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Course testimonials
The following are comments received from students who have attended my courses:
Chris,
Thanks for the course, it was an excellent culmination to the series. I found it both informative and interesting start to finish. The skill of bending and veneering is one I hope to use more often to lift my work above the norm. Once again you managed to correctly balance the hand skills with machine work to show the benefits of one against the other and that in circumstances like this they can actually complement each other, and not oppose, and that attention to detail remains a priority with both. Overall, you managed to keep the course interesting and filled with all those little bits of experience that will assist me in the future. Thoroughly enjoyable.
Simon (Mansfield Woodhouse)
Hi Chris,
Just a quick email to thank you for an excellent week. Returning to the reality of ‘normal work’ has reminded me how rewarding it was to see something physical and tangible after a days hard work instead of a pile of paperwork and a few emails.
Covering the whole process from fettling of the tools through to turning rough sawn timber into a finished piece gave me an enormous feeling of achievement, but also a new found respect for the time and skills required to create furniture of a high standard.
Amongst other musings, the contrasting approaches of yourself and Dave to the application of machinery and traditional methods to the production process has given me much food for thought during my journeys to and from the workshop, I recognise the need for machines to speed up production in the competitive market but I intend to find a similar balance to yourselves as I feel it is important that bespoke furniture should remain hand crafted and not become soul-less through the excessive use of machinery.
I hope I will be able to return soon to further my learning but in the mean time I will practising the skills you have taught me and aspiring someday to create a hand-cut dovetail at least 90% as accurate as yours!
All the best
Darrell (Northwich)
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Hi Chris
A quick note to say how much I both enjoyed, and learned from, the series of weekend courses you ran recently. The sharpening and fettling course was a real eye-opener in terms of what can be achieved with quite modest tools and a little application. And the jointing weekends have given me a passion for hand skills which I would never have imagined possible!
Thank you for organising such useful sessions.
Regards
Bob (Skipton)
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TOOL SHARPENING & FETTLEING This course is absolutely essential if you are to make any progress with your woodworking at any level. The course is well laid out and structured and the handouts are clear and an asset for future reference. If you are serious about your hobby/new career then I can thoroughly recommend this course.
JOINT MAKING PART 1 This course has helped me to realise the degree of accuracy you need to develop to deliver an item of fine furniture. Once again Chris has developed a course which is both challenging and rewarding. The instructions and practical sessions complement each other and, again the handouts are clear and a valuable reference document for future use.
JOINT MAKING PART 2 This takes your skill level up several more levels as Chris tries to instill the attention to detail into you. Again the course is intensive and rewarding and I found myself driving home very tired but also much better at woodworking than I thought I would ever attain. Chris is a patient and knowledgeable teacher who delivers a good course at the right level for each individual.
Dave - South Shields
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The training that I received from Chris was excellent. This is not "make a Windsor chair in a weekend", this is "learn the discipline required to be a good cabinetmaker". Chris' meticulous attention to detail and amazing design vocabulary combined with sound teaching skills allowed Master and pupil (myself) to produce fantastic results in a very short space of time. We began by learning tool tuning skills and basic techniques,progressing onto the necessary skills to plan a piece of work produce the required designs, cutting lists and workshop rods to allow the realisation of pieces that looked elegant,contemporary and with a good arts and crafts grounding. I would guarantee that if you follow Chris' instruction and listen to his advice you will come away with the tools required to do good work.The pieces I produced ,having trained with Chris, are testament to this and receiving unbiast genuinecomments such as "That's a nice piece of furniture"from some of the countries top makers give you the boost required to go and achieve greater things.
Ross - Huddersfield
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What I learnt last week (week before now) has helped me enormously and I've enjoyed my woodwork this week more than I have done for a while. I think you taught me more than you realise. Just watching the way you do thinks and repeating them is making a difference.
Tim - Chateau Ponsac, France