We are very excited to announce that the first-ever Fine Woodworking Live! The event will be held this summer, August 2 – 5, 2012 at The State University of New York at New Paltz, where you can see the pages of Fine Woodworking magazine brought to life before your eyes.

Fine Woodworking Live is truly a first for Fine Woodworking’s readers. It’s your chance to enjoy the company of other passionate craftspeople as you learn from the experts whose work you’ve seen in our pages. Live demonstrations and hands-on workshops are at the heart of this limited-attendance event.

This three-day conference will give you the opportunity to enjoy a range of sessions created specifically for this event. Friday and Saturday will each start with a general session, followed by three complete small-group sessions on topics by each expert. On Sunday, a range of additional sessions will be offered for specific concentrations on detailed areas of interest.

And there’s a special event planned for Saturday night, when Nick Offerman, star of NBC’s “Parks and Recreation” and a die-hard woodworker, will be the guest speaker at our Banquet dinner.

Fine Woodworking Live is a can’t-miss weekend for anyone looking to dive deep into the craft, guided by the best and the brightest in the field of woodworking. Plus it’s a great chance to meet fellow woodworkers in an engaging, enlightening, and fun event. Attendance is limited so reserve your spot today!

Tickets Now Available
Click here for ticket and event info!

Presentations

5 Ways to Bend Wood
Instructor: Michael C. Fortune
The ability to bend wood to exact shapes opens up an incredible range of possibilities for furniture makers, adding flowing lines borrowed from nature, more pleasing to the eye and hand. Chair parts, table aprons, cabinet doors, and a host of other parts can be made with precisely bent components. In this entertaining workshop Michael Fortune will demonstrate steambending, laminating, vacuum-forming, hot pipe bending and kerf-bending,  and explain exactly when to apply each one. As Michael says, “If you can create a shape with a strip of paper without creasing it or tearing it, you can bend a piece of wood to the same shape. Come and learn how!”

Decorative Details
Instructor: Garrett Hack
Details can make all the difference. From the traditional to the playful, they can add interest and dazzle, resolve transitions, soften edges, or draw attention to some aspect of a design. Join this reknowned furniture maker, hand-tool expert and teacher as he works through a wide array of practical details, from simple edge chamfers that catch the light, to fine inlaid string lines, flush beads and proud cockbeads outlining edges, to patterned bandings and even how to work with shell, silver, and bone.

 

Make Your Hand Tools Work Like Magic
Instructor: Roland Johnson
You can save a lot of money by buying antique tools. Fine Woodworking’s tool expert Rollie Johnson brings his most popular roadshow to you, showing how to take any old handplane and turn it into a shop workhorse. He’ll cover normal and low-angle bench planes, plus chisels, too. He’ll tell you what to what to look for and what to look out for, and then demonstrate the simple tools and techniques for a successful tune-up. As a bonus, attendees can bring along their own flea-market finds for a live appraisal.

 

Essential Workbench Jigs
Instructor: Matt Kenney
A solid workbench is an indispensable tool. But most people never unlock its full potential. The good news is that a few simple shopmade bench accessories can take your work to another level. Armed with these jigs, you’ll find it easier to do all the core activities: hand planing, sawing, routing, assembly and finishing. But you’ll excel at a number of specialized tasks, too: like chopping dovetails and shooting the end grain of a drawer front for a precise fit. Matt will demonstrate four elegantly simple bench accessories:  a shooting board, a saw hook, and planing stops for thin and thick boards. Plus he’ll bring along two other favorites you probably haven’t seen before: bench horses and a bench stage, and hand out measured drawings for every jig.

Classic Construction: How to Make a Piece Last 200 Years
Instructor: Steve Latta
Wood, even when cut, dried, milled properly, is a vital, breathing  and moving entity that needs to be respected. Proper case construction takes into account wood’s need to move and react with its environment.  Using real pieces, Federal-furniture master Steve Latta will explore the anatomies that work, those that don’t, and why.  He’ll also demonstrate a few of the fundamental joints that stand the test of time. Time permitting, he’ll cover the best ways to build: tables, tables with drawers, bookcases, chests of drawers, sideboards, and even spice chests. This is the foundational knowledge that every woodworker needs.

Are Your Tools Truly Sharp?
Instructor: Michael Pekovich
Sharpening is a gateway skill for woodworkers. Without it you’re limited to power tools and sandpaper, but with it, the whole world of hand tools opens up. And working with hand tools is not only more fun, but can also be faster and yield better results. It’s a win-win situation, but only if your edges are truly sharp. After using hand tools for 25 years, and being at Fine Woodworking for 15, Mike has seen and tried every technique out there. His seminar will cut through the marketplace clutter and conflicting advice to focus on the simple techniques and tools that yield razor-sharp results every time. Even if you have your sharpening method down pat, you’ll take away invaluable tips from this seminar.  As a bonus, Mike will demonstrate his foolproof method for sharpening a card scraper.

 

Sunday Electives

The Handmade Drawer
Instructor: Christian Becksvoort 
Location: Student Union
Fine Woodworking’s longest-standing contributing editor has been putting hand-dovetailed drawers into Shaker furniture for 40 years. As a working pro, Chris has refined the process into to a deft, foolproof system. Learn his systematic approach for making beautiful, smooth-sliding drawers joined with hand-cut dovetails, the hallmark of fine woodworking. Tips and tricks include: cutting tails first, sawing two tailboards at once, and clever alignment blocks. Plus, he’ll show you how to get a perfect fit every time.

40 Years of Woodworking Tricks
Instructor: Christian Becksvoort
Location: Student Union
The way Christian Becksvoort has kept his one-man shop in business for four decades is by constantly learning, finding ways to improve his work while trimming valuable minutes from each process. Here are his favorite tips for furniture makers of any level–the best ways to add beauty and quality to your work, and do it faster. You’ll get a wide array of secrets, for everything from cutting dovetails, pegging tenons, and turning beautiful knobs, to graduating the sizes of drawers, predicting wood movement precisely, and turning a single photo into a full project plan.

Make Any Bandsaw Work Beautifully
Instructor: Michael C. Fortune
Location: Woodshop (Attendance limited to 12)
The bandsaw can be one of the most accurate and safe machines in your workshop… providing it is set up properly. Debunking decades of “expert” advice, Michael will demonstrate how any 14-in. bandsaw old or new can be used to cut precision joints and resaw flawlessly, without high tension, after-market accessories, or expensive blades. He’ll cover new tires, blade tension, blade selection, and proper blade-tracking while tuning up a saw in SUNY New Paltz’s woodshop, and then give his amazing tips for cutting curves and resawing. “I purchased my small bandsaw in 1974, tracked the blade once with only modest blade tension, installed the factory fence parallel to the miter slot, and I have not had to adjust it in thirty-five years,” Michael says, and he has proven his method on the bandsaws at woodworking schools throughout North America.

Unlock Your Inner Designer
Instructor: Michael C. Fortune
Location: Woodshop’s hands-on room (Attendance limited to 20)
Winner of Canada’s highest award for custom craftsmanship, Michael will demonstrate the brainstorming process he first learned in industrial-design school. In this hands-on session, participants will use foam-core board and hot glue to quickly explore the limitless form possibilities within a defined size. This is how contemporary furniture designers take a specific commission and deliver something unique. In classes like this across the continent, Michael has proven that everyone has this ability.

5 Handplanes I Can’t Work Without (and 3 More I Love)
Instructor: Garrett Hack
Location: Student Union
Stanley once made well over a hundred planes, and they would have loved for you to own each one! On the other hand, an 18th century cabinetmaker had just a handful. A world-reknowned teacher, author, and furnituremaker, Garrett falls somewhere between the two extremes, owning plenty of planes but using just a few every day. Some are vital for the single tasks they do exceptionally well, such as smoothing a surface or adjusting the shoulders of a joint. Others are multi-purpose, like his #4 that can smooth, joint, cut bevels, and a lot more. He’ll demonstrate why every one of his core planes is on the list, and why you should consider owning three others. Plus he’ll show how to tweak the performance of each one.

Tune Up Your Tablesaw
Instructor: Roland Johnson
Location: Woodshop (Attendance limited to 12)
The tablesaw is the center of most workshops, but most woodworkers experience problems with it, from burn marks and imprecise cuts to dangerous kickbacks or worse. Fine Woodworking’s most machine-savvy author will show you how to quickly overhaul your saw, making its adjustments easier and more accurate, and making every type of cut safer and more precise, leaving a surface that is almost ready for finishing. It’s not difficult, and the time spent will pay dividends for decades to come.

7 Steps to Beautiful Boxes
Instructor: Matt Kenney
Location: Student Union
It’s easy to make a box but hard to make a really attractive one. Because they are small, the slightest mistake in proportion, wood selection or construction is magnified. Our best box-maker on staff will walk you through his process. Along the way he’ll explain design guidelines that guarantee good proportions, show how to resaw boards for perfect four-corner matches, demonstrate simple jigs that guarantee accurate joints and perfectly fit parts, and reveal the simple and quick finish he uses.

Tablesaw Throwdown: Are You Tapping Its Potential?
Instructor: Steve Latta
Location: Woodshop (Attendance limited to 12)
Most of you can probably do the tablesaw basics: ripping, crosscutting, dadoes, rabbets, slots, and such. But unless you’ve seen Steve’s jigs and tricks, you probably haven’t tapped the machine’s potential.  After a brief glance at tune-up, he’ll dive into joinery, accuracy, and working efficiently by milling multiples. Then he’ll walk through advanced techniques that will take your work to another level: pattern sawing, advanced mitering for carcase construction, dovetailing on the tablesaw, and more.

Turning Furniture Parts
Instructor: Philip C. Lowe
Location: Student Union
Even if you don’t consider yourself a turner, you will eventually encounter furniture projects that require some turning. Phil Lowe has developed elegantly simple ways to create the coves, beads, and smooth shapes that furniture parts require. He’ll start with custom knobs, nicer than anything you can buy, and then move on to an ornate chair stretcher, and then the offset turning at the bottom of a cabriole leg. If nothing else, you’ll be amazed at his ability to talk and turn at the same time!

Carve a Ball-and-Claw Foot
Instructor: Philip C. Lowe
Location: Student Union
At first glance, the ball-and-claw foot seems like a woodworking Everest that only the greatest carvers can reach. Phil Lowe knows different. With the right approach, and by using the natural contours of common gouges, anyone can do it. The surprisingly straightforward process is one of the secrets of period furniture-making, and Phil will reveal it to you in this fascinating seminar. Once you see him do it, you’ll go home and impress your friends with this gorgeous example of the woodworker’s craft.

Router Joinery
Instructor: Gregory Paolini 
Location: Student Union
Fine Woodworking’s best router jockey will show you how to use this simple tool to make perfect joints of all kinds. Gregory will start by explaining which routers you really need, and give the basic tips for success and safety. Then he’ll work his way through a wide range of indispensable joinery cuts, some using the tool handheld, some on a router table. He’ll start with clean rabbets and dadoes before moving on to accurate lap joints and perfect-fitting mortise-and-tenons.

The Only Finish You’ll Need
Instructor: Michael Pekovich 
Location: Student Union
Every woodworker knows the joy, and stress, of putting on the first coat of finish. It can bring out the beauty, but it can also highlight every flaw. Add to that the wide range of dyes, stains and finishing products, stir in decades of confusing advice, and the process can get downright scary. In this class, you’ll learn how to create a silky smooth, low-luster finish that is perfect for almost every project. The secret is to choose wood wisely, forget about all the dyes and stains, and stick to a simple wiping varnish. But there’s more to it than following the instructions on the can. Mike has a straightforward method for each step, from prepping the surface to building up a smooth coat and finishing it off with wax. You’ll never struggle with finishing again.