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Taking Carpentry Skills to the Next Level

Huck, member

1 user recommends

Karl was a Gulf War veteran and an accomplished craftsman.

Elizabeth was an architecture major, getting some hands-on woodworking experience before moving on to the university setting.

Yours truly on the left, assisting in a glue-up operation with some classmates.

Steve Hageman, the instructor, is passionate about his work as a professor, demanding, and fully invested in his students' goals.

Jorge was steady and patient, and completed his project right at the finish line.

Karl was a Gulf War veteran and an accomplished craftsman.

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As a contractor and a carpenter, my entire career has been spent working in the field, never in a shop.  I wanted to take my carpentry skills to the next level, and I was fortunate to find a community college class which did just that.

During 2007, I had the privilege of attending Steve Hageman's woodworking class at Bakersfield College.  The class was intense, and heavy on reading, lecture, notetaking, and documentation.  The standards were stringent.  And the class was a total blast.  You had to be committed, but if you were, there was a great sense of purpose, goals, and comeraderie.

I took two semesters, the first semester we built a shaker inspired curved-front nightstand, and the second semester we built a colonial style end table.  Steve is demanding of his students, and as a result, you come away from his classes with more than just a knowledge of woodworking.

One of his favorite expressions is "cross-curricular", which means that the skills and mindset necessary to complete the class, and the project, will spill over into other facets of your life and work.  And while he doesn't come out and say it, life lessons is really what the class is all about.

Underlying all the work and study, the sawdust, sweat, and blood (yeah, there's always a little of that involved in woodworking), was a profound respect for craftsmanship, and for intelligent manual labor.  These are values that are little understood in today's world, and little appreciated by most college administrators. 

Hence, Steve is an unsung hero in my book, contributing from his own pocketbook, and his own sweat equity, to make up for what college funds tended to fall short of accomplishing.  His workshop is the product of his own hands, in more ways than one.

I HIGHLY recommend taking a semester with Steve Hageman at Bakersfield Community College for anyone willing to submit to an intense and demanding experience, in return for a lot of learning in a short time, a heightened awareness of the value of craftsmanship, and a real sense of accomplishment. 

I hope to be able to return to Mr. Hageman's class soon, and continue my education.

By way of explanation: the project featured here was not of my own design - it was a class assigned project.

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Lifesize Buick Trompe L'oeil Mural

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