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Workshop: Training the Hand 3: 23-28 June 2025

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Original price $1,400.00 - Original price $2,800.00
Original price
$1,400.00
$1,400.00 - $2,800.00
Current price $1,400.00
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Full Description
Customer Reviews

Workshop Overview.  Rob Cosman's Training the Hand Workshop is held once each month from April through October, with the exception of August.  Each workshop is six days long and is held at Rob's Workshop located in Grand Bay, New Brunswick, Canada. If after reading through the information below you have any questions about our Training the Hand Workshops please email your questions to support@robcosman.com.

Cost:  The 6-day Training the Hand Workshop costs $2800 (USD) which is payable in two installments of $1400 (USD) or one payment of $2800 (USD).  If paying with installments, an inital deposit of $1400 (USD) reserves your slot in the workshop and a final payment of $1400 (USD) is due no later than 45 days prior to the start of the workshop. 

Tuition covers all instruction, all materials except tools, 6 x breakfast meals, 6 x supper meals, and daily fruit and snacks).  To reserve your workbench in the workshop just select "deposit" or "full payment" from the drop-down menu and add it to your cart.  If you choose the deposit option, the initial deposit is $1400 (USD).  The remaining $1400 (USD) and is due no later than 45 days before your workshop starts. 

Registration.  At checkout, there is a registration form to fill out.  This form is automatically sent to the class registrar.   Within 72 hours of checkout you will receive an email welcoming you to the workshop and giving you additional detailed information.  If you do not receive this email in 72 hours, please email robswebmaster@robcosman.com

Workshop Details. There are 14 student positions available per workshop.  Seven of these slots are reserved for combat Wounded Warriors selected for a Purple Heart Project scholarship.  The remaining seven slots in each workshop are reserved for paying students.  

Rob's Training the Hand Workshop is designed to teach students using their own tools; however, we do have a limited number of complete tool kits that students can rent from us.  See "tools" below for more information.  

By the time the week is over you will be able to sharpen your tools, use a plane and chisel, six-square a piece of wood, saw correctly, hand cut dovetails, hand cut mortise and tenons, and leave with a small project you have built. 

Think of Rob's Training the Hand Workshop as a "Boot Camp" for traditional hand tool woodworking with 10 to 14 hours of intensive training daily.  The workshop opens at 07:00 a.m. and instruction begins daily at 07:30 a.m. and ends at 8:30 p.m.  Fruits and lite snacks are available in the morning.  A hearty breakfast is served at 10:00 a.m.  Supper is served at 5:00 p.m.  Instruction stops at 8:30 p.m.; however, we keep the workshop open until 10:00 p.m. for students who want to work on their projects or catch up on the day's instruction.  Of note, on Saturday, the last day of the workshop instruction ends with the serving of supper at 4:00 p.m..  After supper is shop clean-up and tool pack-up time.

If you add all the training hours up, it's 60 - 84 hours of time at your workbench.  A typical week-long woodworking course at other woodworking schools provides you with 30-40 hours of training in a week-long course.  To get the same amount of instruction and workbench time that you get at Rob's week-long course you would typically have to attend a more expensive two-week course and incur the additional lodging, transportation, and food costs.  With Rob's workshop you get two(+) weeks worth of training in just one intensive week of woodworking, ultimately saving you time and money. 

If you want to jump-start your hand tool woodworking skills or take your current skills to the next level, then this is the workshop for you.  In one week you will obtain more woodworking craftsmanship skills and techniques than watching numerous DVDs or taking numerous weekend courses.  We guarantee it will be money well spent and you will go home a better woodworker. 

Refund Policy:  $250 of your tuition is NON-REFUNDABLE.  Any remaining balance paid is refundable if you cancel no later than 60 days before your scheduled workshop begins.  Cancellations made within 59 days of the workshop start date ARE NOT refundable. 

Cancellations.  To cancel a previously reserved workshop please contact us at Robswebmaster@robcosman.com or by using the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of any page of our website RobCosman.com.

Location. The Training the Hand Workshop is held in Rob's personal workshop which is located at 275 River Valley Drive, Grand Bay, New Brunswick, E5K 1A7, Canada.  The nearest large city is Saint John, New Brunswick Canada, approximately 15 minutes east of Rob's workshop.  The nearest large U.S. city is Bangor, Maine, located approximately three hours south of Rob's workshop.

Woodworking Space. The Training the Hand Workshop is held in Rob's personal workshop in a specially designed teaching area approximately 2000 square feet with 14 student workbenches.  Each workbench has a sharpening station, anti fatigue mats, overhead power cord, bench lamp, vise and bench dogs, and shooting board.  The teaching room is abundantly lit with bright, white, LED lights.  An oversized monitor provides close-up views of Rob at his workbench.

Initial Meet-and-Greet.  We have an initial meet-and-greet with the first supper meal at Rob's Workshop for all students who can make it on the Sunday before the workshop begins at 7:00-9:00 p.m. (Atlantic Time).   This is so you can see the facility; claim your workbench; drop-off any tools you brought; meet Rob, the assistant instructors, and the other students.  If you cannot make the Sunday meet-and-greet please let us know and we will see you on Monday morning.  As the workshop date gets closer we will email you with more details on this "meet-and-greet."  

Woodworking Skills Covered:  Rob has a general teaching outline but he changes the order of what he teaches based on how the class is progressing rather than any strict schedule.  The hand tool skills that you will learn and master are: 

  • Sharpening: Free-hand sharpening of planes & chisels; how to prepare the back of planes and chisels, the David Charlesworth "ruler-trick", how the grind a new bevel on a plane blade and chisel.

  • Planing: What the different bench planes are used for; how to prepare and properly set-up a bench plane; how to adjust and properly use a bench plane; how to plane wood flat, square, and straight; how to use winding sticks; how to use a scrub plane; how to troubleshoot plane issues.  

  • Sawing: What the different saws are used for; how to properly hold and use a saw; how to saw smooth and straight; how to sharpen a saw.

  • Dovetails:  How to hand-cut through dovetails and half blind dovetails. 
  • Mortise and Tenons:  How to hand-cut a blind mortise and tenon; how to hand-cut a through mortise and tenon, how to hand-cut a wedged mortise and tenon.

  • Other Skills: Depending on what the students want, other skills are taught.  These include but are not limited to: preparing and using scrapers, wood selection, dealing with wood movement, using a router plane, houndstooth dovetails, hand-cut dados, hand cut rabbits, wooden hinged box making, and much more.
  • Final Project:  The final project is used as a vehicle to practice and refine your hand tool skills.  The project is a bench hook made from rough lumber and all dovetail joinery.

Daily Schedule.  Click on the red button below to see the typical daily schedule.

Travel and Transportation.  Plan to arrive at Rob's shop on Sunday evening at 7:00 p.m. (Atlantic time) for the initial meet and greet and supper meal.  The workshop concludes on the following Saturday at 5:00pm.  Schedule your departure appropriately. Click the red button below for more detailed information on nearby airports and local transportation.   

Lodging.  There are no hotels in Grand Bay.  The closest hotels to Rob's workshop are six to ten miles away, located on the west side of the city of Saint John, New Brunswick (note: DO NOT use "St. John's" - that is a different Canadian city).  We recommend the Travelodge hotel which gives TTH students a special rate if you book directly with their reservation desk by calling (506) 635-0400.  You can search Hotels.com or any other hotel site for other hotels in Grand Bay - Westfield, New Brunswick, Canada area and these hotels will come up.  Click the red button below to learn about our recommended hotel and other nearby hotels.

Meals.  Tuition includes six days (12 meals) of home cooked exceptional meals that are served on site in our dining facility.  For more details on our meals or to determine if we can meet you special dietary needs, click on the red button below.  

 Tools. Each paying student is expected to bring their own tools to the workshop, unless they are renting a tool kit from us.  Click on the red button below to see the list of required and optional tools, learn about renting tools, and other tool information..  

 Medical Coverage.  Students are responsible for arranging and paying for any medical services required while attending the workshop.  While the risk of injury or illness at our hand tool workshop is very low, injuries and illness have and do occur.  While we can handle minor cuts and scrapes, we highly recommend non-Canadians purchase short-term visitor / tourist insurance for their visit to Canada.  There are numerous companies that offer this coverage.  We do not provide any recommendations.  We recommend doing an internet search for, "Tourist medical coverage in Canada."  That will return numerous results.

Frequently Asked Questions.  Over the years a our students tend to ask  similar questions about the workshop.  Click the red button below to read our answers to the most common questions we get.

 Basic Requirements to Enter Canada. Entry into Canada is solely determined by Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) officials in accordance with Canadian law.   We have had students that have had difficulties and have even been denied entry into Canada.  We recommend you click on the red button below and carefully read the the requirements for entry into Canada. 

 

 

Customer Reviews

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Tim Spickler
Phenomenal Week

I have just returned home from the June PHP workshop as a paying student and can honestly say that the week exceeded all of my expectations. Heading into the class, my expectations were all focused on woodworking. I had been following Rob’s videos and on line workshops for a few years trying to learn his techniques. I felt as if my skills had reached a plateau so I was hopeful that in person instruction could get me over that hill and I was not disappointed. Listening to others talk about issues they were experiencing and also the hands on instructions from Rob, Jake, Kyle and Tony helped me recognize technique errors and problems with a few of my tools. I now feel that I can improve upon my skills here at home. The unexpected joy of the week was hearing the stories from the vets in the class. Having no military background myself, I have no real knowledge of what these men and women go through and what they sacrifice. Listening to their stories provided me with a new understanding of their sacrifices and can honestly say we do not do nearly enough to support them once they are back home. If you want to Improve your hand tool skills I suggest you to attend one of these workshops. More importantly, I urge everyone to support the PHP in any way possible.

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Mable
Unexpected Delight

I did not know of the Rob Cosman phenom or PHP program. I entered as a civilian with zero expectations or awareness of what I was going to do with my week beyond learning some dovetail techniques. My expectation was that the focus would be exclusively on honing woodworking skills but got so much more. We were exceptionally well nourished with gourmet meals fit for a foodie club and clearly made with love. It felt like food was a part of the gift of a genuine desire to nourish the whole person. The giving just kept on happening, despite the fact that the caregivers should have been on the receiving end, not the giving end due to the loss of their son (brother/friend) just the day before class started. It was a tragic circumstance that was unfathomable and just uncorrectable. Even under this duress, the focus stayed on giving to the students. I was not discouraged for being really slow- in fact I was encouraged that this is just part of the process and to embrace it. I watched as everyone worked to make sure that ‘no man was left behind’- everyone had success, and the assistants and Rob seemed exceptionally open to that challenge. I saw them help make accommodations for a soldier who had deminished dexterity and vision, due to his military injuries. That was the delight- he was better than everyone with two eyes and two working arms. I learned about particularly difficult military experiences and appreciated our fellow soldiers in a way I never had before. It certainly gave perspective to the first world problems like struggles to make the perfect dovetails. Perhaps if I had read a review, I would have known all this, but being completely surprised may have made it all the more special. It was a good sized group, but I never felt I was without exceptional skilled help that was always easy to access. More experienced woodworker students were also my allies. Raving fan! One regret, there were temptations with rollerblades hanging from the wall in every conceivable size. I didn’t get to rollerblade, but yeah, something to try to work out next time I’m in the neighborhood. Thank you for the exceptional week I wont forget - Kyle, Tony (snitches get stitches) Mike, Mel, Lance and Rob

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Tim Spickler
Workshop registration

Within a couple of days of registering for the workshop, I received a call from Rob. That type of communication is unexpected in this day and age, but Rob is focused on ensuring the workshop experience is top notch.
After registration I had an issue with my online account in using the workshop discount code. Luther was very helpful diligent on resolving the issue.

I look forward to heading to Grand Bay.