Frontispiece from the book Woodwork (The English Sloyd) by S. Barter ND C.1890
I studied woodworking for a little bit at the New School and then for years at the now defunct Craft Students League. Not only did I learn essential woodworking skills, I met lifelong friends. My interests eventually led to my founding Tools for Working Wood as well.
So I can be sincere in recommending woodworking classes (or indeed classes focusing on any craft that interests you). “Trial and error” is by definition mostly repeated error, so having a teacher whose methods and results excite you can make learning much more efficient (and fun).
Where can you learn woodworking in the NYC area? Here are some great options for instruction. Many of these schools also offer opportunities for shop rentals, one-on-one instruction and club meet-ups.
Note: We are not guaranteeing that this list is comprehensive. We are very familiar with some of these schools, others less so. Some have comprehensive offerings; others specialize. We aren’t endorsing any specific school or methodology. We do think not everyone teaches or learns the same way and it is hard to judge the effectiveness of a program.
When folks ask us when we will be offering the Rietveld chair class again (never, sorry to say) or other classes we have offered in the past, we give them the list below. If we left your school, or class off of this list please let us know and we will add you in.
By the way, just because we have put the kibosh on offering formal classes does not mean that we are no longer offering instruction. We will continue to host instructional events such as our Festool demo event, Festool Fest - and in fact we are hosting this two- day extravaganza again next month: Friday, September 12th and Saturday, September 13th, from 12 -3 pm both days. For more information, please click here.
Bien Hecho Academy
Brooklyn Navy Yard, 63 Flushing Ave, Bldg 3, Suite 1103, Brooklyn, NY 11205 646-875-8075 https://bienhechoacademy.com/
Makerspace NYC - Brooklyn
Brooklyn Army Terminal, 140 58th St Bldg B Unit 1C, Brooklyn, NY 11220 718-273-3951 https://makerspace.nyc/
Makerspace NYC - Staten Island - contact Makerspace Brooklyn above
Fashion Institute of Technology - Continuing Education
Furniture Making Classes, FIT CCPS, 227 West 27th Street, New York, NY 10001 https://continuinged.fitnyc.edu
If I may add one more school for consideration, the Wendell Castle Workshop. It’s a not-for-profit school of wood and metal working. Classes and instructors have been pretty amazing. Classes are taught in the home and workshop of Wendell Castle, one of the leaders of the art furniture movement. It’s a bit of a drive for downstate-ers, located near Rochester, but well worth it.
https://workshop.wendellcastle.org/classes
08/21/2025 Daniel Deverell
Two of the best classes I ever attended in NYC were at your store. Both were taught by a local contractor with a huge array of Festool gear in the back of his van. In the first we made a classic "Z" chair. The second was more practical - a kitchen cabinet. They were extremely well priced classes and I would participate again in a heartbeat.
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https://workshop.wendellcastle.org/classes