Nine-week woodworking classes for people who want to understand the process, get the joint right and make work worth keeping.
Every new student starts with the same six-project foundation, but not on the same timetable. Work across each row to see the variation; move down the page to follow the progression.
The first project is about learning to read timber rather than rushing to a result. Students flatten and refine a board, learn grain direction, develop control with handplanes and begin understanding how solid timber behaves as it is worked.
The mallet introduces joinery and controlled machine work. Students make and fit a mortise-and-tenon connection, use chisels accurately and learn how machining, hand-tool refinement and careful fitting work together in a piece that must also withstand use.
The cheese knife shifts away from square joinery and into shape. Students use rasps, files and abrasives to create controlled curves, fair a surface by eye and hand, and understand how a small change in profile can completely alter the feel of an object.
The keepsake box rewards accuracy. Small errors become visible quickly, so students learn to work carefully through layout, joinery, assembly and fitting. It is also one of the first projects where modest design choices can change proportion, timber selection and character.
The picture frame makes accuracy repeatable. Students refine mitres, use handplanes and jigs to correct tiny errors, and learn why a clean-looking joint depends on preparation, reference surfaces and a reliable process—not simply cutting a 45-degree angle.
The stool or side table pulls the previous projects together into a small piece of furniture. Students have to think about joint strength, repeatable parts, squareness, machining order, assembly and finish while producing something that must work structurally as well as visually.
Start with six set projects: breadboard, mallet, cheese knife, keepsake box, picture frame and stool/side table. Work through them at your own pace, then begin designing and making your own work.
Returning students get first refusal on their existing class time. We provisionally hold that place until the priority deadline, usually two weeks before term begins. To keep it, pay for the next term or explicitly confirm that you are returning before the deadline. Unconfirmed places are then released publicly.
Our term classes are popular, and current students get first priority on their existing class time. That means some sessions can fill before places are released publicly.
There are always places for new students across the timetable, but the exact day or time you want may not be the one that opens first. Join the waitlist, tell us what would suit you, and we’ll contact you when a suitable spot becomes available.
If you can do more than one class time, tell us below. A little flexibility usually means we can place you sooner.
Each class runs for nine sessions. Exact first and final dates vary by class day so we can avoid public holidays; the precise dates are shown when booking.
After the six set projects, students begin designing and making their own work. The archive below is intentionally broad: cabinets, tables, seating, small objects and one-off experiments made as skills, confidence and design judgement develop.
The teaching comes from working furniture makers and designers, so technique is always connected to how real furniture is designed, machined, joined, assembled and finished.
Brendan Cody is a furniture maker, educator and co-founder of Chisel & Dowel. His teaching centres on the practical foundations of furniture making: reading timber, accurate marking out, safe machine use, hand tools, joinery, assembly and finishing. Brendan’s approach is deliberately hands-on—demonstrate the process clearly, explain why it works, then give students enough space to develop confidence through repetition. He works across the full foundation sequence and helps students carry those skills into increasingly independent furniture projects.
Niall McConnachie is an experienced woodworking teacher with a background in furniture design and professional design practice. He has been closely connected with Splinter Workshop for many years and also develops and makes furniture on commission. At Chisel & Dowel, Niall brings design thinking into the workshop: proportion, construction logic, timber choice, drawing interpretation and the sequence of making. His teaching is especially useful when students move from a prescribed exercise toward resolving their own furniture ideas.
Sebastian Wood is a designer and maker specialising in bespoke furniture, architectural joinery and cabinetry. His professional background includes production coordination in timber furniture, furniture-making work with established Sydney studios and more than six years of teaching experience. Sebastian brings that production knowledge into class: accurate machining, clean construction, sensible workflow and the judgement required to turn a drawing into a well-resolved object. Students benefit from both his technical experience and his understanding of how furniture is actually made in a professional workshop.
Chi Yusuf is a fine furniture maker whose relationship with woodworking began early, including making a stool in her grandfather’s shed in Cyprus. She later trained formally as a fine furniture maker at the Sturt School for Wood in the Southern Highlands and now works from a Sydney workshop. Chi brings a careful, tactile approach to teaching—hand skills, shaping, joinery, surface quality and the small details that make an object feel resolved. Her classes balance technical precision with an understanding that good furniture is also about touch, proportion and material.
Orest Danylak is a co-founder and course coordinator at Chisel & Dowel, with a background in architecture, furniture design and professional furniture and joinery making. His work is driven by design problem-solving: proportion, material, construction and finding practical ways to make unusual ideas work. In the school he helps shape the project sequence and works with students as they move from the set exercises into original work. His teaching often focuses on connecting design intent with the realities of timber, machinery, joinery and fabrication.
Liam Munich is a furniture maker, Sturt graduate, Splinter Workshop member and Chisel & Dowel teacher with a particularly deep interest in tools and machinery. He is the person students often end up talking to when a cutter, handplane, jig or machine setup needs explaining properly. Liam’s teaching combines technical knowledge with practical workshop problem-solving, helping students understand not just which tool to use, but how setup, sharpness, workholding and sequence affect the result. He brings an approachable, conversational style to detailed technical instruction.
Chisel & Dowel operates at 10 Commercial Road, Kingsgrove, alongside the professional designer-makers of Splinter Workshop. Students learn in a place where furniture is being designed and made every day.
Adults 18+. Complete beginners are welcome, as are students returning to improve technique, machinery confidence and furniture-making skills.
Timber, tools, machinery and normal consumables are supplied for the first six projects. Students supply timber and special materials for their own later projects.
Maximum two make-up classes per term with at least 24 hours notice. Make-ups depend on space, cannot roll over and are not available in the final week.
This is a working machinery environment. Students must follow teacher directions, complete inductions before machine use, wear suitable enclosed footwear and stop immediately if directed. Participation involves inherent woodworking risks.
Send us a note about term classes, starting as a beginner, returning to class or anything else you need to know.
Prefer email? hello@chiselanddowel.com