Posts Tagged ‘shannon rogers’

I just heard that Shannon Rogers of The The Renaissance Woodworker blog is starting a new course for people who want to learn hand tools. His Hand Tool School rightly claims to be the first online video based apprentice scheme.   It doesn’t matter where you are in the world, if you speak English, you can learn from Shannon.  I just think this is such a great idea and in some ways I think this is the future of all education.  Of course, there is no substitute for hands on, one-to-one training.  But that comes at a cost.   Plus with The Hand Tool School, you can replay each episode as much as you like.  You can’t rewind a real life course.

Shannon has designed this course just like a traditional school programme.  There will be semesters (what we in the UK call terms), field trips, homework, live hands on sessions and much much more.  He is basically taking the student, step by step through using hand tools to ultimately create full projects.  Each lesson will build on the last, introducing either a new tool or a new technique.  I think it’s right that he is starting with a very basic set of tools.  This won’t be a tool gloat fest, showing off the uber-expensive collectors toys.  The first episode covers workshop basics and a first look at stock prep and the term continues with everything from dovetails to inlay.  The videos are not 2 or 3 minute shorts, they will be feature length and packed with knowledge.

I really think Shannon is on to something here and a lot of woodworkers will benefit a great deal.  The cost seems pretty reasonable when you compare it to just a single day of tuition.   Over a year, It works out less than 2 magazine subscriptions!  I wish Shannon all the luck with this new venture and hope many of you will benefit from his teachings.  Sign up for his free preview of the first episode and see what you think.