Woodworking students learn by following techniques of an 1859 apprentice, Thomas
Students in Anthony Cordasco’s high school woodworking classes have learned there are no new problems, just old ones revisited.
Likewise, they learn they can find answers to today’s projects by turning to the past.
Students have been built boxes using the same tools and following the same techniques as Thomas, an apprentice wood worker of 150 years ago.
”As they are cutting their boards to size, making joints, planing and sanding, Thomas is doing the same thing,” said Mr. Cordasco.
Along with the traditional woodworking lessons, Mr. Cordasco had his students read what has been considered the oldest documented instructional book relating to carpentry. In it, the daily life and experiences of Thomas the cabinet maker apprentice in England in 1859 are spelled out.
”There is a long and rich tradition related to the skills of woodworking,” said Mr. Cordasco, “and it helps students to see that they face the same challenges and learning curve that Thomas experienced in an 1859 workshop.””Many students come into my classes with the concept that machines and horsepower are the best way, the modern way, to do woodworking and they are surprised to find that methods and tools used hundreds of years ago can still solve woodworking problems and create fine furniture even today,” said Mr. Cordasco.
”In actuality,” he said, “among high-end handmade contemporary furniture makers there has been a renaissance in the use of hand tools and more and more woodworkers are discovering the joy and superior results of hand tools.”
Mr. Cordasco, a Hunterdon County resident who has taught in Hillsborough for many years, does historical reenactment with a Revolutionary War group and also recreates the Christmas Day crossing of the Delaware River by colonial troops under General George Washington.
He says that his students, in a sense, also do a historical reenactment. “They are experiencing the joy of building something and at the same time reliving that experience both in the present and through the eyes of someone in the past,” he said.
In the school’s shop students use chisels, mallets and hand planes, as well as power saws, routers and large machinery.
”Eventually, students learn to reach for the best tool, not the fastest tool or only the ones that plug in,” he said.
”A lot of students sign up for woodworking with me and a very small percentage of those students will go on to make woodworking a career, although I wish more students would consider it,” he said. “All of them, however, will appreciate some day their familiarity with tools, their knowledge of safety and the satisfaction of designing and building something. The problem-solving skills will serve them well in every aspect of their life.”
Mr. Cordasco recalled a former gym teacher of his once told him, “A skill once learned is never lost.” He’s still using the concept, in spades.

