Join us for a weekend of inspiration, education, and community as we gather to celebrate traditional Japanese woodworking.

Our annual festival, held midsummer in central Maine, brings together the best of the Japanese woodworking community along with beginner and seasoned woodworkers to share experience, learn from tool and technique demonstrations and workshops, and compete in a contest to pull the thinnest shaving from a Japanese hand plane.

This year we are expanding to three full days, featuring more in-depth, hands-on workshops, more expert instructors, more opportunities to learn and practice with Japanese tools, and special events including a film screening, BBQ Bonfire Party, and of course the revered planing competition!

Schedule of Events:

Hands On Friday - Friday, July 26, 2024

Attendance limited to 45 students to maximize instructor and student interaction. Learn to scribe a post to a stone in the morning and learn to cut a kanna dai in the afternoon.

7:30 AM - Check-in Opens
8:45 AM - Workshop #1 Yann Giguère: Hands on Post Scribing to Stone
12:00 PM - Opening Remarks and Lunch
1:00 PM - Workshop #2 Jim Blauvelt: Hands on Dai Cutting for KEZ
5:00 PM - Workshop #2 Concludes
5:30 PM - Dinner
7:30 PM - Special Film Screening + Q&A Carving the Divine - Buddhist Sculptors of Japan
11:00 PM - Quiet

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Saturday Workshops and Presentations - Saturday, July 27, 2024

In-depth workshops and presentations by masters of the craft. Designated areas to discuss, try and troubleshoot tools plus the vibrant planing practice tent!

*7:00 AM * - Daniel Pinder and Josh Slaby: Dawn Martial Arts Demonstration
8:00 AM - Check-in Opens
8:45 AM - Yann Giguère: Woodworking as a Practice Body Mind and Spirit
10:00 AM - Jon Billing: Hands on Planing the most Challenging Woods
12:00 PM - Announcements and Lunch
1:15 PM - Wilbur Pan: The Japanese tool Tradition: It’s Not What You Think It Is
2:30 PM - Matt Connorton: Nomi-nomics: Getting the Most from Japanese Chisels
6:00 PM - Barbeque and Bonfire!
11:00 PM - Quiet

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Sunday Festival and Competition - Sunday, July 28, 2024

Morning talk followed by traditional log splitting, hewing, and wood preparation demonstration for all. An afternoon featuring a planing competition!

8:00 AM - Check-in Opens
8:30 AM - Opening Talk - Yamamoto Kohei: Development of formalism (Kiku-Jyutu) and Changes in Architecture
10:30 AM - Group Demo - Yann Giguère: Log to Timber Split, Hew, Adze, Yari ganna
12:00 PM - Announcements and Lunch - Food Truck: Hero's on Wheels
1:00 PM - Planing Practice and Qualification Begins
3:00 PM - Hand Plane Shaving Competition Finals
4:15 PM - Award and Closing Ceremonies

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Date: July 26 - 28, 2024

Location: Never Stop Building Homestead - 772 Rome Rd, Mercer, ME 04957

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