AN IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE: TWO WEEKS IN ENGLISH SUMMER COUNTRYSIDE, MAKING A BEAUTIFUL TOOL CHEST, WITH HAND TOOLS, GUIDED BY EXPERTS. ONLY A SMALL HAND FULL OF PLACES.
Come to Rowden in beautiful Devon in England. One for an INTENSIVE two week Workshop . Be a part of Rowden next summer, for two whole weeks . Share the summer evenings over a glass or two with your tutors. Last two weeks in August we are inviting this guy Chris Schwarz to come across the Atlantic and work with us.
Chris will lead us in building a dovetailed tool chest in the first week. In the second week lead by Daren Millman and David Savage you will decorated the inside with veneer cross banding and a special Rowden Sunburst. ALL IN JUST TWO WEEKS.
Years ago I admired a 19th Century cabinet makers tool chest, it was plain grey paint on the outside but shone like the sun when you opened the lid. These chests were the makers sales catalogue. Put it on a wheel barrow and wheel it to the job “Ok, open the lid, lets see why you can do? ”
Rowden at the moment is populated by steel engineers tool boxes . Its Darens fault, he was the first with one in the shop and everyone naturally copied him. So next summer we are going to replace them with Real Cabinetmakers Tool Chests .
Week One: you build a chest in Magnolia, dovetailed construction with two drawers and storage for saws and planes below. Chris Schwarz is an inspirational teacher and passionate advocate of woodwork and the use of hand tools, how doing stuff like this is good for us and makes us feel good. He has run this class to international acclaim. His book The Anarchists Tool chest and his publishing house Lost Arts Press are valuable contributions to maintaining and encouraging woodworking hand skills at a time we are deskilling at an alarming rate.
Until now, his class has left with a chest built but always left the inside unfinished. 
An Earlier Version of the chest you will make.
NEXT: Tomorrow i will tell you about how we will finish this chest off with a marquetry panel veneered and cross banded till and drawer fronts. This is when the Brits take over.
Because Daren “doesn’t do” hot glue, disliking “the smell of death”, David Savage will show you how to use hide glue to crossband the tills and drawer fronts.
Throughout the two weeks you will also have our regular Rowden tutors Jon Greenwood and Ed Wild wandering around to help and support you. Thats a student tutor ratio of about 3 :1 thats a better student teacher ratio than Cambridge!
AUGUST 24th TO SEPTEMBER 4th 2015
These are the dates. See you in the summer for two weeks of happy, smiling, beer soaked PRODUCTIVE exhaustion.
very best
David Savage
