Course Overview
In the One Week Course, you will learn from the ground up, the professional methods that ensure exactness in your woodwork. We introduce the fundamental disciplines, setting the stage for quality furniture making.
The course mirrors the first week of our Six Month Professional Maker and Twelve Month Professional Designer/Maker courses. As such, students with us for one week start to get to grips with the same skill and accuracy, that is associated with Rowden trained professional makers.
How your hand and body relate to bench planes, chisels, and hand tools in general, is critical to their correct application. You will learn to hold them, to position yourself at the bench, and work with your whole body, not just your forearms. We will teach you to create dead flat surfaces, plane adjacent square edges, and create dimensioned components. You will do this all with relatively simple tools to an accuracy of 0.25 mm. We look at tool set-up, sharpening (independent of unnecessary honing guides), assembly and finishing techniques. It is a rewarding and intensive course that gives you a taste of the demands of professional-grade woodworking.
Where this course can take you
One week at Rowden provides students with the foundational knowledge of accurate and precise cabinetmaking. However, even in just five days, students feel a shift in mindset. It should open your eyes not just to the work we do at Rowden, but to what you can achieve with a tool in your hand. A week at Rowden will often ignite a fire, with students finding themselves keen to push harder and see what they can achieve. Having spent time at the workbench and experienced our methods it is not unusual for this to be a prelude to our full six and twelve-month courses. Regardless, students will also be able to take advantage of our daily lectures alongside students already enrolled full-time at Rowden, covering a wealth of more advanced furniture related subjects.
Your Tutors
Jon Greenwood, Jonathan Walter or Ed Wild generally guide students through this course. Each is an exceptional maker in their own right. You can find our more about them and the rest of us at Rowden on our Meet The Team page.
Logistics: Getting to Rowden
Every year around 99% of our students are coming from elsewhere in the UK or the world. In our short courses, students often want to test life at the bench, seeing if Rowden is the right environment for them. Students at Rowden are anywhere between 18 and 80. Universally there are logistics to consider.
Can I do this? Where will I stay? How will I get around? What is Devon or the UK like? We can help with all of these questions. Our FAQ’s page will answer most but get in touch if you would like to discuss your specific situation.
Course Tuition Fees:
One Week Course:
starting before August 2024: £995
starting from September 2024: £1,050