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2025 Workshop Open Day and Hand Tool Event
Aug
This year’s Dunstone Design Workshop Open Day is going to include a pop-up hand tool event!
American hand tool expert and educator Curtis Turner will be visiting our workshop and demonstrating with Lie-Nielsen hand tools. He’ll discuss sharpening, tool setup, maintenance, techniques, and appropriate tool selection. Joining him will be Anthony Powell from Lie-Nielsen Toolworks Australia with a healthy stock of tools for sale.
Curtis Turner has worked for Lie-Nielsen Toolworks for over 17 years as a teacher, demonstrator, and member of their board of directors. As an avid woodworker, he is passionate about helping people get the most out of their woodworking hand tools. Curtis has taught woodworking at many schools and guilds, including the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in Maine and Austin School of Furniture in his native Texas. He has traveled across the US, England, Spain, Sweden, Netherlands, Russia, France and Norway teaching woodworkers how to sharpen, set up, and successfully use a wide range of Lie-Nielsen tools.
Brisbane maker Damion Fauser will be showing a selection of his favourite hand tools and techniques, including his pink ivory HNT Gordon moving fillister plane. Terry Gordon can’t make it on the day, but he is going to send us a selection of his HNT Gordon planes and vices.
Damion served in the Royal Australian Air Force for 20 years. He graduated from the Australian Defence Force Academy with a Bachelor of Science (Applied Mathematics) and subsequently with Distinction from the Royal Military College, Duntroon. He saw operational service in East Timor, Iraq, Sudan and Afghanistan. It was during his deployment to Sudan that his interest in woodworking was born. Since then, Damion has been trained and mentored by some of the finest names in the contemporary woodworking world, including Garrett Hack, Richard Vaughan, Adrian Ferrazzutti, Tim Rousseau, Yuri Kobayashi and Robert Howard.
Damion discovered the pleasure of working with hand tools and they now play a significant role in every piece he builds. Damion is a regular contributor to Australian Wood Review magazine. He writes feature articles on fine woodworking techniques and writes critical reviews of tools that have recently been released to market. His contributor profile can be found here.
Damion and I have pretty similar views when it comes to tools and techniques. I look for the best tools in their class. I feel the same way about machines. I own and use Lie-Nielsen, HNT Gordon, Pete Von Trott, Pete Curley, Auriou rasps, Japanese chisels; whatever works best. I can’t afford second rate tools or machines. Dunstone Design is not affiliated with any brand of tools, but we know whose tools to reach for when the need arises.
Master Carver Hape Kiddle will be here, showing the range of knives, gouges, files, rasps and other hand tools that he uses every day in his practice. He will also have a selection of his carvings on exhibition in our gallery. For many years, Hape has been sharing his love of making things by hand. He believes there is a slowing down and reconnection to self that happens during the handmade process. Hape has just returned from a seminal time in New Zealand, exploring traditional Māori carving and teaching at the Centre for Fine Woodworking in Nelson, South Island.
This will be a genuine, organic, hand tool event for woodworkers. Come and share our love of the craft. See how professional makers choose and use hand tools in their every-day practice. The Dunstone Design team will be in attendance to show you how we make our award-winning furniture. We will also have some timber bargains, turning blanks, factory seconds furniture and other specials for woodworkers and furniture collectors.
The Open Day will run 10am to 4pm, Sunday 12th October at our Queanbeyan workshop, 3/5 Aurora Pl, Queanbeyan NSW.
The demonstrations will run two 3-hour cycles, 10am to 1pm, then 1pm to 4pm. Attendees are welcome to stay all day, but you will not miss much if you allocate yourself three hours.
Tickets are limited to 300 places over the 6 hour period. Tickets are $10 each to help us cover the insurance organizational costs.
Parking in available in the Services NSW carpark and in Aurora Pl. Disabled parking is available with prior notice. Our workshop toilets are easy to access but we do not have designated disabled toilets.
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