Fort Worden State Park

Coopering - The Traditional Art of Making Buckets and Barrels

Steve Habersetzer is the everyman woodworker. One of Steve's first jobs was making traditional coopered buckets. Coopering is making  barrels, buckets, washtubs from tapered and beveled straight bits of wood (staves).  No  glue or fastenings are used!          

In this course we'll take you through the whole process of   making a bucket using staves, iron bands and solid base.            

You'll get to practice making staves using a traditional cooper's plane and measuring gauges. We'll compare using split wood and sawn wood for the staves.            

We'll show you how to assemble the staves inside the metal bands and how to size and fit the bottom of the bucket.            

The course is not long enough for everybody to make a bucket but we should be able to make a couple of buckets.

Saturday May 31st 9:00am - 4:00pm. Port Townsend School of Woodworking in Building 315, Fort Worden.

Class fee is $60   Register on-line at  www.ptwoodschool.com

New Partners at Fort Worden

If you've been to Fort Worden lately you might have noticed some increased activity near the gym and the old power plant. Two new partners have been hard at work setting up shop, providing a rich mix of new activities to visitors at the Fort.

Madrona MindBody Institute

MMI is located in the old 'gym' building at the Fort, and offers movement classes including Nia, Gentle Nia, New to Nia, Pilates, Tribal Fusion Belly Dancing, Yoga, Soul Motion-inspired dance called SoulFull Sundays and Moving Meditation. Visit their website to learn more and to get your whole body and mind into shape.

The Port Townsend School of Woodworking

The Port Townsend School of Woodworking is housed in the old power house at the Fort, and offers courses on cabinet making, furniture making, historic preservation and traditional woodcrafts. Their main website is their formal course catalog and information site. Their companion blog site The Wood Stooges offers commentary on woodworking as well as updates on the event calendar.