Nihonsan offers a range of classes for beginners to professionals alike, as well as private, custom, individual or group classes.
See what’s available below, and contact us with any questions.
Build Your Toolbox - Intro to Japanese Woodworking
This 2-session, 14-hour class offers participants a deep-dive introduction to the rudiments of hand-tool woodworking with Japanese tools, including saws, chisels, planes, and more. In this class, you will learn how to use, sharpen, and maintain these tools and develop good work methodology. The class will culminate in building your own toolbox for your new tools.
3 Day Joinery Intensive - Guest Instructor Jason Fox of Never Stop Building
Come learn and apply Japanese joinery techniques in this 3 day project based workshop, students will have the choice of building a pair of sawhorses or the frame for a trestle table that you can take home! Taught by timber framer and woodworker Jason Fox of Never Stop Building, students will be immersed in three full days of layout techniques, cutting mortise and tenon joinery and hand plane finishing your work.
Day One: Project orientation, tool and sharpening check, process and layout, begin cutting
Day Two: Cut joinery all day! Chisel and saw coaching.
Day Three: Finish joinery work, hand planing and project assembly.
This workshop requires prior experience with Japanese tools. Please come prepared with sharp chisels and functional handplanes. We hope that you will leave this class not only with a hand made project, but the skills and understanding to begin designing your own furniture or small structures.
Minimum Required tools: 9mm and 18 or 24mm chisel, 240mm ryoba handsaw, 54mm kanna, Japanese hammer, Japanese square in mm, pencil and .3 micron pen, your personal sharpening supplies.
Bowties and Butterflies - Intro to Structural Inlays
Butterfly inlays are a beautiful way to add structure to wood. In this one-and-a-half-day class, students will learn how to chop and fit a butterfly inlay to connect two hinoki boards. You will come away with a beautiful breadboard/tray and extensive practice using a Japanese chisel to pare wood - a skill translatable to fitting all sorts of joints.
1st session: 6hrs
2nd session: 2hrs
This course is meant to be useful for the beginner and experienced alike! All necessary tools will be provided for this class, although you are welcome to bring your own chisels and tools if you are interested. Please contact us for a tool list if you are interested in bringing your own. Tools are also available for purchase before or during the class at Nihonsan Tools where the class is held.
Hinoki Bath Stool
This one day course will introduce you to the basics of Japanese joinery, or sashimono. With an intense focus on cutting accurate joints that are aesthetic and structurally sound, students will build their own Japanese bath stools using wedged wood tenons (don't worry, you will soon know what those are!) and other joints as well. Practice measuring and marking, cutting and chopping, until you are left with a beautiful and 100% usable piece of furniture to take with you.
No tools are needed for this class, although you are welcome to bring your own if you are interested. Feel free to contact us for a tool list.
Kintsugi (Ceramic Repair) Hands-On Workshop
Always wanted to know more about kintsugi - the Japanese art of repairing broken ceramics with lacquer and gold or other metal powders? Here is your chance! This 3 hour workshop will give you a basic knowledge of Kintsugi, including:
An overview of kintsugi materials and tools
A demonstration of each kintsugi procedure
The chance to get your hands dirty actually doing kintsugi, either on a supplied chopstick rest which you keep, or on a piece of your own you can bring
A discussion on appreciating the beauty of impermanence
Kintsugi Part 2 - Filling Chips, Restoring the Missing Parts
This is Part 2 of our new, full kintsugi workshop! It is meant for those who have completed Part 1 - Introduction with us. If you have not taken that class but have other kintsugi experience, please contact us to make sure it is an appropriate class for you.
In this hands-on session, we’ll learn how to restore chipped or missing parts of a ceramic object using traditional Kintsugi materials. You'll be guided through mixing urushi lacquer with a powder base to carefully rebuild small losses and recreate the original shape of the piece. This workshop uses traditional Kintsugi techniques with natural urushi lacquer, a tree-based material that may cause allergic reactions in sensitive individuals (similar to poison ivy). Gloves and protective materials will be provided.
Suitable for students who already have a bonded or chipped ceramic item to work on. All other materials (natural urushi lacquer, filler powders, gloves) will be provided.
Advanced Kanna (Japanese hand plane) Sharpening
Whether you want to put a final finish on wood, compete in a Kezuroukai (Kanna shaving competition), or just want to get better at sharpening your hand plane, this class gives you an opportunity to learn the best practices in getting an incredibly sharp Kanna blade.
In this class we'll go over:
Japanese waterstone selection and the differences between them
Advanced sharpening techniques for getting excellent results
What is sharp? And how to tell.
Hands-on sharpening with troubleshooting any issues you may have
Introduction to Kumiko
Kumiko is a specific subset of Japanese woodworking, and a lot of fun for beginners and professionals alike. It involves creating artistic panels out of smaller stock. The only tool you will need is a Japanese chisel, which will be available if necessary for the class, or students can bring their own. Students will make an asa-no-ha or stylized hemp leaf pattern, one of the more important and common patterns.
4 hour class, single session.
Sharpening Japanese Hand Tools
Join this comprehensive introduction to sharpening Japanese hand tools (planes, chisels, knives). This three hour hands-on course will teach participants how to sharpen and maintain your tools using Japanese water stones. Students should bring at least one tool to sharpen during class.
3 hour class, single session.
Nihonsan Tools & Hardware
300 7th Street BBFL Building, Lower Level, Brooklyn, US
Free Monthly Japanese Woodworking Meetup!
Join us the second Thursday of every month for our free Japanese Woodworking Meetup! Meet other folks interested in Japanese Woodworking, professional woodworkers, hobbyists, our instructors, and more. Feel free to bring pics of your latest projects, tools you want sharpen or need help with, and all your woodworking questions. Open to everyone.
Design: Stools & Benches
This single-session 4hr workshop is oriented towards hand-tool woodworkers, looking to design and plan their next project. This session will focus on apartment-sized benches and stools, for sitting or standing.
Basic Dovetail Joinery
This single-session 3hr class introduces the participants to dovetail joinery with Japanese tools, including saws & chisels. In this hands-on class, you will learn how to layout and mark these joints, as well as cut and fit them. This course does require knowledge and experience with basic hand-tool woodworking fundamentals, similar to those learned in the "Build Your Toolbox" course. If you are unsure you meet the requirements, please reach out to classes@makegoodwood.com for guidance before registering.
Some task-specialized tools will be available, but participants will be expected to bring their own basic tools, including chisels, saws, and tools for layout & marking.
Design: Accessory Tables
This single-session 4hr workshop is oriented towards hand-tool woodworkers, looking to design and plan their next project. This session will focus on apartment-sized accessory tables, including side tables, coffee tables, nightstands, etc… For the more advanced or ambitious, this project can also incorporate a drawer component. The class will meet in-person in Brooklyn.
Design: Benches
This single-session 4hr workshop is oriented towards hand-tool woodworkers, looking to design and plan their next project. This session will focus on apartment-sized benches and stools, for sitting or standing. The class will meet in-person in Brooklyn.
Mortise and Tenon Joinery
This single-session 3hr class introduces the participants to mortise and tenon joinery with Japanese tools, including saws & chisels. In this hands-on class, you will learn how to layout and mark these joints, as well as cut and fit them. Classes will meet in-person in Brooklyn. This course does require knowledge and experience with basic hand-tool woodworking fundamentals, similar to those learned in the "Build Your Toolbox" course. If you are unsure you meet the requirements, please reach out to classes@makegoodwood.com for guidance before registering.
Some task-specialized tools will be available, but participants will be expected to bring their own basic tools, including chisels, saws, and tools for layout & marking.
Simple Staked Joinery
This single-session, 4hr class introduces the participants to the concept and practice of round mortise and tenon joinery. In this hands-on class, you will learn how to use hand-braces, augur bits, tapered reamers and tenoning tools to add legs to a simple three-legged stool. Classes will meet in-person in Brooklyn. This course does require knowledge and experience with basic hand-tool woodworking fundamentals, similar to those learned in the "Build Your Toolbox" course. If you are unsure you meet the requirements, please reach out to classes@makegoodwood.com for guidance before registering.
Some task-specialized tools will be available, but participants will be expected to bring their own basic tools, including a handplane, saws, mallet, and tools for layout & marking.
Design: Boxes
This single-session 4hr workshop is oriented towards hand-tool woodworkers, looking to design and plan their next project. This project will focus on small and medium sized boxes of all kinds, made using different of joinery and hardware. The class will meet in-person in Brooklyn.
Design: Bookshelves
This single-session 4hr workshop is oriented towards hand-tool woodworkers, looking to design and plan their next project. The focus of this session will be apartment-sized shelves and bookcases (and similar-type furniture, i.e. shoe racks, etc.) in both free-standing and wall-mounted formats. The class will meet in-person in Brooklyn.
Our Instructors
Will O’Connor, Head Woodworking Instructor
Make Good Traditional Handcrafts
Will has been an avid woodworker and advocate for Japanese tools and methods for the past decade. Apart from running his own one-man woodworking business and teaching classes in the Japanese woodworking tradition, he also plays guitar and sings in an acoustic cover band.
Nolan Hatfield, Woodworking Instructor
My journey in woodworking started with finding inspiration from the source, a love affair with trees, which led me to a career in furniture making. I trained with Fischer furniture, one of the finest studios in New York, while also training and studying traditional Japanese Sashimono woodworking nights and weekends. I truly found that feeling I was searching for in Japanese craft, and it’s been an obsession ever since. With over a decade of experience in fine furniture and architectural woodcraft using traditional Japanese tools, my goal is to now share this same experience with others.
Contact Us
Questions? Comments? Feedback? Complaints? Please let us know, and we will do our best to meet your needs and make things better!