Home: Can you learn basic woodwork skills in four hours?

We sign up for a Saturday morning workshop in Cork where local tutors teach all ages, from school leavers to retired learners

Carol O'Callaghan practises her wood drilling with a pillar drill at Benchspace, Marina Commercial Park. Pictures: Larry Cummins

I've taken up woodwork, and no, it’s not an April Fools’ joke but my fetish for kitchen boards, from hard grafting chopping boards, to the more evolved serving board, or charcuterie platter if we’re being really posh.

In total, I have nine propped on the work surface, segregated according to purpose. Outsize boards for staging collations of cheese, untainted by the everyday boards that are never free of the faint whiff of onion despite applications of salt and lemon as recommended by top cheffing types.

The idea, however, of making one of my own had me thinking about the compatibility of woodworking tools, sanding equipment and a workshop environment with wanting to maintain a new manicure.

But my practical nature trumped vanity and it didn’t take any coaxing by Maeve Murphy, operations manager at Benchspace Cork, to get me signing up for a workshop last Saturday called Benchspace Bites — Chopping Boards, a four-hour introduction to the craft, with the promise of leaving with a masterpiece on which to present my culinary efforts.

It’s one of several bite-size courses on offer, according to Maeve, which also includes spoon carving and jewellery-making, as well as more intensive and lengthy courses.

 Maeve Murphy, operations manager, and David Scannell, woodwork tutor, at Benchspace, Marina Commercial Park. Pictures: Larry Cummins

“We have locally skilled tutors,” she says, “teaching beginners’ courses up to advanced, and a huge mix of students; all age groups and a safe space for everyone. Small classes, around 10 people, over 18s, from school leavers to retired.”

In an area traditionally dominated by men, eight out of my ten classmates were women, plus a grandfather and grandson.

Guiding us through the course was our tutor, the charismatic David Scannell, who came to this job via a law degree, later training as a furniture maker.

His enthusiasm for the course is palpable and infectious.

The course participants showing off their finished chopping boards made at Benchspace, Marina Commercial Park. 

“We keep having to come up with new ones such is demand for these bite-size courses,” he explains. “Woodwork gives people a chance to unplug. We have everyone attending, from baristas to college lecturers — and you leave with a chopping board.”

Hope springs as I choose the raw material for my board — a hunk of beechwood with a vestige of waney edge citing that it once had bark on it and that trees do not grow in convenient rectangles for board crafting. Some might see it as a flaw but I loved the idea of making a feature of this slight imperfection.

Up next was cutting practice, using a saw that in another life might cut sushi; little blocks of wood and an L-square ruler, before being let loose on the real project.

My imperfect practice demonstrated I must eat my words about school geometry being of no use in adulthood, but I’m reassured by David’s positivity: “Ninety-five per cent of woodwork is fixing your mistakes,” he says.

Then it’s on to deciding the style of board: Rounded edges, bevelled sides? How about a hole for carrying it, rounded-off corners or 45-degree angles?

Carol O'Callaghan with her finished work, a beautiful beech chopping board made on a Saturday morning at Benchspace, Marina Commercial Park. 

Determined to make my waney edge the star of the piece, I opted not to cut a hole that would reduce the surface area for wedging one more cheese, but I did have a go at using the hole-making machine which was fun, but not as much fun as the rasp file, which I’ll happily take in lieu of an Easter egg, please.

For those not in the know, it lands somewhere in design between a citrus zester and an outsize nail file, and involves the same technique as the latter.

After sawing off my corners, I deployed the rasp file to fashion a shape that those who love a manicure will know as round square, and then it was on to sandpaper action which proved almost an active meditation, sliding across the board’s surface, followed by a touch-and-see for any rough bits missed.

And, finally, application of the finish; an unctuous blend of natural ingredients: Mineral oil, beeswax and lemon oil. As the board drinks it up the woodgrain comes alive, as do my hands, velvety soft and glowing from these ingredients, and in case you were wondering, the manicure remains intact.

I’m inordinately proud of the finished board, and think I’ve caught the woodworking bug, made all the more attractive by the price of the workshop. For just €60 you end up with a unique piece that would likely cost €60-€80 at a craft fair — and the joy of having made it yourself.

• Benchspace Bites Chopping Board making course, €60 from 10am-2pm, Saturdays monthly. All materials provided. Course information and bookings at Benchspacecork.ie.

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