10 Day Traditional Joinery & Green Woodworking Course Overview
Course participants will learn historical way of traditional joinery and green woodworking/wood carving in a practical educational course using only hand tools and also learn about the historical and cultural context of joinery, furniture making and green woodworking in Latvia and Northern Europe.
Overall course description
- Sash window frame making from scratch - sawn piece of larch to finished frame using bench and combination planes, sash filster planes, chisels, saws and hand drills.
- Understanding and using different traditional joiners and wood carvers hand tools (17. - 20.ct) from different cultures - French, German, English, American, Latvian, Finnish, Japanese - chisels, axes, bench planes, combination planes, rip and cross cut saws, dovetail saws, draw knives, augers, marking tools - their history, sharpening and techniques using them.
- Crafting seated chair from birch or oak wood.
- Steam bending techniques for wood.
- Introduction into traditional Japanese hand tools - Japanese chisels, Ryoba and Dozuki dovetail saws, Kanna planes.
- Traditional joinery - mortice and tenon joint, dovetail joints, draw boring/offset drilling peg holes, half blind dovetails, wedged trough mortice and tenon joint.
- Making Japanese style white oak table with sliding dovetail joints.
- Carving traditional Latvian bread making bowl from aspen or lime log.
- Making smaller wooden bowls from birch and white oak logs.
- How to sharpen gouges, chisel and plane blades on natural Novaculite Arkansas bench stones
- How to sharpen a saw using files
- Preparation and drying of green wood to avoid cracks and splitting.
- Finishing techniques of wood using Japanese Shou-Sugi-Ban fire burning technique. Beeswax and propolis finish.
The class will be split into two groups of 6 students, working on the green wood carving and the joinery/furniture making respectively. After 5 days, the groups will swap from one to the other. As such, over 10 days, 5 days one group of 6 students will work on the green wood working and other group of 6 students will work on the traditional joinery. After 5 days the groups will exchange and will work another 5 days. So in 10 days each student will learn basics of traditional joinery making sash window frames, oak bed, rush-seated chair and green wood carving.
We will divide our course schedule between the morning- daytime hands-on learning of woodworking skills as we cut our joinery and carve the green logs, and the evening free sessions, where we will view slides and discuss a variety of topics relating to different crafts, history, traditional forestry, joinery, furniture making and design, green woodworking and dugout canoe making, lifestyle and enjoying being together. Some special wild food dinner upon course completion and 2 educational excursions.
All the woodwork will be carried out with traditional hand tools ALONE (axes, chisels, hand saws, augers, beam drills, drawknives, planes and e.t.c.) – both those made by The Northmen Guild and also old, restored hand tools.
This event will take place at the Northmen workshop, surrounded by the beautiful Amata river and the forests of Latvia. Students will be living/sleeping the nearby (3km away) guest house, eating daily organic local food and enjoying the rural countryside and nature of Latvia while learning the craft from the Northmen guild's Master craftsmen. Students will have breakfast and dinner in the guest house and lunch will be daily catered in the workplace at the workshop.
Cost: 3200, Euros - includes everything in-country: tuition, accommodation, all meals, organized field-trips. Participants are responsible for their own international transport, travel insurance, and extra-curricular costs. Half (50% deposit) of the cost is paid when applying for the course (via PayPal or Credit/Debit card) and the remaining 50% - one month before the start of the course or card/cash at arrival.
Conditions for cancelling your participation in the course: if you cancel the participation 3 months before the starting date, we give back 75% of the deposit, if you cancel it 2 months before the start of the course, we return 50%, if you cancel later, we do not return the money.
Age limitation: 16+
Woodworking experience: Participants are not expected to have any joinery or green woodworking experience but any woodworking experience is appreciated.
Training site: The course will be held at the Northmen workshop in Amatas novads, Latvia, surrounded by the beautiful forests of Lavia and the scenic Amatas river.
Full lodging and 3 local organic food meals (per day) is provided from the day of arrival till the departure. In the evening of arrival will be provided dinner at 7pm. On the departure day will be provided last breakfast at 8am.
Language: The course will be held in English.
Special Wild Food Dinner
Exclusive meal at famous Latvian chef's Eriks Dreibants private property (originally old forest ranger's house) in the middle of the Gauja National Park. Since 2024 his restaurant has a Michelin Green Star. Eriks will personally cook wild food meal on open fire for all the students and teachers.
Course Tutors
Jacob Dimiters (1985)
Master carpenter and Timber Framing tutor in Northmen carpentry classes. Founder of Northmen guild and designer of Northmen woodworking tools. Has done a deep research in historical hand tools and medieval carpentry techniques. During the last 9 years Jacob has been teaching traditional timber framing to more than 200 international students. He started his journey as a cinematographer at 18 and after 8 years working in movie making went back to his childhood dream to become a carpenter and create things with his hands, building around himself a society where people are intoxicated with the joy of making and creating. In 2017 he formed Northmen Guild - a platform for independet craftsmen to share their work with the world.
Jacob has been learning his carpentry skills from French carpenters, acquiring the knowledge of how to layout and cut precise joinery using rough hewn or crooked timbers based on ancient French and Japanese center line layout systems. Since then Jacob shares those almost forgotten techniques to his students. An independent movie maker. Father of 2 daughters.
Germain Joyet (1987)
Germain grew up in a small village in France not far from Lyon and earned a Bachelor’s degree in building engineering, specializing in wood industry. After an internship at a handcrafted log building company in Estonia, he worked as a structural designer in Switzerland for 5 years. On weekends, he took some carpentry lessons and rented a small wood workshop where he started to make furniture for himself, his family and friends, inspired by what he saw on Tumblr. During his holidays he continued to visit Estonia on a regular basis to practice traditional woodwork until he bought an old farmhouse and started its renovation in 2014.
Over the last twelve years in Estonia, Germain has worked on a variety of projects – from restoring historic manor windows to timber frame structures and building traditional log saunas, all while holding a quiet affection for custom furniture making.
Self-employed, he works in a wood workshop sharing machinery with other traditional joiners. In recent years, he has been invited to teach international courses in Estonia and came to Northmen as a tutor for the first time in July 2026. His philosophy is to do things with a traditional/rural approach, reasonably avoiding modern solutions.
Jānis Balodis (1982)
John liked creating, building and constructing things of wood since his childhood days. He gained professional skills in craftsman high school – he became a style furniture maker and woodcarver.
John continued to improve his skills and knowledge in University, where he received Master’s degree in wood processing technologies and design.
Further he made good cooperation with other craftsmen of the field, continuing to broaden his skills.
Woodwork has become his lifestyle and labour of love. Master implements feelings and in his masterpieces, which are all made by hand. Inner motivation makes him evolve and create every thing as best as possible.
John’s grandfather was a talented woodcarver. His professional skills are verified by a victory in a prestige competition in England of making a copy of Thomas Chippendale’s chair. Jury was unable to distinguish original from the copy.
Educational Excursions
A Sunday morning open air breakfast and swimming in a crystal clear “Mežmuižas” Seven Springs lake
A Sunday excursion to Latvian Etnographical open air museum in Riga
Taking part in a traditional smoke sauna in a Historical Smoke Sauna at Brother Jurjani Historic House Mengeli
An evening walk to nearby Old Ligatne paper mill village by the shores, woodlands and cliffs of river Ligatne.
Teach the young! Honor the elders!
More information & questions - courses@northmen.com