Wood Studio on the Big Hole River in Southwest Montana
Teaching Fine Woodwork
We offer five and ten-day workshops for adults wanting to learn fine woodworking skills. Five-day courses will focus mainly on use of hand tools and joinery. Ten-day courses will allow for designing and building a modest piece of fine woodwork. Classes will be limited to 2-4 individuals to allow for close supervision and adequate space.
The curriculum will be tailored to the skill level of the participants. People of all skill levels are welcome. Individuals with little to no experience with woodworking machinery and power tools will be closely supervised and helped along with an emphasis on safety. Participants are encouraged to bring their own hand tools and measuring devices.
The wood studio and cabin are located on the Big Hole River 2-3 miles downstream (east) of Wise River, MT.
Requirements/Ground Rules
Age 18 or older.
Verification of health insurance.
Sign release of liability form.
Appropriate attire- comfortable shoes or boots with good sole grip, long hair tied back, and avoidance of loose-fitting clothing that could interfere with use of power tools or get sucked into machinery.
No smoking inside the wood studio or other buildings.
Patience and enthusiasm.
What to bring:
Safety glasses
Hearing protection
An X-Acto Knife with a #2 blade (from any hardware store). Keep the packaging to store it in.
Optional- Thin, good grip shop gloves are helpful. Bring any of your own hand tools such as hand planes, chisels, mallets, and measuring devices.
Workshop calendar- Pending level of interest. Contact us for dates May-September.
Curriculum
Short lectures as needed.
Have a plan- If you don’t have one, we’ll start one. We’ll start with an idea, then a concept, a design, and a stepwise milling, cutting, and construction plan.
Start with sharp- The first order of business is to sharpen hand tools needed for the day. A redundancy of sharp tools will keep you on task and reduce risk of injury to yourself or your woodwork from a dull tool. Sharpening will be done on Japanese water stones.
Getting to square- milling wood square is essential. It starts with grain mapping. You can never have too many measurement and squaring tools.
Getting to flat- there will be a strong emphasis on the use of hand planes, both western planes and Japanese as the project allows. Seeing milling marks on your piece is not flat. Flatness starts with the sharpening stones and ends with a straightedge.
Plan your joints- determine the dimensions of all surfaces of your joint.
Scribe and cut your joint- scribe the outline of the joint with the X-Acto Knife or other marking tool. Often cutting the joint starts with chiseling a relief outline to avoid tear out from a power tool.
Assemble the joint- What, it doesn’t fit?- Learn where to pare your joint surfaces and in which direction.
Smoothing surfaces- This is where the hand plane, spokeshaves, chisels, and even carving tools come in to play. Again, map your grain direction.
Glue-up- Protect your surfaces. Assemble dry with a clamping plan. Have everything you need. You don’t want to be running for an extra clamp. Glue is not forgiving. Good joints need very little glue. Some joints won’t need any glue. Have a plan for excess glue cleanup.
Finish smoothing your free surfaces- select which planes are best for the wood and wood grain in your piece. Now you must be at the best of sharp, both in your planes and your spare blade(s).
Finish- I generally prefer hand rubbed oil and oil combination finishes, depending on sun and water exposure to your piece. If you prefer polyurethane or lacquer, I’m not your guy. I want to touch and even smell the finished wood (e.g. walnut).
Clean-up- Every day ends with cleaning up the mess we made and putting away tools. Coming into a clean, orderly shop frees your mind to execute your plan the next morning.
Lumber
We have a fair supply of north American hardwoods at market price for modest sized projects. Wood for practicing joinery or calibrating our cutting machinery will be supplied.
Tuition
Based on number of students . Course duration may be extended to finish a project by mutual agreement. Extended courses could be arranged.
Based on 8 Hr. day for each student
1 student $320/d, $1600/5 day wk.
2 students $240/d, $1200/5 day wk.
3 students $160/d, $800/5 day wk.
4 students $120/d, $600/5 day wk.
Lodging
There are cabins for rent in the area. The Wise River Club in Wise River 2-3 miles away has small cabins at reasonable prices. Butte or Dillon are 45-60 min away and would cut into woodworking time. Melrose is about a 25 min. drive and has limited motels. There are two bar restaurants in Wise River.
On site lodging available.
Three sleeping rooms are available for rent in the cabin with a shared bathroom
All have use of 1st floor bathroom/shower and kitchen-porch-deck/dining areas. For multiple use, bathroom should be cleaned once per week and PRN by users.
Stays beyond 10 days, student is responsible for cleaning room area and washing bedding. Supplies provided with washer/dryer.
There is an RV hookup site right next to the wood studio. Cabin guests may share meals. Owner prepared meals- cost TBD.
Cabin guestroom- $100/night. Basement walkout room or four-season porch pullout- $75/night. RV hook-up $25/night.
Contact
Lee Toman
Cell- 651-587-0769 (Wi Fi calling at cabin)
Seasonal landline April-October
406-832-3327 at cabin
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