Popular Woodworking 2004-08 № 142, страница 85

ate Michael Mulrooney works in Ed Krause's shop in Minneapolis, Minn., and teaches at the Wild Earth School in Hudson, Wis.

But many of the students who pass through the doors of Rosewood are there for the shorter courses taught by the school's faculty and a rather impressive roster of visiting woodworkers - Garrett Hack teaches there regularly about hand tools; Chris Pye teaches carving; Yeung Chan teaches joinery.

The students come from all over the world. Americans in particular have benefited recently from the Canadian exchange rate. (For example, the $7,900 tuition in Canadian dollars for the 12-week course translated to less than $6,000 in U.S. dollars in March. A one-week course costing $800 Canadian was $607 in U.S. dollars - a good value.)

The Peaceful Bench Room

After the students get their tools sharp, they move to the bench room, an "L"-shaped room that wraps around the primary machine room. Machines are forbidden in this room, which has high white walls and large windows that look out on the river. Fifteen European-style workbenches line the walls with a cabinet above each for the student's tools.

Today the students are practicing dovetailing with a gent's saw or are tuning up their smoothing planes to true up a maple board.

The room is relatively quiet, and one of the students gazes out the window for a few peaceful moments before returning to the

Making your own tools is one important part of the curriculum for the students in the intensive 12-week course at Rosewood.

maple on his bench. Another student scurries off to the bakery a few doors down for a cup of coffee and a warm pastry.

In a few weeks, these students will build a piece of furniture using the skills they are learning today. First they will make a rough sketch. Then they'll build a mock-up using 2x4s and cardboard. They might even have to make full-size drawings.

It sounds like a lot to accomplish. But the most important lesson they'll learn, Van Norman says, is to avoid rushing a project.

"One of the things we stress here is slowing down and working on the details," he says. "That is what really makes a piece. We talk about production work. We show them how to efficiently do multiples and make jigs for repeating complex operations.

"But what we focus on is how to make one-of-a-kind pieces."

Instructor Robert Van Norman's tool cabinet is filled with tools he has made or modified during h is career as a woodworker.

Van Norman, a professional woodworker for 17 years, finally pulls out a small wooden plane from his cabinet that has an exotic-wood sole. This plane, he explains, was made for him by Krenov. He places it next to a set of astonishingly tight and curved dovetails he cut recently, then looks up from his bench.

"I really like watching the students develop," he explains. "James Krenov would be the first to tell you that we spend a lifetime learning (woodworking). And now I'm here helping students at the beginning." PW

This walnut and rosewood knitting cabinet This French walnut table was completed by

was built by graduate Vicki Rosenzweig. student Rotem Almagore of Tel Aviv, Israel.

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