Getting most out of these essential woodworking hand tools

Instructor - Craig Stevens

• January 12, 2025 9am - 4pm (1 Sunday)

This course is a primer on using handplanes. Learning the proper techniques for adjusting and using handplanes truly elevates woodworkers ability to fit, fine-tune, shape, and smooth, woodworking projects.

We’ll explain how this essential tool works, the proper form for handplaning, and how to choose which planes work best for the task at hand. When used correctly, handplanes are a joy to use, and they’re often the best tool for making wood projects tight-fitting, flat, and smooth.

The different topics covered include:

- Traditional metal body Stanley-style bench/block planes and the modern versions made by premium makers

- Specialty planes like the router plane and shoulder plane and how they excel at fitting joinery

- Japanese and Krenov-style wooden planes, both of which Craig used extensively throughout his furnituremaking career

- How to hold the workpiece while planing, including useful jigs and fixtures

- Troubleshooting planes

You’re welcome to bring in your own handplanes, but please know this is not a restoration course. When going over how planes function, we’ll discuss how to do some of the finer tunings to get the most out of the tool, but planes in a rough state are beyond the scope of this course.

Handplane Basics is scheduled for the same weekend as our Basic Sharpening class, (separate registration) which takes place the previous day, September 21. We recommend registering for both classes since the topics are so closely related.