Discover the Best Woodworking Classes in NYC
Woodworkers use expert crafting skills and tools to produce items for personal or commercial use. For instance, woodworking may include measuring, cutting, finishing, attaching, and modeling wood to produce dressers, tables, picture frames, wooden flooring, support walls, and couches. If you’re interested in learning this skill in New York City to start a career or a new hobby, you can choose from multiple high-quality classes that make this experience simpler.
Why You Should Learn Woodworking in NYC
Many people learn woodworking as a hobby, as it can help reduce stress and minimize anxiety. Others join social clubs, where they meet up with other woodworkers and share projects, tips, and career advice. Even if you never sell a single item, learning woodworking can expand your personal interests and make you a more well-rounded individual.
Woodworking also provides you with job skills that may improve your career. For example, furniture manufacturing firms in NYC may need woodworkers to create high-quality molds and products for their customers. Even if you don’t become a full-time woodworker, you could start a side hustle making photo frames, signs, and other items and selling them directly to customers.
In-Person Woodworking Classes & Schools in NYC
New York City provides many woodworking training options that can help you master this art. These classes include school-based learning, support from professional trainers, and material access. During each class, you’ll learn and master multiple skills, like lathing, cutting, and joining. Here are several woodworking courses in NYC that you may enjoy.
Craft a Side Table
Craft a Side Table, a hands-on woodworking class offered in Brooklyn. teaches you basic woodworking techniques used for crafting an attractive side table. It’s designed for people with no woodworking experience and gradually introduces you to tools as well as crafting methods like sanding and joining. All materials come with the course and, when you’re done, you take home a new piece of furniture.
Make Your Own Picture Frame
Are you interested in more small-scale projects, like picture frames? This course, Make Your Own Picture Frame, offered by Hudson River Maritime Museum will teach you how to do just that. You’ll learn how to cut, finish, polish, and square wood. You’ll also master grooving and joining methods that make your frames more attractive. Then, you may adapt these techniques into other projects, such as making tables.
Date Night: Craft a Side Table
If you’re looking for something fun to do with your significant other, this Craft a Side Table course may work well for you. Held by Craftsman Ave (the same team who created the first course on this list), you and your partner will craft a side table together. You’ll learn how to use skill saws, miters, lathes, and other important tools. You can then use these abilities to produce personal or commercial items.
Build Your Own Skin-On Frame Canoe
This Build Your Own Skin-On Frame Canoe course focuses on teaching you the necessary skills for crafting a canoe. Held by the Hudson River Maritime Museum, you’ll learn how to frame a canoe with wood strips, wrap its skin, and craft joints. Once finished, you have a usable canoe to take home. Most of these techniques can be used with other wood-based projects.
Wooden Spoon Carving
Another Hudson River Maritime Museum Course, wooden spoon carving teaches you how to cut hard pieces of wood to produce attractive spoons. You’ll learn various carving methods, including whittling, to produce gorgeous spoons you can use at home. Even better, you can use these techniques to produce other items, such as forks and knives, for your kitchen.
Introduction to Square Rule Timber Framing
Those interested in more advanced carpentry skills may do well in an Introduction to Square Rule Timber Framing course. It teaches you how to create structural frames for barns, garages, homes, and other buildings. You’ll learn skills like measuring, cutting, squaring, framing, and joining wood. When you’re done, you can take other classes to master home construction and design.
Virtual Woodworking Classes & Schools
Virtual woodworking classes provide benefits that in-person courses cannot. For example, if you work a full-time job or have children, you can take online woodworking courses and learn from home. Even better, you can attend workshops while you’re on the go. For example, if you go visit a friend across the country, you can take your computer and still attend classes.
Furthermore, online courses help you avoid the annoyance of New York City traffic. Rather than having to fight for a taxi or a subway seat, you can just sit at home, relax, and complete your training. Though some in-person courses in NYC may offer hybrid options, online-only classes save you that travel time and keep you safely in your apartment.
That said, you’ll have to buy your own materials and tools for online courses, which can be tough in NYC. You’ll have to carefully protect your apartment with plastic sheeting and other items to minimize wood dust. That said, virtual courses still provide a great resource for your training. On that note, here are a few online woodworking classes that may work well for you:
- In-Progress Portfolio Critique: This course includes a live professor who provides helpful criticism of your wooden art to improve your overall skills. For example, they can examine your furniture, gauge its design, and help you produce better overall work.
- Wooden Ornament Painting: If you’re interested in cute and attractive ornaments to hang on your tree or sell in art shows, this class may work well for you. It’s a beginner-level course that will immerse you in tool use, wood finishing, and more.
- Virtual Wood Burning: Wood burning pairs well with other woodworking skills to produce attractive and engaging artwork. This course teaches you about its tools and techniques to enhance your wooden art.
Private Group Woodworking Classes in NYC
Are you looking for a fun team-building event that will bring your employees closer together? Private woodworking classes may be just what you need. CourseHorse provides multiple live, online group classes that immerse your team in this art. They’ll learn important skills and techniques, such as finishing and staining wood and using jigsaws and miter saws.
These private group woodworking classes for NYC include a personalized approach suited for your team. For example, CourseHorse can help you find an instructor who can teach basic woodworking skills to help an inexperienced team. They also provide adaptable group sizing, easy class-size adjustability, quick confirmation, and no booking fees.
What if you have a remote team with multiple computer platforms? CourseHorse works with most options, such as Windows operating systems and Apple computers. They even have a mobile app that can help your on-the-go employees complete their coursework and stay focused. In this way, your class should go smoothly and effectively.
While they don’t have a course available on their site at the moment, you can reach out to them through their online contact form to ask about future classes. They can help you find an option that makes sense for you and provide hands-on support throughout this process. In this way, you can get the woodworking training experience that your employees deserve.