Classic Hand Tools Demonstrators Profiles - Westonbirt 2008

Cabinet Making Skills

Rob runs several week long courses in Canada and is in demand as a demonstrator for many organisations in the USA. He has visited the UK several times and his demonstration/seminar on hand cut dovetails is always extremely popular. He has produced fourteen DVD’s on various woodworking techniques and worked with established master makers in the USA and the UK.

David Charlesworth teaches fine furniture making skills, writes technical articles for magazines, makes instructional DVDs and has three books on technique published.
He runs fine furniture making courses at his workshop in Hartland.  There are five-day courses available in the spring and summer whilst twelve week, full time courses start in September and January.  The introductory course on sharpening, plane tuning and plane use is a revelation for those who struggle with hand tools.
For more information see: www.davidcharlesworth.co.uk

John Lloyd trained in cabinet making at West Dean College, West Sussex and studied antique furniture restoration and conservation, graduating with distinction.He was awarded the City & Guilds of London Institute First Prize in Advanced Studies in Furniture.
Apart from his many private clients, his commissions include work from Sotheby's, Christie's and St Paul’s Cathedral, as well as site work for the National Trust.
John runs intensive short courses in furniture making, antique furniture restoration, traditional hand finishing, veneering & laminating and machining at his own workshops in Sussex.  He also takes a few students each year who wish to study full time with a view to starting a new career.
He writes monthly articles in Furniture & Cabinet Making magazine and his book 'Furniture Restoration a professional at work' is a collection of these articles.
John is a full member of The British Antique Furniture Restorers' Association.

Mark is a designer and maker of handmade traditional and contemporary furniture and interiors.
Construction of his furniture is of the highest standard, combining traditional woodworking techniques with contemporary craftsmanship using only the finest materials incorporating unusual and figured timbers from local sources. This enables him to select valuable logs before they get to the timber yard.
His workshop is on the edge of beautiful open countryside in the historic market town of Malton in North Yorkshire. The workshop itself was originally the old stables serving the Fitzwilliam Estate and is set in its own courtyard, overlooked by what was Earl Fitzwilliams' fine residence, now The Old Lodge hotel.
After completing a degree in Interior Design at Kingston University, Mark studied Architecture and Interior Design at the Royal College of Art, receiving an MA in 1999. He has been working almost exclusively in fine woodwork since 2000.

The Austrian Woodcarving School, situated in the beautiful Tyrol, runs bi-lingual courses throughout the year. This is their first visit to Westonbirt and will be represented by Pascal Wirth. Pascal will demonstrate Austrian and Tyrolean wood carving techniques. As with all the teachers at the school Pascal is a highly experienced master carver.
Pascal is well known to the numerous students who have visited the school from the UK. He teaches a variety of woodcarving classes including carving animals and human form. Pascal is a fluent English speaker.

David Bennett began his career in woodcarving while studying for his bachelor of fine arts degree at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania in 1976.  While developing his art, he became interested in boat building, sail making and ship carving.  Eventually he combined his formal education in sculpture with nine years of practical experience as a boat builder and sail maker.
David's unique style of woodcarving combines the theory of a painter and the tools of a sculptor to create an art form that goes beyond traditional low relief.  Treating the carving as if it were a monochromatic painting, he uses wood and light to create the values and contrast needed to condense the third dimension of his sculptures.
In 1986, he started Falls Run Woodcarving, primarily as a custom carving shop and woodcarving school.
The Flexcut design of carving tools was a direct result of running the carving school.  People would visit from all over the United States to learn the techniques David used for relief carving.  Many of them brought their own tools, of varied sizes, shapes, styles and manufacturers, including some that were homemade.

Chris Pye has been woodcarving since 1975 and is a am a member of the Master Carvers Association. As a carver, his work is mainly commissioned and ranges from architectural to figure carving; including furniture, lettering, bedheads, fireplaces, mythical and abstract sculpture.
As a teacher, Chris specialises in 1-to-1 personal woodcarving tuition in England and regularly teaches carving courses in the USA.
As a writer, Chris Pye is the author of many well-respected carving books, including: 'Woodcarving Tools, Materials & Equipment' (2002); 'Lettercarving - A Practical Course' (1997), 'Relief Carving in Wood - A Practical Introduction' (1998). He also writes write articles for several woodcarving magazines.
More information can be found on his website: www.chrispye-woodcarving.com

Mark has lived and worked in Wales since 1986. During that time he has become one of Wales ' foremost woodturners.  He has won awards at the National Eisteddfod and with the Worshipful Company of Turners.
Mark's work ranges from decorative, functional bowls to vessels, hollow forms and more recently wall pieces.  His work is motivated by the pursuit and exploration of line and form rather than an effort at an artistic statement.  With the thin walled vessels he tries to achieve the purist possible curve. Then he carves away areas adding life and movement to each piece.  This creative process has led from the vase like hollow vessels with exaggerated rims, which have become Mark's trademark pieces, to the more open sculptural forms.
"Delicate and with a difference" is how Mark's work has been described and it is the reason he was commissioned by the UK Government in 1998, has work included in private collections and exhibits at prominent galleries worldwide. Mark will be demonstrating the Munro tool plus others from the Classic Hand Tool range.

James is a full time Windsor chairmaker. He divides his time between making chairs to commission teaching chair-making and has written for both Furniture and Cabinet Making and Good Woodworking.

Five years ago he was asked to take over from Jack Hill, teaching chairmaking at West Dean College, and after enjoying the experience so much he set up The Windsor Workshop to teach students at his farm in West Sussex. Last year he moved into a new, purpose built workshop, which was designed for teaching. He runs courses regularly throughout the year, and offers a series of course chairs beginning with a bow-back side chair.

James also makes a range of wooden travishers and spokeshaves suitable for chairmaking.

James specialises in American-style Windsors, but in recent years is developing his range to include more English chairs.

Konrad is the owner of Sauer and Steiner Toolworks. This is Konrad’s second visit to the Festival of the Tree. Click Here to see what he had to say about the 2007 show. Working out of his custom shop in Kitchener Ontario, Konrad makes some of the finest infill planes ever made. He not only draws on the knowledge of the past, but he has used his skills to innovate and improve upon the designs. These planes are a melding of art and function. Sauer is in the enviable position of having a long waiting list for his hand made precision tools.

Phil Edwards

Bill served his apprenticeship as a Carpenter & Joiner. He began making planes in the 1970's, these were always made out of timber. In 1983 he made his first metal plane and in 1987, began making planes full time.
Bill makes all his planes by hand using only hand tools. His speciality are miniature mitre planes, using the brass backs of disguarded tenon saws.
Bill is self taught and has never had any metal work tuition, It's all been learnt by trial and error.

Nick Blishen

Following over 20 years working in the electronics business as a prototype wireman, test engineer and a design draughtsman (in the good old days when we still put pen to paper, not stared at a computer screen all day), and due to gross mismanagement, the firm I was working for suddenly announced that half of the staff was to be made redundant. I decided to jump ship and do something I had always wanted to do.
From a young age I'd enjoyed working with wood, and had also been obsessed with music, guitar especially. My plan for a long time was to try and combine the two, and on discovering a guitar-making course run at the City of London Polytechnic (formerly the London College of Furniture), applied, and ended up there for 4 years, learning as much as I could about instrument construction.
When I left the college (by now renamed the London Guildhall University) I set up my own workshop specialising in making and repairing early guitars.
Eventually, I was asked to teach a guitar-making evening class back at the University (by now renamed the London Metropolitan University). This was followed by working there part-time teaching Hand Tools (sharpening, planing technique etc.) and guitar construction, and am currently teaching and running a Degree course in Musical Instrument technology full-time.

A year ago Nick Gibbs launched British Woodworking magazine, having previously editing The Woodworker and Good Woodworking. In just 12 months Nick has established British Woodworking as a refreshing mag for serious
woodworkers who want to learn about British craftsmanship, cutting edge techniques, and the best tools. There is a focus on British timber, British toolmaking and British design, and now Nick is launching a new magazine called Living Woods, which is is aimed at people with a wider interest in woods, trees and timber. The magazine covers anything from timber-framing to green woodworking, the environment and bushcraft.