Workshop Overview.   Rob Cosman's Training the Hand Workshop is held each month from April through October, except for 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 robswebmaster@robcosman.com .

Cost: The six-day Training the Hand Workshop costs $2990 (USD), which is payable in two installments or all at once.  If paying with two installments, an initial deposit of $1500 (USD) reserves your slot in the workshop and a final payment of $1490 (USD) is due no later than 45 days prior to the start of the workshop.  We will invoice you for the final payment approximately 60 days from the workshop start date if using the installment method.

Your tuition covers all instruction, all materials except tools, a meet-and-greet BBQ, six breakfast meals and six supper meals. To reserve your workbench in a workshop select the workshop product page of the workshop date you want, fill out the registration question, select "deposit" or "full payment" from the drop-down menu and then add it to your cart. 

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.

Registration. On the checkout page, there are registration questions to fill out which are automatically sent to the workshop 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 contact the registrar at robswebmaster@robcosman.com

Workshop Details. There are 16 student positions / workbenches available per workshop.  Seven of these positions are reserved for combat wounded Veterans who have received a Purple Heart Project scholarship .  The remaining nine positions are reserved for paying students.  

Think of Rob's Training the Hand Workshop as the "Boot Camp" for traditional hand tool woodworking with approximately 10 hours of “training time” per day, almost twice as much as most other hand tool workshops.  The workshop opens daily at 07:30 a.m. and instruction begins at 08:00 a.m.  A hearty breakfast is served at 10:00 a.m.  Supper is served at 5:00 p.m.  Instruction stops at 8:00p.m. daily; however, we keep the workshop open until 9:00 p.m. for students who want to work on their projects or catch up on the day's instruction.  On Saturday, the last day of the workshop, instruction ends with an early serving of supper around 4:00 p.m. After supper there is shop clean-up and tool pack-up time.

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. 

Woodworking Skills Covered:   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 to 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.
• Dovetails: How to hand-cut through and half blind dovetail joints.
• Mortise and Tenons: How to hand-cut a blind mortise and tenon joint.

Other Skills: Depending on avalible time and student desires, other skills may be 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 the hand tool skills you learn in the workshop.  Students typically choose between making a bench hook or a candle box with dovetails starting from rough lumber.

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.

15% Tool Discount.  Students receive a 15% discount on tools purchased on 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  workshop in a specially designed teaching area approximately 2000 square feet.  Each student workbench has a sharpening station, anti-fatigue mat, overhead power cord, bench lamp, vise and bench dogs, shooting board, bench hook, and sawing bench.  The teaching room is abundantly lit with bright, white, LED lights.  An oversized monitor provides close-up views of Rob when he is teaching at his workbench.

Initial Meet-and-Greet.  For each workshop there is an initial meet-and-greet with a BBQ 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 this Sunday meet-and-greet please let us know and we will see you on Monday morning.  

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 BBQ meal.  The workshop concludes on the following Saturday after the supper meal.  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, NB where Rob's Workshop is located; however, there are several nearby short-term rentals (e.g. Air BNB and Verbo). To find these just search on your short-term rental website of choice for “Grand Bay-Westfield, New Brunswick, Canada.”   The closest hotels to Rob's workshop are about ten miles away, located on the west side of the city of Saint John, New Brunswick. We recommend the Travelodge hotel which is the closet hotel to Rob’s Workshop.  You can search your favorite hotel booking site for hotels in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada (Note: DO NOT use "St. John's" - that is a different Canadian city). 

Meals.  Your tuition includes exceptional home-cooked daily meals during the workshop and a BBQ at the meet-and-greet on Sunday prior to the workshop.  All meals are served on site in our M*A*S*H themed dining facility.  For more details on our meals or to determine if we can meet your special dietary needs, please click on the red button below.     

Required, Optional and Rental Tools. The Training the Hand Workshop is designed to teach students using their own tools; however, we do have complete tool kits that students can rent from us, instead of bringing their tools to the workshop.  Click on the red button below to see the list of required and optional tools, and to learn about renting tools. 

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.