Crafty classes

Woodworking school offers range of classes

Cindy Hval   /  Correspondent

Skip Gillespie, a former shop teacher and builder, owns the Coeur d'Alene School of Woodworking. There will be a free sharpening workshop Saturday at the school. (File / The Spokesman-Review ) If you go » A free sharpening workshop will be held at the school, 4951 Building Center Drive, Coeur d'Alene, Saturday at 10 a.m. » Participants will learn how to sharpen their own tools, and are invited to bring a plane iron or chisel. » Visit the Web site at www.cdawoodworkingschool.com or call (208) 755-9902 to reserve a spot.

So, Santa brought you some new tools for Christmas, but you're a little intimidated by the four sets of instructions in 16 languages. What about the rest of your tools? Are your drill bits sharp enough? What about your chisels?

The Coeur d'Alene School of Woodworking is offering a free sharpening workshop Saturday. Just off Highway 95, the school offers a variety of classes geared toward the average woodworker.

Mary Nickol began taking classes a year ago and is now employed at the school. She said she'd taken woodworking in college and really enjoyed it, but never had time to pursue it. When her sons grew up and left home, she went back to school – woodworking school.

Skip Gillespie, owner of the school, spent 15 years teaching shop. "Opening this school has been a dream of mine for 25 years," he said. He laments the fact that schools are taking saws and shops out and replacing them with computers.

"My original desire was to do something for senior citizens," Gillespie said. "It seems that they are the forgotten minority in our society."

But many of his students are home-schooled teens, and a surprising number of his adult students are women.

"I find satisfaction in the process of creating," Nickol said. "We use a lot of reclaimed wood products to make something beautiful or useful."

Classes range from the entry-level basics to the more advanced joinery classes. You also can sign up for project classes that range from practical panel doors to elegant glass-front bookcases.

So, if your New Year's resolution was to master your table saw, this could be one place to start.

"A lot of people have tools," Gillespie said, "but just don't know how to use them."