit myself). We also had a good saw-sharpening demonstration from Bill Anderson, which I hope he’ll repeat).

Plus, this class is really about more than just sawing and building a sawbench. In order to construct the project, you really need to get into a hand-tool-only mindset and learn how to coax the wood instead of machine it into submission.

And there is no better place to get into this mindset than at Underhill’s school. It’s a charming 19th-century storefront affair. Wooden floors. Lots of natural light. No cellphones. And Roy has the place stocked with all manner of hand tools and books.

The small town of Pittsboro, N.C., also has its charms. The school is next to an ice cream parlor and a nice pub with a solid selection of craft beers and good food.

For details and to register, visit Roy’s web site at woodwrightschool.com.

Oh, and if you can’t make it to the class, we have a new DVD on how to make a sawbench that we filmed while I was teaching a class in our shop last year. It’s available now in our store.

— Christopher Schwarz


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Showing 10 comments
  • Andrew Yang

    Success!

    If we can organize enough Canadians, maybe we can set up a classroom and some students for the Schwarz. The winter will be over in another 6 months, so the roads to the North should be clear then.

  • Andrew Yang

    I don’t think the commenting system likes me anymore

  • Mattias in Durham, NC

    I’m honestly very surprised it took this long for classes to sell out. The Schwarz Underhill combination can’t be beat. Three days is long enough that they get bored and start coming up with some crazy stuff.

  • John

    This sounds like it is going to be a great time… I hope you are able to fill the class.

  • Go north, young man, go north.

    What are we up here, chopped liver?

    In July, Canada’s temperatures are somewhere above freezing and the polar bears don’t start walking the streets for at least another two months. You do have to keep an eye out for ravaging moose, though, no matter what time of year it is.

    How about some of these great instructional classes being held north of the 49th?

  • Paul

    It appears that the ‘Schwarz effect’ works on websites, too.

    "Server not found"

  • Robert

    Hard to beat a pub next to an ice cream joint! For the adventurous, see if you can get them to collaborate to make a Russian Imperial Stout Ice-Cream Float.

  • Pastor D. Zaster

    I took the sawing class a couple years back, in Portland…and it was great…sounds even better now. I wish I lived closer! Thanks, Schwartz.

  • Christopher Schwarz

    Yikes. That was a total brain fart on my part.

    The sawing class is in July. The plane class is in February (and is full). I fixed it above in the text. Sorry about that!

  • Hey Chris, I checked out Roy’s site and over there the Feb 9-11 class is listed as Hand Plane Essentials? Did the two classes get switched somehow?

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