12-Week Furniture Making Course Content
Our 12-week Fine Furniture Making Course immerses you in the art of crafting exquisite, high-quality furniture. The program begins with foundational skills like hand tool preparation and usage, essential for any fine furniture maker. Through carefully supervised projects, such as creating an octagonal cutting board or dovetail bookends, you’ll gain mastery over your tools.
After building your core skills, you’ll advance to larger projects like crafting a high stool, incorporating precise joinery techniques and using woodworking machinery. These projects expose students to complex design elements, such as compound angles and batch production, while emphasizing both hand and machine skills.
The High Stool Project
After 3 intensive weeks, you’re ready for your first major project: making a high stool that blends beauty and functionality. This project represents a turning point in the course, allowing you to apply your hand skills to a more complex and rewarding build. The high stool is not just a piece of furniture; it’s a lesson in fine joinery and precise shaping, blending traditional craftsmanship with the strategic use of woodworking machinery.
At this stage, you’ll explore techniques such as cutting joints by hand and machine, shaping components with both hand tools and power tools, and mastering the design and use of jigs. You’ll also learn the subtleties of compound angles and delve into batch production techniques. The process is challenging, but the results are stunning—a finely crafted stool that showcases your progress as a fine furniture maker.
The Chest on Stand with Piston-Fit Drawer
As the course enters its final stage, you’ll take on a defining project: the Chest on Stand with a piston-fit drawer. This is where your skills will truly shine, as this project demands a high level of craftsmanship. With two exquisite designs to choose from, you’ll tackle a range of advanced techniques, from crafting a dovetailed carcase and a tapered-leg base to constructing a complex drawer with half-blind dovetails and a precision-fit piston mechanism.
This project embodies everything you’ve learned, combining traditional handwork with the use of machines. It requires precision, patience, and a deep understanding of woodworking principles. The satisfaction of fitting a piston drawer with perfect precision is unparalleled—a true mark of fine craftsmanship. By the end of the course, you will have created a masterpiece that symbolizes not only your skill but also your growth as a furniture maker.
In just 12 weeks, our students immerse themselves in a comprehensive blend of traditional hand skills, the use of both portable and stationary power tools, and a mastery of both classic and contemporary furniture-making techniques. The results speak for themselves—each student completes a series of exquisitely crafted pieces of fine furniture, designed not only to showcase their newfound skills but to stand the test of time.
These creations bring joy to those who use them and serve as lasting reminders of the high level of craftsmanship achieved in such a short period. Every piece is a testament to the perfect synergy between a student’s dedication and our expert instruction—a proud symbol of what can be accomplished through focused learning and hands-on experience.
12-Week Furniture Making Course Highlights
- Tool selection, preparation and use.
- Learn the Waters and Acland sharpening method.
- Create a series of small ‘skill building’ objects such as cutting board and Chinese puzzle.
- Gain control of chisels and planes.
- Accurate marking and measuring techniques.
- Understanding workshop drawings.
- Cut joints by hand and machine.
- Cut precise dovetails.
- Create a dovetailed book end.
- Major Project 1 High Stool.
- Understanding workshop drawings.
- Jointing by hand and machine.
- Adhesive selection and use.
- Project assembly.
- Jig making for portable and machine tools.
- Streamlining production for batch products.
- Hand shaping.
- Full machine shop training.
- Surface treatments and wood finishing.
- Major Project 2 Chest on stand with drawer.
- Choose from 2 beautiful designs.
- Selecting and purchasing timber.
- Precision carcase construction.
- Dovetail drawer box making.
- Piston fit drawer fitting process.
- Half blind dovetails.
- Dealing with the pressure of the glue up!
- Advanced machining techniques.
- Advanced wood finishing techniques.
- Jig making for portable and machine tools.
- Further machine shop training.
- Edge profiling and shaping.
- Wood turning.
Application process
No formal qualifications or previous woodworking experience are required but a passion and energy for learning new skills are a must. So contact us today and we will inform you of current availability and send you the application form for our 12 week Fine Furniture Maker course 2025. It’s important to note that courses do fill up well in advance of the start date.
If you would like to plan well ahead and reserve a place for ’12 week Fine Furniture Maker 2026′ then contact us for details.
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