Founded in 2016 by Minneapolis-based artist Jess Hirsch, the Women’s Woodshop offers a welcoming and supportive space for women and gender-non-conforming makers in an overwhelmingly male-dominated field. Raised in Minnesota, Hirsch studied Fine Art at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon, then returned to receive her Masters of Fine Arts in Sculpture from the University of Minnesota. After several years of teaching spoon carving at local galleries and workshop spaces, she decided to create a permanent space for women and non-binary makers to feel welcome and supported in craft education.

Although women have existed in woodworking for centuries throughout tribes and guilds to the “Lumber Jills” of World War II, women still represent a very small percent of this field. Although it is impossible to quantify the number of women currently involved in woodworking, according to a 2016 study by the Department of Labor, women make up less than 3 percent of all carpentry and construction trades workers. By creating a space for those marginalized in woodworking to feel encouraged to learn and grow, the Women’s Woodshop hopes to empower more women with the knowledge and confidence to build a woodworking practice.

Class offerings at the Women’s Woodshop include green woodworking classes such as Bowl Turning 101 and Spoon Carving as well as furniture making classes such as Mortise-and-Tenon Wall Shelf and Build a Shaker Table. Along with fine woodworking, there are practical carpentry courses such as Picture Frames and Women of Color: Power Tools 101. Learn to hang drywall and install trim in Be Your Own Handyperson or build folding sawhorses in Home Tools 101. There are also weaving classes such as Birch Bark Baskets and Ash Splint Pack Basket.

Education at the Women’s Woodshop goes beyond the class as students are empowered to continue learning and to use their new skills to build projects of their own design. During Tuesday night Open Studio Sessions, students can come in and work on their own projects with the guidance of a faculty instructor. There is a sense of community and togetherness at the shop, shown through cheering when a fellow student finishes a project. Many students take multiple classes and develop a sense of ownership of the shop space.

As seen at the packed one-year anniversary party this summer, there is an outpouring of support from the community. The silent auction was well-stocked with donations from neighborhood businesses and local artists were outside selling artwork. Artist Sarah Nassif was screen-printing posters to benefit the scholarship program. Students and educators were brainstorming new class ideas over birthday cake. It is clear that this space is needed and treasured.

The Women’s Woodshop offers nearly a dozen classes every month and has scholarships available based on financial need. Hirsch offers private bowl turning lessons, and the shop hosts guest instructor classes as well. There is also a fledgling Artist Residency program in which Artists get access to the shop and its resources in order to progress their career while participating in the local community. Hirsch views their current location as a “starter home” and expects someday to outgrow the space.

The Women’s Woodshop is now enrolling for fall classes! Upcoming classes include Bowl Turning, Spoon Carving, Power Tools 101 and more.

Editor’s Note: Author Teresa Audet was a summer 2018 artist in residence at the Women’s Woodshop and instructor for classes such as Hand-Cut Dovetails.

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Tim Inman: Cedar is one of the few woods that will be just fine outdoors without any input from man. It will age and turn gray. It will last forever. Your glue and screws/nails will not, though. Use stainless steel hardware and waterproof adhesives whenever you can. Cedar will also outlast any finish you put on it. The finish will fail by halves, and it will look awful for most of its failing life. I like just plain old unfinished soft, smooth, beautiful, natural, silvery gray cedar outdoors. Will it really last? Well, I have cedar posts here on Oakdale Farm that were put in the ground by my great-grandfather over 100 years ago. They’re still good!

Chris Marshall: This is one of those finishing topics where, if you ask 10 woodworkers, I’ll bet you’ll get nearly 10 different answers. So, here’s a different question that might help: How much routine maintenance are you up for? If you use a film-forming finish like spar varnish, it’ll only last a couple of years before you’ll need to scuff-sand and reapply. You’ll have about the same maintenance schedule if you decide to color the wood with an oil- or water-based exterior stain, because the color will eventually fade. But the upside to oil-based stain is that all you’ll need to do to revitalize the color is clean the wood and reapply. There’s no need to strip off the old finish or re-sand — the new stain will soak right into the wood again. Water-based stain tends to act more like paint, in my experience, and it can peel.

I think cedar doesn’t really need to be stained anyway, because its natural light brown color is beautiful all by itself. So, I’d take Tim’s advice: just let the wood start out brown and fade to gray naturally. It’s the “no muss, no fuss” approach. Weathered cedar and its cousin, cypress, both have a rustic charm to them. Not everyone cares for the silvery gray result, but I do.

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– Mel Johansen
Glendale, Arizona

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– T. Patrick Bradley
Spokane, Washington

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Each plane includes a storage sock to prevent damage, plus an inspection report with measurements and specifications for sole flatness and blade hardness. Typical applications and a few of the details for each plane are as follows:

No. 4 Smoothing Plane (item 58837; $139.99) takes the thinnest of shavings for an exceptionally fine finish. It also makes a good general purpose plane or first plane for your collection. Its sole measures 2-1/2 x 10 in. The 1/8-in.-thick blade installs bevel down and beds against the frog at 45 degrees. Bench Dog’s No. 4 Smoothing Plane weighs 4.18 lbs.

No. 4-1/2 Smoothing Plane (item 50258; $169.99) has a heftier feel than the No. 4, making it ideal for tackling challenging grain. The blade is also 3/8 in. wider than the No. 4. Its sole measures 3 x 10-1/4 in. The 1/8-in.-thick blade installs bevel down and beds against the frog at 45 degrees. Bench Dog’s No. 4-1/2 Smoothing Plane weighs 5.73 lbs.

No. 5 Jack Plane (item 59102; $169.99) is typically the first bench plane to touch rough lumber. A jack plane’s uses range from flattening and squaring to preliminary smoothing. It is often called a fore plane because it is used “before” the finer work of the jointer and smoothing planes. The sole on the No. 5 measures 2-1/2 x 14 in. The 1/8-in.-thick blade installs bevel down and beds against the frog at 45 degrees. Bench Dog’s No. 5 Jack Plane weighs 5.95 lbs.

No. 5-1/2 Jack Plane (item 54865; $199.99) is slightly larger and heavier than the No. 5 to help tame challenging grain or when you need more blade width for edge planing thick lumber. Its sole measures 3 x 14-3/4 in. The 1/8-in.-thick blade installs bevel down and beds against the frog at 45 degrees. Bench Dog’s 5-1/2 Jack Plane weighs 7 lbs.

No. 62 Low-Angle Jack Plane (item 51138; $199.99) is among the most versatile planes available. Thanks to its adjustable mouth, it can take rough surfacing cuts and fine smoothing cuts equally in stride. The 25-degree blade is set bevel-up at a low bedding angle of 12 degrees, creating a total effective angle of 37 degrees. This low attack angle slices through difficult grain, including end grain. Its sole measures 2-1/2 x 13-3/4 in. Blade thickness is about 3/16 in. Bench Dog’s No. 62 Low Angle Jack Plane weighs 4.85 lbs.

No. 7 Jointer Plane (item 58682; $299.99) is the longest in the bench plane lineup. Thanks to its lengthy sole, it quickly levels dips and high spots to produce a straight, square edge prior to edge joining. It also performs the final flattening of surfaces before finishing with a smoothing plane. Its sole measures 3 x 21-7/8 in. The 1/8-in.-thick blade installs bevel down and beds against the frog at 45 degrees. Bench Dog’s No. 7 Joiner Plane weighs 8.37 lbs.

No. 60-1/2 Block Plane (item 51006; $99.99) has an acute bedding angle and finely adjustable mouth opening to make quick work of adjusting miters, joinery and fitting doors and drawers. You can easily adjust the mouth opening to produce fine shavings while minimizing tearout. Since the frog and base are a one-piece casting, blade chatter is virtually eliminated. Its sole measures 1-5/8 x 6-1/4 in. The 1/8-in.-thick blade installs bevel up and beds against the frog and base at 12 degrees. Bench Dog’s No. 60-1/2 Block Plane weighs 2.2 lbs.

Three-In-One Shoulder Plane (item 52378; $129.99) includes two nose pieces — one long, one short — both of which are removable for conversion to a chisel plane. The 1/8-in.-thick, 1-in.-wide blade is a hair wider than the full width of the plane body, ensuring clean, sharp corners without leaving a ridge. The sides of the plane body are machined perfectly square with the sole, making it ideal for fine-tuning tenons and cleaning up corners, rabbets and other joinery elements. Its sole measures 1 x 6-1/8 in. The blade installs bevel up and beds against the frog at 19 degrees. Bench Dog’s Three-In-One Shoulder Plane weighs 2.2 lbs.

No. 92 Shoulder Plane (item 51527; $99.99) is suitable for the same purposes as the Three-in-One Shoulder Plane, but the No. 92 is narrower and shorter. Its mouth is adjustable by sliding the upper section forward and back for fine or coarse shavings. Or, the entire upper section can be removed for conversion to a chisel plane. Its sole measures 3/4 x 5-1/4 in. The 1/8-in.-thick blade installs bevel up and beds against the frog at 19 degrees. Bench Dog’s No. 92 Shoulder Plane weighs 1.1 lbs.

All nine of Bench Dog’s new hand planes are available now at rockler.com and through Rockler stores nationwide.

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