Mark Hennebury

Hi Derek,

I, like you jumped in boots first and figured it out along the way, but there was a lot of basic information that i missed, picking up bits here and there,. Not getting comprehensive understanding for many years, and i am sure i could got most of the important stuff in a few weeks in a well structured course.

Back in the eighties I used to run a series of night classes in my shop, they were 3 hours one night a week, for eight weeks, so 24 hours in total. Maximum of eight people to a class.

I strongly encouraged everyone to take the beginners course first.

That was about wood; cell structure, grain formation, early wood and latewood, annual rings, water and wood, shrinkage and expansion, equilibrium moisture content, mechanical design and build considerations, how wood is cut and dried, different species. Etc..

I saw this as the single most important course to take, like opening a window to understanding.

This gave students an intimate knowledge of the material that would serve them for a reference the rest of their lives. They would never look at wood the same way again. They would always look at wood from a different perspective, one of respect and understanding; anytime the saw wood they would look for clues to identify it, they would look for grain direction and cell structure.

The second 24 hour course that I taught was tuning up a handplane;

Most of this course was spent lapping the sole, and then filing, tuning, sharpening and setting it up, but the best part was at the end of the course when they made magnificent shavings. You wouldn’t believe the excitement, joy and pride of people running around the shop showing each other a perfect shaving that they had just made, with their own plane that they had just tuned up. These are pivotal moments for people. They dont forget these.

This is the type of thing that I am talking about: teaching the foundations, opening the minds and eyes to the wonders of wood and the beauty of a handplaned, surface, the thrill of doing it, and the pride in having done it.
Once you learn this appreciation, you can’t unlearn it.

I never did do a fully comprehensive one month course like I am suggesting, but having given it some thought I think it could give you all of the essential tools to go climb any mountain.

Many people came back to take various project classes, building every thing from little boxes to dining room tables etc..But to me the first two classes were the ones that made them woodworkers.