Any Building or Carpentry Classes You'd Recommend?

Some. Other classes too. But send me more

Molly and I are traveling in Michigan this week.

Lake Superior is wild. Remote in the way I think of much of the American West. It’s take-your-pants-off-because-nobody-is-around-for-miles wild—a rare sensation east of the Rockies

We boated with Rob and camped a night on Rabbit Island. Our friends Jeff and Colleen spend summers here as well, so we saw them. Yesterday Jeff asked me “If there are any building classes or carpentry classes or anything you recommend… …Have drill, will travel.”

Mulling this over brought a few things to mind:

1. I get asked this a lot.

2. I don’t have a great answer.

3. I’d like to have a better one.

I get it. I’ve been a vocal advocate. So, it’s no surprise that roughly every two weeks someone reaches out about building schools, workshops, or classes. “Where can I find them?” Or, “Are you hosting any in the near future?” But my knowledge is sparse. And dated, given that some workshops I’ve participated in don’t exist anymore. So I figured I’d lay out what I do have, and solicit some answers so I can be a better resource going forward.

Let’s hit some bullet points…

Possibly Tom’s final timber framing workshop. He says he’s trying to focus on soft goods. But with his command of both the Hole Hawg and those short shorts, I’m hoping his timber straddling days aren’t entirely behind him.

Do you know of any schools?

I’m interested in the craft of woodworking, and there’s a romantic allure to traditional building techniques, so the organizations that have come across my radar are North House Folk School, Heartwood School, Yestermorrow, The Shelter Institute, Northmen Guild, and The Port Townsend School of Woodworking.

I asked Tom for some craft school recs, because he knows what he’s talking about and actually teaches these things. He threw out Tarweed Folk School and the Penland School of Craft. He also told me to do my own research and just Google “Folk schools.” Fair.

Here’s a comprehensive list of 30+ folk schools that came up.

There are plenty of furniture-sized programs out there to impart some familiarity with wood and tools. Woodworking icon Christopher Schwarz runs classes out of his storefront in Kentucky. Our local community college in San Francisco has a slew of woodworking courses. The Crucible in Oakland offers maker classes in just about every discipline. Surely a ton of regional options abound, but programs worth traveling for are mostly what I’m interested in. So—and I’ll barely repeat this—share ‘em if you’ve got ‘em.

Now deceased Prairie Mountain Folk School

What about contemporary construction?

Building with mud and straw and Japanese joinery is cool, but learning some modern—or at least more common—construction skills is arguably more useful.

I’d love to find my way to programs that cover building a small cabin to code, or typical home renovations. Or to get versed in the mystical ways of a seasoned roofing crew. Likewise, the finer points of drywall, plumbing, window flashing, or the secret to not losing one’s mind when tiling a bathroom.

Sadly, I’m unaware of programs for the casual builder. These trades are honed at, well, trade schools (or more likely, apprenticeships.) But I did scratch the itch a bit when I attended JLC Live. So many clinics and seminars where I was able to gather valuable scraps dropped by old pros. I left the convention intent on seeking out future trade shows.

Framing a Hip Roof—a clinic at JLC Live, by Ryan Smith aka “The Roof Slayer”

Any plans for you to host a workshop?

I’ve occasionally helped facilitate them. And we do host small workshops and build events of various types within our extended social network. But neither Molly nor I have gone so far as putting on a public, paid workshop out at our property.

I would love to do something like that. Someday. But our property is not exactly well suited for it. And frankly, I’m not positive that I’m well suited for it.

I think in a dream scenario, Molly and I might find a space more adequate for fitting for these types of occasional events and we’d bring in folks to share their crafts and maybe—maaaybe—I’d try my hand at teaching something.

Think you can help with either of those two things? Drop me a line. And if we ever do find our way to a public event, I’m sure I’ll share it here.

A-frame build party

What about other people’s indie workshops?

When I’ve stumbled across these types of events I’ve shared them on Instagram, or on this newsletter. Wildernest running a treehouse workshop earlier this year comes to mind. As does this cabin event in the Czech Republic, which Zach wrote about on Cabin Porn and I reshared here.

These small or one-off workshops can be tricky to hear about¹ and just as hard to Google. But they’re also the types of enterprising endeavors I’m most excited by and eager to share—If you’ve got a compelling workshop of any type and you’d like to get the word out, there’s a good chance I’m stoked to assist.

Now extinct Beaver Brook

Anything? Yes, any and all workshops of interest.

Folks usually ask me about building and woodworking, but the reality is that if it’s interesting, I’m probably interested—in just the past year I’ve participated in education events—generally with friends—that spanned stunt driving, wilderness medicine, marksmanship, animal tracking, high explosives, suturing, freediving, and butchering.²

I see learning new skills and doing cool shit with friends—across a wide variety of flavors—as time well spent. And likely somewhat tangentially useful, regardless of how one-time or specialized the experience may be.

I’ve probably met 40 students at Tom’s timber framing courses. And while I got the sense that virtually all of them reveled in a welcoming and collaborative building environment that afforded them a chance to surmount some discomfort and gain new competency, only a scant few were likely to ever timber frame again. But that’s not a bug—it’s a feature.

There’s a lot of value socked away in novel experiences and in niche skill building, so—one final time—share ‘em if you’ve got ‘em. If it’s interesting, I’m interested.

I passed. Send me your wounds.

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1. Just yesterday I heard about a friend of a friend’s green wood chair-making camp that had just wrapped up. “Chair Camp.” Love it.

2. Yeah… I see it. There’s a cartoonish masculinity to this list. But I also did circling this year, considered taking singing lessons, and got a pedicure today. We contain multitudes.