Project-based Intensive Course

The first is called a "Project-based Course" and is suitable for beginner to intermediate woodworkers wanting to go home with a project under their belt. The standard course involves 5 days of working one-on-one with Hendrik, building the black cherry side table shown below. Although the table is a wonderful project to take home, the emphasis is on skills and safety throughout. By the time you complete the course, you'll be very comfortable using most of the machines in Hendrik's workshop. You will use the tablesaw, jointer, thickness planer, drill press, router (hand-held and in a router table), random orbit sander and handplane. You also learn to do edge-gluing and face gluing for leg blanks. And you'll never look at wood quite in the same way again. You'll learn a lot about "reading the grain" and generally how wood behaves.

The other thing to consider is that this project-based course has the unique ability to "put it all together", so to speak. In other words, Hendrik could teach you all of the components separately in one-on-one sessions or in a seminar format. But that doesn't have the same effect as learning all of the steps one by one, in the correct order, and finishing up with a piece of furniture in the end. Furniture building is about more than just a list of loosely linked procedures. It's a whole process and it's invaluable to see one project through from rough lumber to finishing.

This course can be lengthened to incorporate more time-consuming techniques such as mortise-and-tenon joinery or even to add a small drawer to the table.

The beauty of the course is that you go home with a stunning piece of cherry furniture as well - the same table you'll see on the "Gallery of Work" page of this website. The project is shown there as Hendrik's "Tapered Leg Side Table".

Build this beautiful cherry side table with tapered, fluted legs.

The second approach is a purely skills-based course. Hendrik now offers customized intensive courses that last from 5 to 25 days in length and focus exclusively on acquiring skills rather than on building a project. You go home with an armload of joinery samples, perhaps a drawer, a set of sharp chisels and a finely fettled handplane -- not a project. But you go home with many new skills, some new joinery techniques under your belt, and a strong will to continue perfecting your skills at home.

This kind of intensive course is still suitable for a complete beginner, but might be more enticing to an intermediate woodworker compared to the cherry side table course. The skills-based course is also vital for people flying in for courses from a great distance away, since the cost of shipping a relatively large completed project home can be prohibitive. This second approach is a very intense program involving numerous techniques, cramming as much learning into a short time span as possible.

The beauty and flexibility of this second approach is that the student can pick and choose from a list of topics, piecing together a customized course of any length from 5 to 25 days. Because you get to choose the topics according to your fancy, Hendrik calls this program his "Buffet-Style" Customized Intensive Courses.

Here is a list of the subject-matter that you can choose from to piece together an intensive course of any length:

• Setting Up a Home Workshop (1/2 day);
• Tuning Up Power Tools (e.g. changing and setting jointer and planer knives, band saw tune-up, etc.) (full day)
• From Concept to Plan (1/2 day);
• Wood Science and Design (1/2 day for abbreviated version, full day for full version including furniture tour);
• Table Saw Safety -- proper techniques and safety training (full day);
• Milling Rough Lumber -- proper technique using the jointer and planer (full day);
• Using your Bandsaw and Resawing on the Bandsaw (1/2 day);
• Basic Router Operations (a router and router table overview) (1/2 day);
• Making Templates and Template Routing (1/2 day);
• Tuning Up Hand Planes (full day);
• Sharpening Hand Plane Irons and Chisels (1/2 day for abbreviated version, full day for in-depth hands-on experience, including card scraper tune-up and burnishing);
• Hand Planing Techniques & Using Scrapers (1/2 day);
• Edge-gluing a Table Top and Hand Planing it Flat (1/2 day);
• Breadboard Ends (full day);
• Finger Joints on the Table Saw (1/2 day);
• Dowel Joinery and Dowel-reinforced Mitre Joints (1/2 day);
• Making Splined Mitre Joints (1/2 day);
• Making Simple Mortise and Tenon Joinery (full day);
• Making Through Wedged Mortise and Tenon Joinery (1/2 day if already taking simple mortise and tenon joinery component);
• Bent Laminations (includes making the form, resawing laminations, glue-up, clean-up and parts completion) (2 days);
• Hand-cut Dovetails (both through and half-blind) (full day);
• Making Tapered Table Legs (1/2 day);
• Making Your Own Mouldings (full day);
• Making Large Cove Mouldings on the Table Saw (1/2 day);
• Making Raised Panel Doors (full day);
• Making Drawers (full day);
• Working with Plywood (full day);
• Preparing the Surface and Staining (1/2 day);
• Hand Finishing and Rubbing Out (1/2 day);
• Master Level Hand Finishing Series (includes surface preparation, staining, finishing and hand rubbing techniques)(2 days);
• French Polishing Technique (1/2 day);
• Starting and Running a Woodworking Business (full day - small business consultation rate applies to this component).

FAQ's:

Policies re: Intensive Courses

Hendrik's Philosophy on Teaching

"My view on my teaching has always been to empower people by giving them knowledge," Hendrik says. "It gives me such pleasure to see an amateur, or perhaps a woman who has never had the opportunity to try woodworking, excel and find a hobby that will give him or her great satisfaction for years to come. The idea is to give the student a grounding or some basics so that he or she can become a self-learner. In time, the student will become more self-sufficient and learn not only from me, but from books, magazines and just plain 'the hard way'. There is definitely something to be said for 'learning by doing'."

And he goes on to say, "My goal is to spend those first few projects teaching a framework of skills based on the project at hand. I concentrate on instilling a desire to achieve accuracy. I encourage the student to concentrate on accuracy and safety at the same time, as both must be present if you are going to enjoy this craft."

"The learning process is more important than the actual project being built. What is important is that you are learning methods, approaches and ways of thinking that will allow you to design and build your own designs in future."

"My goal is that after getting a groundwork from which to start, you'll make a decision on whether you are serious about pursuing this craft. If you're serious about it, then you'll start setting up or making improvements to your own home workshop. Slowly, but surely, you'll do more and more of the work alone in your own shop while coming to me on a more sporadic basis for advice. Eventually, I hope to see you only once every few months when you need some advice on a more advanced technique that you are ready for. Slowly, my role changes from teacher to mentor or sounding-board."

"In fact, due to the time involved in building any fine project, it is necessary that your projects with me be on the smaller side. You learn the techniques on the smaller pieces and then use the knowledge that you gain on your own larger projects. Larger projects should be tackled at home on your own time, where you are not paying me by the hour."