Merlin Wood Fine Woodworking courses are designed to take those with a passion for wood, and who may be completely uninitiated to the complex world of woodworking, from a complete standing start, right up to the more advanced stages of the Cabinetmaking trade. All woodworking courses are based on the British London City & Guilds Cabinetmaking Course and the Province of Quebec DEP Cabinetmaking Program. Course standards are high and Merlin graduates achieve a high degree of skill.

The entire program is modular, based loosely on 30 hour modules or levels, with each course building on the training standards of the previous.

The complete Merlin Global program is built on 5 levels:

•   Wood 1 - Hand Tools and Fundamentals
•   Wood 2 - Intermediate Level, Furniture Making and Portable Power Tools
•   Wood 3 - Router Workshop - Introduction to the Router
•   Wood 4 - Advanced Router Workshop
•   Wood 5 - Advanced Furniture Making and Stationarey Machine Tools

More details on the course curriculum are provided below:

WOOD 1 - HAND TOOLS

The Wood 1 Fine Woodworking course is aimed at the beginner woodworker and covers the following subjects:

· use of fine woodworking hand tools

· marking out, measuring and testing for squareness

· characteristics and use of solid wood and sheet stock

· joinery - theory and bench practice

· principles of furniture making

· important technical subjects such as health & safety, adhesives and abrasives, clamps, jigs & fixtures, technical drawing & shop maths

· tool sharpening

· basic wood finishing.

Wood 1 is intensively "hands on" (ie. maximum bench time) and offers 3 woodworking projects:

· hardwood mallet (we provide the materials)

· sharpening stone box (we provide the materials)

· dovetailed tool box or Shaker kitchen "step up" (students provide their own pine) .

• WOOD 2 - PORTABLE POWER TOOLS
• The Wood 2 Fine Woodworking course is aimed at the intermediate-level woodworker and covers the following subjects:
• · use of portable power tools including the circular saw, jig saw, router, biscuit joiner, power drill and compound mitre saw
• · use of selected stationary machine tools including the drill press, woodturning lathe, band saw and router table
• · case construction and intermediate-level joinery including: panel lamination and clamping process, dados and rabbets, mortise and tenons, frame and panel construction, raised panels, moulding,s face frames, biscuits, dowels, pocket screws and floating tenons, screw & plug techniques, backboards. mitres, leg & rail construction
• · other technical subjects include: wood screws, countersinking and wood plugs, biscuits and pocket screws, hinges and other hardware, locks & catches, stays and handles, basic chip carving/relief carving, shop drawings and planning and procedure
• · Wood 2 projects include:
• Quebec cupboard (recommended project)
• - work bench (also recommended)
• - several small cuboard projects
• - corner cupboard
• - sofa table
• - stick windsor
• - chair
• - wall clocks
• - blanket/dowery chests
  

WOOD 3 - INTRODUCTION TO THE ROUTER AND ROUTER TABLE

Wood 3 is the introductory-level router workshop. In this workshop students are provided with the necessary information to make an informed choice when purchasing a router. Students will use their own router to make their router table in the shop. With this router table and box of router bits students will make a sofa table in pine using router template procedures. The following subjects are covered:

· tapering legs with a tapering jig

· router inlay techniques

· router profiles

· router template procedures

· laminating panels

· plug and screw construction

· basic router joinery such as tongue and groove and rabbets

Wood 3 projects are:

· router table including: router base insert fitted to student's own router, mitre slot (as appropriate) fences with dust collection port

· sofa table in pine

· humidor or jewelry box in exotic hardwoods (if time permits)

WOOD 4 - ADVANCED ROUTER TECHNIQUES

Wood 4 is the advanced-level router workshop and builds on the skills developed in Wood 3. The aim of Wood 4 is to build a hardwood cabinet with more complex joinery done entirely with the router. Subjects include:

· jointing and planing of rough milled stock

· decorative shaping using the router

· more advanced joinery using the router such as dados, rabbets, dovetails, mortise & tenons, tongue & groove.

· design and production of mouldings including crown mouldings

· frame and panel doors

· cock beading

· fitting of fine hardware

The Wood 4 project developed by Merlin Wood School is a complex and challenging 18th century reproduction cupboard design using selected/exotic hardwoods

WOOD 5 - CONTINUATION TRAINING

Wood 5 is the advanced-level fine woodworking course and builds on the skills developed in Wood 1 to 4. Students choose an advanced-level project in conjunction with their instructor: Advanced-level subjects include:

· introduction to the table saw

· introduction to the jointer

· introduction to the thickness planer

· introduction to milling rough milled stock

· construction of dovetailed drawers, webs and runners/glides

· advanced table saw techniques such as cove cuts, raised panel jigs, tenoning jigs

· advanced-level case construction techniques

· advanced-level technical drawing, planning & procedure and shop maths

· decorative woodwork

· inlay techniques

· rounded cornices

· introduction to furniture carving and turning