Garrett Hack
August 14-18
Hand tools open up new vistas of efficiency, accuracy, and enjoyment for every woodworker, even those with modest skills. Garrett designed this class to ramp up hand skills for smoothing surfaces, jointing edges, fitting joints, working to a pattern, cutting beads, and a whole lot more. Each student hones their skills by building a small table with lots of design possibilities.
The course uses machines lightly and where they work most effectively—to bandsaw legs and cut mating mortises and tenons—but otherwise focuses on typical tasks that hand tools do best, such as flattening, truing, shaping, and smoothing surfaces to a polish. Garrett discusses ways to integrate hand tools into your work process, sharpening, tuning, and lots about detail and design. To make best use of their class time, students are expected to prepare materials for their tables in advance, following instructions provided by Garrett.
Garrett Hack builds contemporary interpretations of classic forms on his farm in Thetford Center, VT. A furniture maker for 48 years, Garrett originally trained at Boston University’s Program in Artisanry. He is the author of The Handplane Book (Taunton Press, 1997) and Classic Hand Tools (Taunton Press, 1999). He is a contributing editor at Fine Woodworking, former chairman of the New Hampshire Furniture Masters, and teaches throughout the U.S., as well as in Canada, England, Germany, Italy, Austria, Australia, Spain, Israel, and Japan. His website is garretthack.com.
Open to all except absolute beginners.
