GET TO SPEND A WEEK WITH AN EXPERT FURNITURE DESIGNER AND ASK AS MANY QUESTIONS AS YOU LIKE, AND, GET AN ANSWER.

David Savage is an internationally known and respected furniture designer and maker with over thirty years experience. As principal of fine Furniture School here at Rowden he is responsible for training a generation of young makers. David is rarely available to take a short courses but there will be a series of one week masterclasses this summer that you could join. Classes will be small with ONLY THREE students and set at a standard to suit either BASIC, INTERMEDIATE or ADVANCED. Because of the small group you will get personal one on one tuition from a world class expert.

FOR A WEEK YOU CAN JOIN THE EXTRA ORDINARY PLACE THAT IS ROWDEN WORKSHOPS

Students would have the benefit of joining, the extraordinary place that is Rowden Workshops. Here we combine making world class furniture with a teaching workshop for up to a dozen full time students. The atmosphere here is one of hard work and dedication to creating pieces designed to be worthy of outstanding workmanship. As a matter of routine our students achieve in twelve hard months a quality of work not accomplished on three year degree programmes.

Rowden is set in the heart of beautiful North Devon countryside. Whilst you have your woodworking your family or friends can enjoy a break in beautiful countryside.

Our objective is to inspire and encourage young and not so young designer makers to set up businesses and succeed as furniture designer makers. Masterclass students will for a short time become part of the workshop. You will see the work of Daren Millman, David’s expert maker, probably at work on a client’s piece, you will see students work at various stages of development, you will be invited to join in “Dimblebie lectures” (short 15 to 20 minute tea break lectures on anything from sharpening a scraper to setting up an exhibition stand), you will be invited to go to the Art class run by David where frequently we have nude life drawing as the principal subject and also you may be asked to help make the tea.

ONE WEEK BASICS COURSE . Your chance to be really accurate so you can, at last, make all joints fit.

Absolute control of all handtools giving you the pleasure of doing it right.
You in control so you finish components to the perfect fit
Accuracy of your work to a tenth of a millimetre, now thats something.
The pleasure of working with the quiet, dust free bench tools.

People make a big fuss about sharpening, it is an important doorway towards allowing you control of the cutting edge. Less push and shove, more control. So we will show you professional methods without honing guides but if you are happy using guides thats O K. By the end of the week some if not all your hand tools should be sharp and you should have a good idea of how to use them

Get control of your handtools and enjoy your woodwork more . These are quite correctly called hand tools so how your hand and body relate to them is critical to their use. You will learn to hold them properly, how to stand properly at the bench and work with your whole body not just your fore arms. Bench planes are used to get timber flat. I will teach you how to create a dead flat surface, plane an adjacent flat surface at right angles and create a dimensioned component with this simple tool. This skill will be something you will use for many years to "finish off" the fit of that joint

Stop tearing lumps out of wood and not knowing why. , You will learn to be responsive to this particular bit of wood, you will learn to cut it the way it wants to be cut and why that is important. You will gain control of the process of removing fine shavings a tenth of a millimetre of wood at a time. In this way, you will have in your hands access to creating quality.

Stop that frustration of joints that dont quite fit. In this week you will make a simple joint to exact dimensions, entirely by hand, your aim will be perfect fit, one piece exactly inside another, with clean oil polished surfaces and chamfered shiny corners. Depending upon the amount of work needed on your tools you would also have sharpened some if not all your tools and set a plane up to work correctly learning why planes may not have worked for you in the past. Hand tools like these are the way into quality work and this is the first step towards that goal. From here with this knowledge you will be able to practice alone to take these skills to the next stage.

It would help us if you can come with your own set of hand tools then David can help you set those up to work better for you. You may need to invest in a new plane or chisels if your existing tools are not suitable . We will advise on the choices available so you can have these before the course starts.

COURSE AVAILABILITY

The fee for the week is £ 750 sterling inclusive of all materials abrasives and polishes. A deposit of £ 250 is payable in advance and is only returnable should you cancel the course twelve weeks prior to the course starting date.
Courses are planned for March [now Full] April, May, (NOW FULL) July and September. Contact Margaret Hassett, assistant to David Savage on INT+0044 [0]1409 281579 for details of up to date availability or, CONTACT US NOW BY E-MAIL

ONE WEEK INTERMEDIATE COURSE. Learn to saw straight.

Over come the frustration of having to use a noisy dusty machine just to cut a straight line. AND get the hang of hand dovetails.

This is a week for students who have already mastered sharpening and the basic skills with planes and chisels. In this week you will make from pre-prepared materials a small dovetailed jewellery box. You will learn to use marking guages and cutting guages to mark out joints. Once marked out you will learn to use and to set up and sharpen a small European dovetail saw. This is the most commonly used bench saw in Fine Furniture making.

Sawing straight requires understanding and skill that is almost impossible to acquire without training. David will show you how to master that damn saw! Once cut out you will learn how to pare back with small sharp bench chisels and fit pins to tails.

You will learn to use Block Planes, Shoulder planes, and Side Rebate Planes. The box lid will be made with a “raise and fielding” to fit the box sides and a cedar bottom fitted with a simple rebate. All will be worked with hand tools including shoulder planes and side rebate planes. This will lead to polishing with shellac polish and finishing with wire wool and wax to a fine lustre before assembly. The lid of the box and box bottom will be then fitted and the job assembled.

Assembly and Polishing Once assembled you will hand plane all the outside surfaces then sand and polish and separate the lid from the body of the box. The box lid will be fitted with brass butts and will close onto mitred dry liners inside the box. The aim is for a “Rolls Royce door ” sound to the closing box lid , Woomph! not Whack !!!! . If you have time you can go on and fit feet to the box and a small handle to the lid. If you are really good you may get to fit a small tray inside the box .

It would help us if you could bring a sharpened fully functioning bench plane and small sharp chisels 2mm to 10mm. Please note this course is not about tool sharpening and we expect what tools you have to be in good shape. If you do not have these tools don’t worry. We can provide sharpened tools for you.

Course Fees. The fee for the week is £750 inclusive of all materials abrasives and polishes. A deposit of £250 is payable in advance and is only returnable should you cancel the course twelve weeks prior to the course starting date.

COURSE AVAILABILITY

Courses are planned for May (One place available) and July. Contact Margaret Hassett on INT+0044 [0]1409 281579 for details of up to date availability or email NOW URGENTLY

ONE WEEK ADVANCED COURSE Chairmaking

This workshop has a world wide reputation for the quality of it’s chair design and making. This is an opportunity to make, under the supervision of senior craftsman Daren Millman, a David Savage original design called Harry’s Chair. Making this chair will teach you the basics of chair design and small workshop batch production.

Rods and Templates. You will see how rods and templates are drawn up from design drawings, how maquettes or scale models are used to develop a design idea and how those ideas are turned into a prototype chair.

Component Preparation. From pre-machined components you will joint up chair legs and rails using a strong modern joint suitable to a small workshop.

Spindle moulder. You will use the spindle moulder to prepare curved rear legs to template using male and female formers against a ring fence.

Curved Backs. You will use a vacuum bag press to create a curved back component on a pre-existing female mould.

Assembly and hand work. Assembly and hand fitting of the crest rail are the final stages of a busy week

This one week advanced course is only available to students who have attended the intermediate course

COURSE AVAILABILITY

The fee for the week is £750 inclusive of all materials abrasives and polishes. A deposit of £250 is payable in advance and is only returnable should you cancel the course twelve weeks prior to the course starting date. We have only two places left on our August course . Contact David Savage’s assistant Margaret Hassett on INT+0044 [0]1409 281579 for details of up to date availability or contact me by email

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