David Marks' Curvilinear Jigs & Fixtures Class

David Marks is a very personable, down to earth instructor with a fine sense of humor. He certainly did not take himself too seriously and was somewhat self effacing. He did not hesitate admitting that many of his techniques were by trial and error but it was readily apparent that his thought process and approach were guided by his extensive experience and knowledge as a woodworker and artist acquired while working down in the trenches. He likes to employ techniques that come from outside the woodworking norm, such as using a fencing stretching jig to form wooden staves for curvilinear surfaces or the use of die and metal grinders to shape wood to use of chemical surface treatments to combine wood with metals such as copper.

He prefers to do artistic woodworking as he can make a living from his art pieces (primarily turnings) because people are willing to pay $20K for a wall hanging but not for a table or other piece of fine furniture with over 800 hours of labor and very expensive rare hardwoods in the construction. Furniture imports from Indonesia are certainly hurting the American craftsman in trying to support themselves from their woodworking.

The Curvilinear Jigs and Fixtures class concentrated on a very complex knock-down dining table that he built for a California attorney in the late 1980s. The focus was on the assembly fixtures and band saw jigs he developed for construction of the extensive curved surfaces used in the design. This was a great chance to be exposed to David's tricks of the trade and his design and build process which surprisingly had plenty of trial and error as part of the standard process. He did focus on woodworking as a roughly defined process consisting of:

This class was scheduled for three hours but lasted more like three and half with David staying around for a good forty five minutes for one on one discussions after class. The medium for this class was a slide show with extensive discussions. On his web page, DJMarks.com, a DVD of this class is available for approximately $30. Overall cost of the class was $90.00 per person and in my estimation it is well worth it if you have a chance to attend any of David's classes. Just the tips alone are worth the cost of admission.