Don't miss growing your skills...

...it's a series with massive growth rings and it's moving right along!

The tool cupboard build is now filmed and going to every country around the world. It's one of those bigger series we do now and again. This project covers many key aspects used throughout furniture making mostly because I wanted to impart the development to include many elements of cabinet making by hand.

Creative development always demands skill, flair and a willingness to develop growth in a variety of techniques. Every crafting artisan I ever met sees something hard to do and rises to the challenge by asking how it's done. Self-demand is what makes the difference to developing artisans and no artisan ever deprives her or himself of bettering their work, increasing their knowledge and maximising their skill levels. They know they don't arrive there without acknowledging that new things are stepping stones to betterment and as such are always somewhere in the background waiting to be revealed.

Here is the list of what's being taught in this extensive series:

Large scale dovetailing in hardwood.

Making a dovetail duplicator for hand tools (Guaranteed replication for 10 or a hundred dovetails). A Paul Sellers' dovetailing system.

Cabinet construction (Tricks for gluing up large dovetails to avoid joint freeze).

Framed panel construction.

Ploughing grooves by hand methods.

Perfecting mortise and tenons using the Paul Sellers system.

How to make a door of any size and style.

How to fit a door of any size.

How to hang a door of any size.

Recessed door alignement.

Hingeing recessed doors.

Final fitting a recessed door.

How to size a recessed drawer for a dead fit.

How to make half lap (half blind USA) dovetails using two methods.

How to develop perfect dovetails using the Paul Sellers' system

How to make housing dadoes with through tenons.

How to fit a recessed drawer.

How to make cockbeading by hand.

How to apply bead to a panelled door.

How to make a poor man's mitre box.

How to make moulded stock by hand.

How to apply moulded stock.

How to develop and make hand made coved cornice.

How to fit handmade coved cornice.

How to make saw tooth adjustable shelf bracket.

How to fit adjustable shelving to saw tooth bracketing.

How to hang a tool cabinet.

There is as always much more to this than listed but it does show how expansive our work is these days. The methods we teach and train woodworkers to do are not just how to cut and form this or that but to consider the serious elements that guarantee no twisted drawers and doors, things like that that are critical to the final performance of the piece. Feedback from thousands of people following us through the years is proving ever more that what we are doing is constantly changing the face of woodworking for the better. We are proving that real woodworking and the Real Woodworking Campaign we started years ago has got guts, real value and the power to change people's perspectives.

Though this is a tool cupboard to date, the build gives instruction for building the upper cabinets for kitchens and other household or office cupboards and cabinets too. We don't turn on any machines and though some find it hard to believe this cabinet is about two weeks worth of very detailed hand work for me. That's about 100 hours. I would sell a small cabinet like this for around £3,000, but only if I liked the buyer. So when someone says to me that you can't make your living from woodworking by hand I just suggest to them to get a life and lower their living standards. Anyone that can't live on £40,000 a year without commuter expenses and little overhead beyond a garage sized workshop should consider lowering aspirational levels and embrace the benefits beyond the dollar. For me that was a major decision that led to sanity.

Oh, remember too. None of this came from anything but hand tools!