Free download
The Weekend Workshop Starter Kit
Everything you need to start woodworking without wasting a dime on tools you'll never use. This free 6-page guide lists the exact 12 tools I'd buy on a 300-dollar budget, where to find them cheap, and three confidence-building projects you can finish your first Saturday. Skip the overwhelm and make your first real cut this weekend.
Instant download
Rock-Solid Joinery: The Complete Field Guide
The joints that hold real furniture together, explained the way I wish someone had explained them to me. This 60-page illustrated field guide walks through 14 essential joints, from the humble butt joint to hand-cut dovetails, with the exact layout marks, cut sequence, and rescue tricks for when a joint goes wrong. Every joint includes a hand-tool and a power-tool path. Build things that will not wobble apart in five years.
Instant download
The Finish Line: A Field Guide to Wood Finishes
The difference between a project that looks homemade and one that looks handmade is almost always the finish. This 40-page guide takes the mystery out of oils, waxes, shellac, poly, and stains, with a plain-English decision chart for picking the right finish for any project, plus the prep routine that stops blotchy pine and muddy end grain for good. Fewer products, better results, no toxic guesswork.
45-min 1:1 call
Workshop Setup & Project Review Call
Bring me your garage, your project, or your problem, and we'll solve it live. In 45 focused minutes over video I'll review your shop layout, your current build, or your tool-buying plan and hand you a clear, prioritized action list - what to fix, what to buy, and what to skip. I've laid out hundreds of small home workshops and troubleshot builds from wobbly tables to stuck drawers. Come with photos and leave with a plan.
Online course
Master Joinery: From First Cut to Hand-Cut Dovetails
The complete, hands-on path from nervous beginner to confident joiner, taught the way I teach in my own shop. Over 8 project-based lessons you'll sharpen like a pro, cut every joint that matters, and build three real pieces along the way - a bench hook, a dovetailed box, and a mortise-and-tenon stool. Each lesson is a workshop session with a clear build, the common mistakes called out before you make them, and a skill you keep for good.
Membership · billed monthly
The Firelit Workshop Club
Keep the momentum going all year long. Members get a fresh, downloadable project plan every month, my growing video library of joinery and finishing techniques, and a monthly live Q&A call where you can share a photo of whatever you're stuck on and get unstuck in minutes. It's the closest thing to having a woodworker friend two doors down. Cancel anytime with one click.
Live · Aug 15
Live Build: A Hand-Cut Dovetailed Toolbox in 90 Minutes
Join me live in the shop and build alongside me. In 90 minutes I'll cut a classic dovetailed carpenter's toolbox from a single board, start to finish, explaining every layout mark, saw cut, and rescue trick in real time - and answering your questions as we go. Perfect if you learn best by watching someone do it and want proof that dovetails really are within your reach. A full replay is included with your ticket if you can't make it live.
Custom request
Custom Furniture Plan Drafting
Have a piece in your head but no plan to build from? Send me your idea, your space, and your skill level, and I'll draft you a complete, buildable plan - measured drawings, a cut list, a joinery breakdown, and a step-by-step build sequence tailored to the tools you actually own. It's like commissioning a woodworking mentor to design your next project around you. Turnaround is 7 to 10 days, with one round of revisions included.
The Summer Build sale is live: the Rock-Solid Joinery guide and the Master Joinery course are 33% off through Sunday night. I only run this twice a year, so if joinery has been intimidating you, this is the weekend to finally fix that.
Why I teach this way
I spent twelve years in a production cabinet shop cutting the same three joints a thousand times a day. It paid the bills, but it wasn't why I picked up a chisel. When I started teaching on weekends, I noticed the same thing over and over: people weren't short on ambition, they were short on somebody willing to show them the boring fundamentals - how to sharpen, how to read grain, how to cut a joint that actually closes. So that's what I teach. No mystique, no thousand-dollar tool lists. Just the handful of skills that turn a pile of lumber into something your grandkids will fight over. Everything here is built from projects I've actually made in my own shop in Asheville, tested with real students, and refined until a nervous beginner can follow it on a Saturday morning.
What makers are saying
“I'd never cut a dovetail in my life. Six weeks after the joinery course I built my daughter a jewelry box with hand-cut dovetails that actually fit. My wife cried. Worth every penny.”
Marcus D. · Weekend hobbyist, Portland
“Jack's finishing guide fixed the blotchy pine problem I'd fought for two years. First coat after his conditioner tip and it looked like a different board. I've since sold 14 cutting boards on Etsy.”
Priya S. · Etsy shop owner
“The 45-minute setup call saved me from buying a 900-dollar table saw I didn't need. Jack redesigned my one-car garage layout and I actually have room to work now.”
Tom R. · New homeowner, Denver
Before you buy
I'm a total beginner with no tools. Where do I start?+
Grab the free Weekend Workshop Starter Kit first. It lists the exact 12 tools I'd buy on a 300-dollar budget and gives you three first projects. You do not need a garage full of machines to make something real - you need a sharp chisel and a Saturday.
Are these plans for hand tools or power tools?+
Both. Every plan and lesson lays out a hand-tool path and a power-tool path, so you can build with a chisel and a handsaw or with a router and a table saw. I mark which steps are easier each way so you never feel locked out for lacking a machine.
What if I get stuck on a project?+
The paid guides and the course include my email for questions, and members of the Firelit Workshop Club get monthly live Q&A calls where you can share a photo of whatever you're fighting and get unstuck in minutes.
Do the digital products expire, or is it a one-time purchase?+
One-time purchase, yours forever, including any future updates I make to that file. The only recurring option is the membership, and you can cancel that anytime with one click - no email, no phone call.
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