Woodcraft of Virginia Beach / Norfolk

Intermediate Finishing

Part 1: Wednesday, February 4, 2026, 6 PM - 9 PM

Part 2: Wednesday, February 11, 2026, 6 PM - 9 PM

Part 3: Wednesday, February 18, 2026, 6 PM - 9 PM

Part 4: Wednesday, February 25, 2026, 6 PM - 9 PM

The last step in furniture making has been the most difficult of all. Finishing frustrates the most experienced woodworker. This four night course will take the mystery out of finishing. Topics include: sanding, surface prep, filling grain, staining, sealing, top coating, rubbing out, and wet sand polishing.

Bowl Turning 102 or Two Axes Turning (make a heart vase)

Saturday, February 14, 2026, 9 AM - 4 PM

Turned wooden bowls can make your dining experience truly memorable or create a display piece to show off your talent. This class will focus on using basic turning tools and techniques to create these wooden bowls. Wood selection and mounting for grain orientation to get the most out of each piece will be discussed along with selection of proper tools. Students will turn a bowl using a tenon in a chuck system and Cole jaws to finish the bottom of the bowl. Students can choose to alternatively turn a heart vase. Students will turn a vase entirely on the lathe using the Michael Anderson method via multi-axes. This is a fun intermediate level process that involves spindle turning, face grain turning, drilling on the lathe, and a bit of ingrain hollowing at the top of the form. Please don't wear sweater type material. Wood chips stick to this and we don't want you to ruin clothing. Wear something you don't mind getting dusty. Bring eye protection and respiratory protection if you have it or safety glasses will be provided.

Tablesaw Basics

Saturday, February 14, 2026, 9 AM - 5 PM

Without a doubt, the tablesaw is the most important power tool in the shop. Safely ripping stock to width, accurately cutting parts to length, cutting angles, bevels and making tenons and tapers are just a few of the tasks that an accurately set up tablesaw excels at. Understanding how the saw works is one of the goals of this new class and basic common sense safety will be covered thoroughly. We will begin with techniques to make safe and specialized cuts such as making accurate tenons and miters. Saw blade selection, dado blades and some of the commercially available accessories will be discussed. We will also demonstrate some basic but important shop made jigs. While this class will mostly be dom only, students will have the opportunity to do some cutting on the saw in order to make sure that each participant understands the techniques being shown.