Visited St. Roy's New School - With Pictures!

[AAAndrew]

I'm cross posting this with the Old Tools list as I think that for y'all it's a little closer to home.

I played hookey from work today for a long lunch in the sunshine and
drove the 30 minutes down the road to Pittsboro, NC where Roy
Underhill is opening up a school for Galoot woodworking classes. I've
been hearing rumors and when I ran into him at the Woodworking in
America conference we spoke briefly about it. He was still waiting for
the benches and insurance to begin classes.

Well, he definitely has the benches! It looks all ready to go. It also
looks like a little slice of galoot heaven.

Now, you'll have to forgive the poor quality of photos, but I was
standing outside the windows looking in and taking pictures with my
iPhone on a sunny day.

That said...

Here's a view of the shop from the door.

There are ten benches, a spring pole lathe, a tredal wheel jigsaw and
a bunch of other stuff. Each bench has a carpenter's square lined up
along the corner, a small clamp, a bench hook and an assortment of
galootish tools underneath.

On the left side (facing in) is a saw sharpening bench with a backsaw
in the saw vise. (that giant plane is made of wood, including the
"iron")


Here's the left side again along with a bit of my finger. You can also
see the lathe on the right, and behind it the dark-colored pedal
jigsaw. Behind that is his little Roubo-ette bench.

Not sure what this is, but the window has plenty of odd bits and
pieces of things he's done on this show along with some whats-its and
a big old post drill.






On the right side is a station with some sharpening things as well as
a couple of microscopes. Notice the picture of FDR up on the wall and
a poster from the WPA advising you to "Wear Your Goggles". You can
also see the reflection of another WPA poster that's in the front
window like they used to do.


Here's a picture of the benches on the right where you can see that
some have wooden planes as the tools you use.


On the left benches I saw some metal planes. It didn't seem like there
was a "wooden" side and the "metal" side, just that the front benches
reflected the diversity of viewpoints available. (nothing with tails)


The school in on the corner, and just around it is an essential
element for any woodworking school, the pub.


For more info this sign is on the door


It was a lot of fun peering into the windows. I can't imagine what it
will be like to actually take classes there. I'm psyched.

AAAndrew
(now in Durham, NC, and glad of it)

[DaveO]

Wow, that's very cool and quite exciting. It's a great thing to have his school right here at home. I wish it the best of success.

Dave

[nelsone]

Great post! Thanks for the update! BTW that big wooden plane was seen walking away from the MWTCA meet at Ed Hobbs last summer with Roy.

[ptt49er]

That's some of the coolest window shopping I've ever seen!!

Thanks for the pics!

[adowden]

Thanks for all the great pictures. I drive by there once a week and hadn't checked it out yet.

I did want to mention for anyone that may check out the school, you may also want to go into Pittsboro Toys. The owner has a great deal of wooden toys. I have some hardwood blocks there. She has cedar stools, wooden pull toys, wooden trains, etc.

Amy

[Trent Mason]

Wow! Thanks for the pics! That looks like a ton of fun! Taking that class looks like a once in a lifetime opportunity.

I had no idea he was from DC and has quite a history in this area. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Underhill

[froglips]

Did you leave nose prints on the window??

I can't wait either. I recognized a lot of those projects from the show.

Do you suppose he'll swing an axe in the way teachers used to swing rulers?

My minor St. Roy trivia. While he was a student at UNC, he used to haunt Dual Hardware in Hillsborough. Wesley mentioned he used to walk the isles looking at all the tools.

Jim

[LeftyTom]

Pittsboro will be the envy of Chatham County.