Port Townsend School of Woodworking

Earlier last week my wife and I took a short vacation over to Port Ludlow, Wa.  Not too far from Port Ludlow is Port Townsend, which is another place we love to visit.  Port Townsend has great food and shopping.  They also have a nice Jazz Festival every July.  For the woodworkers out there, there is also the Port Townsend School of Woodworking.  The school hasn’t been operating that long, and was founded by Jim Tolpin, John Marckworth and Tim Lawson.

Previously I had said I was going to be taking some classes at the school and since we were going to be in the area, I thought I would see if I could stop by and have a look around. I sent of an email to the school and received a quick response from Tim, saying he would love to show me around.

After arriving in Port Townsend, we set up a time with Tim to meet at the school.  We were a little early getting there and as we pulled up, Jim Tolpin was outside unloading some wood.  He welcomed us to the school and started showing us around.  The school has a very nice set up.  The bench room is equipped with some nice Sjöbergs workbenches.  Some of the classes I have taken at other schools have had some pretty rickety benches.  It was nice to see some stout benches for a change!  Then Tim arrived and Jim had to excuse himself, we was preparing some hand planes for an upcoming class he was teaching.

We then spent the next hour or so talking wood with Tim.  I have to say, I have one of the best wives there is!  She might not had been as excited as I was, but she enjoyed the time there.  She found the conversations interesting and may have asked as many questions as I did.!

Tim talked about the future of the school, and asked questions about what kind of classes I like to take, and which instructors I would like to see come to the school.  He said they are still a somewhat new school and are trying to figure out which classes are going to work.  One of their goals is to pull in the new woodworkers, and really give them a taste of the craft.  To make things a little easier on the beginner woodworker, the school has quality hand planes and other tools the students can use.  Having some of these tools is primarily due to a very generous gift form Lee Valley (Veritas).  Tim said they have basic hand planes for each bench, so the students dont have tos share during the classes.  Also, they had many of the “specialty” planes Veritas makes, including the new Small Scraper Plane that just came out.

Tim knew I was signed up for some Greene and Greene classes with Darrell Peart.  He told me that the Hall brothers, who worked with the Greene’s had done some work in Port Townsend.  After the tour of the school, we fold Tim as he took us to one of the houses the Hall brother’s had built.

The house is still a private residence, so we were only able to view it form the outside.  I believe they worked on this house before starting their collaboration with the Greene’s.   Tim also told us about an amazing wooden boat builder that we should visit, but our time was short that day.  We will have to add it to our list for our next visit.

Even though our visit was relatively short to the school, it was the highlight of the trip for me.  My wife had just as much fun on the trip, visiting 3 Scrapbooking stores!