Verified course · human-reviewed May 2026Beginner English
Hand-Cut Joinery, Fundamentals
The four joints that carry every piece of furniture I've built — sawn and chiselled by hand, no jigs, no shortcuts.
What you'll learn
- Saw to a line — the skill the whole craft stands on
- Chop a mortise that's square all the way down
- Cut dovetails without dogma (tails first, fight me)
- The drawbore: joints that pull themselves tight forever
- Fix gaps honestly instead of hiding them in filler
The practice brief
The Corner Sampler
One frame corner joining a through-dovetail to a drawbored mortise and tenon. Post it assembled and apart — the inside faces tell me everything. Expect margin notes.
74 student submissions — completion means posting yours.
Curriculum
15 lessons · 5h 10m- Marking out with a knife, never a pencilPreview11m
- Reading grain before you cut it13m
- The €120 starter kit that does everything here9m
The review, in the open
Every course is scored 0–5 against a published rubric by a working maker before it can be sold. This one was reviewed in May 2026, and re-audited since.
5/5
Accuracy
5/5
Completeness
4/5
Production
5/5
Structure
5/5
Honesty