10 Jaw-Dropping Woodworking Shop Tours

Transcript

in this video i’ll show you 10 jaw-dropping woodworking workshops that i’ve had the honor to visit and film [Music] hi i’m joshua farnsworth and welcome to my traditional woodworking school here in earlysville virginia i’m really actually excited to share this video with you about some truly amazing woodworking workshops and craftsmen one of the things that i attribute the success of the wood and shop community to is that it isn’t just about me it’s about many skilled woodworkers who i’ve had the honor to film and visit their workshops and learn from and become friends with so in this video i’m going to share a quick summary of 10 of my favorite woodworking workshops that i’ve been really fortunate to visit over the years so each of these 10 tour summaries has at least one full video that it comes from so just make sure you look below to find the links to each full workshop tour or you can just visit woodandshop.com forward slash workshops to see all of these video tours and all the photos and articles that go along with them so you can learn more about their shops and i’d love you to comment below to vote on your favorite workshops i’d be interested to see what you think and just as a little tease the last workshop is especially fantastic so make sure you don’t stop watching until the end so let’s get started with the workshop tours our first tour takes us to new jersey to the workshop of frank klaus frank is one of the most famous woodworkers in the world this hungarian woodworker was taught hand tool woodworking by his father behind the communist iron curtain of the former soviet union after immigrating to the united states frank started his own cabinet making shop his amazing furniture making skills and fun personality drew millions of people to him through woodworking videos books and magazines after he retired he built his dream woodworking shop in new jersey and he built it inside an old water tank frank has a vast collection of hand tools and power tools my favorite part of this tour is when he surprised me on camera and said thanks for visiting my shop but i don’t let you go without me cutting you some dovetails that’s what i known from so i want to cut at least one corner of these dovetails and then just like that one video turned into two and frank still couldn’t let me go and wanted me to film a video demonstrating his monster molding plane i certainly didn’t mind these videos have become some of my most popular and i hope you watch them so you can learn from this master woodworker thanks for the fun day frank the next amazing workshop on my list belongs to hand tool expert bill anderson bill is a woodworking instructor at roy underhill’s wood right school and also at my traditional woodworking school here in virginia bill’s workshop sits concealed in the peaceful green wooded mountains of north carolina he designed his dream workshop in a way that is both functional and charming he displays his hundreds of incredible antique hand planes on custom built-in shelves throughout his workshop i’m pretty sure bill knows more about restoring hand planes than anyone in the world and if you head upstairs you’ll see some of its furniture projects in various stages of completion along with many tools and piles of wood that bill has ready to go for his classes on making hand planes and other woodworking tools i’ve had the pleasure of filming several dvds with bill on using rehabbing and making different kinds of hand tools thanks for all your inspiration bill david ray pine is a well-known historical furniture maker and restorationist who works professionally out of a scenic workshop in the lovely shenandoah valley of virginia ray has been featured in fine woodworking magazine and other well-known national publications for his work and skills as a full-time woodworker ray’s main focus is on traditional period furniture but he also has a talent for making any style that his clients request ray’s work is absolutely exquisite his detailed chair making skill and wood carving ability is what has really impressed me the most on my repeated visits to his home and workshop ray also uses a good mix of hand tools and power tools and acknowledges that even for production work sometimes hand tools are still the best choice ray’s shop made historical workbench is the scenic center point of the shop with all of his hand tools within reach but what i was impressed with most were the power tools ray didn’t have any fancy large woodworking machinery or tools and most all date back to at least the 1970s when he opened his shop yet his furniture is some of the most lovely i’ve ever seen it reminded me that the tools are important but they don’t make up for the craftsmanship aside from his full-time job as a professional furniture maker ray also teaches at my woodworking school and the students love him one of the most unique workshops that i’ve had the honor to visit and film is that a world-renowned guitar maker wayne henderson owner of henderson guitars wayne’s functional and unassuming guitar making shop is a famous stopping point along southwest virginia’s crooked road a pilgrimage route of sorts for lovers of bluegrass and old time music his workshop is adorned with stacks of exotic wood and instruments and various stages of completion wayne showed me one of the first guitars that he ever built he made it out of a cardboard box when he was just seven years old over the years wayne’s guitars have evolved and have become highly sought after he has made guitars for some of the most famous musicians in the world including eric clapton brad paisley doc watson and norman blake but as well known as wayne is he sure doesn’t act like it he’s a quiet and humble man with a humble workshop who loves making some of the world’s finest guitars and mandolins and he intentionally does it on a custom small scale non-production way and what a lot of people don’t know is that he is quite a musician as well i was awestruck at the rich sound of his guitars and his picking skills on his mandolin wayne is truly an american treasure don williams is the owner of the largest private workshop that i’ve ever been to before dawn is a well-known woodworking rider and instructor who spent his career working as a furniture finishing expert at the smithsonian museums in washington dc but he retired to his dream off-grid farm in the mountains of highland county virginia where he lives in a small chestnut log cabin with his wife but his property didn’t have a workshop so what did he do he bought a four and a half story timber frame barn on ebay this massive structure was disassembled and shipped to his property from several states away and reassembled as his workshop and woodworking school when visiting don’s workshop i was immediately struck by the scale as i walked through the wooden doors and looked straight up to the timber framed rafter above it was like walking back in time dawn’s shop is filled with vintage hand tools power tools marquetry and parquetry projects wood finishing stations and a handful of workbenches for his students his workshop which he affectionately refers to as dawn’s barn is fully off the grid that’s fed by a small stream don’s workshop and property were like heaven to a country boy like me visiting phil lowe’s woodworking school in the charming seaside town of beverly massachusetts was another highlight for me the historical brick school sits within a short walk of the sailboat filled beverly harbor the furniture institute of massachusetts is a school for woodworking students who want a custom learning experience from a world-class word worker and teacher classes range from one or two days all the way up to a multi-year full-time woodworking apprentice program phil has been featured in so many woodworking magazine books and videos that it’s hard to name them all but even more impressive is his skill as a furniture maker his high-end furniture tells the story of his ability as a woodworker phil’s woodworking school has a very comfortable layout when you first enter the school if you turn left you enter the design room where students learn how to draw full-sized plans for their furniture walking down the hall you enter the bench room where all the hand tool work is done this room is filled with workbenches and students furniture projects and the walls are filled with vintage and new hand tools i was like a kid in a candy shop when i saw them moving out of this room you enter the two rooms dedicated to power tools woodturning and lumber storage in this room phil showed me a historical marquetry donkey machine that he built to demonstrate traditional wooden picture making to his students visiting this workshop and school was such a fun experience visitors or students that come to elia bizzari’s cozy windsor chair making shop in north carolina are first greeted by a simple hanging sign along the road that has a painting of a windsor chair my first visit to elia’s workshop was when we filmed a dvd on making a continuous arm windsor rocking chair elliott built his colorful workshop out in the woods behind his house and it serves as the spot for his full-time profession as a chairmaker and teacher as a teenager he used his rough hand tools to build his first workbench which now stretches almost the whole width of his shop around that time he also decided that rather than going to college he’d rather learn to be a professional chairmaker the main floor of his workshop is heated by a wood stove and is open to accommodate his classes on chair making and green wood turning elia’s enormous lathe and band saws are very heavy vintage machines that are built to last chair parts and hand tools are scattered across the workbench surfaces and walls and is shaving horses and wood shavings complete the happy atmosphere in the woods outside his shop is where elia does a lot of the green woodworking of his operation where he begins the process of turning logs into chair parts and if you’re lucky ellia might just pull out the guitar he made with guitar making legend wayne henderson who i featured earlier in this video [Music] james huggett’s charming workshop sits on the edge of the woods in earlysville virginia just a few miles from my woodworking school james started woodworking about 45 years ago while in the united states navy he spent decades designing his dream workshop down to the smallest detail about seven years ago in preparation for his retirement james built his dream workshop in the woods behind his house and now works full-time building custom furniture for clients along the east coast his designs include large windows and skylights to provide plenty of lighting from multiple directions built-in work tables line one of the walls where he does his hand tool work sharpening and wood carving he also has a workbench in the middle of the shop along with his machinery all the machines are on mobile bases for flexibility on larger projects his ingenious and highly flexible dust collection hose reaches to any machine while the dust collector is housed in a back storage area to cut down on noise one nice touch is the attic fan housed in a couple on the roof with the push of a button he can suck dusty or smoky air from the workshop in a matter of a few seconds along the other side of james shop is his lumber storage area a shelf full of woodworking books and his design area he builds many types of furniture for his clients but his favorite styles are more aligned with traditional new england furniture including american antique styles from the newport philadelphia and boston families as you can see james is a very talented furniture maker and one of the friendliest people you’ll ever meet william brown’s workshop is a hidden treasure in his basement in central virginia and william is also a hidden treasure as a doctor by day and furniture maker by night william has largely gone unknown in the woodworking world until recently over the past several decades he has created some absolutely stunning high-end historical furniture his work includes lovely case pieces ornate chess tables dressers and chests windsor chairs and some of the most intricate tee boxes i’ve ever seen but his real talent is in wood carving he’s known for his gold-leafed bellamy eagles and other animals that adorn stately homes around the country he has made such a huge volume of high-end furniture that i had to dedicate a second video just to his furniture everything in williams workshop is in the perfect place and he has so many well-thought-out woodworking solutions tricks and jigs i learned so much in just one day william uses a good mixture of hand tools and power tools always the best tool for the job and last year right before the pandemic hit the world william opened his woodworking school called the maine coast workshop in the lovely seaside town of camden maine so if you’re going to be up that way definitely sign up for a class like i promised i’ve saved one of my favorite workshop tours for last the hay cabinet shop at colonial williamsburg in virginia colonial williamsburg is the most famous living history museum in the united states and was one of the capitals of colonial america many workshops dot colonial williamsburg but my favorite has to be the hay cabinet shop i received an invitation to film a series of videos by my friend shop supervisor corey loftime stepping inside the workshop really does feel like you’re stepping back in time the shop is an actual working shop that takes commission work from other shops and buildings within colonial williamsburg and all furniture is built entirely in a traditional way with hand tools the workbenches lathes and hand tools are all 18th century reproduction tools made in a nearby shop edward wright the journeyman harpsichord maker and bill pavlak the apprentice cabinet maker demonstrated how they cut veneer with a large frame saw apprentice cabinet maker brian weldy demonstrated traditional chair assembly and also using a treadle lathe to turn a lovely walnut spindle and finally corey showed me how to cut his secret miter dovetails you can watch all of these video tutorials and tours at woodandshop.com forward slash workshops this was truly an amazing experience well i hope you enjoyed seeing these amazing woodworking workshops if so let me know which were your favorites in the comments section down there below the video and while you’re down there i hope you’ll really consider subscribing to my channel just make sure to click the little notification bell so you won’t miss any of my future upcoming videos and please click the thumbs up button while you’re down there it’ll really help me out so i’ll see you next time here in my workshop [Music] hi i’m joshua farnsworth if you like this video i’ve got a whole bunch of other free woodworking videos and articles at my website which you can visit by clicking right here you’ll go to woodandshop.com down here if you click you can subscribe to my youtube channel and over here are some really great other videos that i think you might like to check out

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