“Beyond being an excellent instructor, Albert created an open and collaborative atmosphere which encouraged questions and creativity. Including a lecture on technique/theory and information on veneer and resawing veneer was as helpful as the actual hands on practice. Eating meals together helped the students bond and talk about what we were learning as well as about each other.” – 8/11/25

“I loved the course. Ashley did an excellent job explaining the class and answered any questions I had. She made it very personable and easy to ask my questions. I look forward to taking another Plane Wellness class.” – 8/23/25

“Eric was great. He was able to control the pace of the course and allow me to finish the work I needed to while still giving thorough explanations and finishing the course with everything I needed to complete the project. My recommendation would be to add some wood species recommendations to the provided project supply list. Eric, who would have been moving faster than I could have by skill alone, was working with select pine. I wasn’t sure what wood to get, so I googled what wood species make good clamps and ended up choosing red oak. The class ended up being informative as well as a workout.” – 9/8/25

“I came into this class with no experience in power carving and left with an understanding of multiple techniques that I can use in future projects. The class was well designed packed a lot into a short time. I was wary of taking an online class, but it worked well.” – 9/14/25

“Extremely informative, it was easy to follow along. Great communication, all questions answered. It was fun to see what everyone else carved.” – 9/14/25

“the course was great! I think the material was useful and well suited to the available time. the instructor was knowledgeable and did a good job of teaching the techniques we covered. Taking this course will definitely help me use these techniques (textures via power carving and paint effects) in my future projects. Some of the students were confused about materials they needed (esp paint) so communication about that could be improved, but most of us had what we needed.” – 9/14/25

“Outstanding class! Elizabeth Weber is an excellent instructor and a great person and Jamie was an awesome moderator! This class definitely gave me some skills that I will continue to build upon. My only suggestion, which is not a huge deal, is that the list of required/suggested tools and materials be a little more clear and concise. At least a couple of us purchased two brushes on the list that were not actually needed. But this does not at all diminish my rating of “EXCELLENT” for this class.” – 9/16/25

“Instructor is a delight. Very supportive and knowledgeable.” – 9/17/25

“James and the entire plane wellness team are great. Their interactions with me have been nothing short of outstanding, the chance to slow down and reset while learning and using my hands is a chance for better head space.” – 9/20/25

“I really appreciated the zoom camera for the details” – 9/20/25

“everything was great and had a lot of fun” – 9/20/25

“James is the man!” – 9/20/25

“Woodworking for me is therapy and Plane Welness has been as important to me as a session appointment with the mental health professionals. The interaction with other veterans and woodworkers is invaluable. Not to mention the skills that I’m learning. It’s not what the man does to the wood, but what the wood does to the man.” – 9/21/25

“It was a very fun meeting and I feel like I took out a good amount of information. With the time zone I was still waking up so I very much appreciate having the class recorded so I can write some notes later” – 10/18/25

“Good class and learned a lot. May want to have Diagrams made in advance and printed on Paper. It was a little hard to see drawings.” – 10/18/25

“I appreciated the way James and Andrew made us all feel included and part of a community. Dont ask me how they did this but they did. I now have a wonderful project to tinker away at over the long cold winter months….” – 10/25/26

“I really enjoyed this course – having the ability to interact directly with the instructor really helped me to get my project working, even when I hit the snags that always crop up when making something new.” – 10/25/25

“Ashley is an excellent teacher, takes time to answer your questions and gives thorough answers.” – 10/26/25

“Great pacing and (especially because it was only online) very interactive. James is a great teacher, though specific measurements would be nice to help with some of the issues that come up.” – 10/28/25

“It was a blast. The format was solid. I think the off topic conversations could have been reduced to help stay on track but I do understand the value in that as well. As for me, I just wanted to be elbows deep in the project. But the overall woodworking centric banter was nice.” – 11/3/25

“Elizabeth was an awesome teacher. I really appreciated her going through important basics, like how to sharpen the tools and how to look at wood grain for spoon carving purposes. Also, she has a great sense of humor!” – 11/9/25

“I went into the course with little to no expectations and Elizabeth was a wonderful instructor and I learned a lot! I am so glad I signed up!” – 11/9/25

“This was a great class. It was well paced and the instructor was very easy to follow. A couple suggestions for student prep: The wood blanks required were described as 2 1/4” by 8” by 1” thick. The instructor used a blank that was 3/4” thick, and was already cut rough to the shape of the spoon prior to class. If you changed the description to match, that would save some time as a couple of us had to cut our rough shapes during class. I also had to change out my bandsaw blade as I had a large resaw blade on the saw and needed a smaller blade to be able to cut curves. I loved the class and look forward to the next class that I signed up for in December.” – 11/9/25

“Fantastic class – she was great!!” – 11/13/25

“Great course and great teacher. Only thing id recommend is making sure spoon blanks are emphasize in the materials list. It is obviously clearly there but me and at least 2 other classmates ran into the same issue of not having the blanks prepped correctly. Its definitely user error but seeing the dimensions definitely made me jump the gun on my prep and have to spend a good chunk of the course trying to catch up with using hand tools to carve my blank out. That aside i loved the pacing especially, it wasnt too fast or complicated and gave some good ideas on how to use more difficult tools like gouges and hook knives” – 11/13/25

“Excellent course! It’s so gratifying to complete a spoon relatively quickly, as opposed to working for days before completing a project. When I get stuck, make a mistake, or just need a break from whatever else I’m working on, or going through, I’ll carve a spoon, to regroup and get a fresh perspective. It really is therapeutic. I see spoons! Every scrap or tree branch is a potential spoon.” – 11/16/25

“Every course I have the opportunity to take is a chance to improve my skills and meet good folks who are all in this to improve themselves and the world around them just a bit. Doesn’t have to be anything big or flashy, but small changes lead to big results over time.” – 11/17/25

“I loved this course! James was very responsive to questions and supported us for asking our questions. Other instructors (on YouTube — not with Plane Wellness) seem to be arrogant or condescending toward their viewers, but I’ve never seen James act like that so he is an awesome fit for these courses!” – 11/17/25

“I enjoyed the class. I have been using block planes for over 20 yrs and learned new aspects about block planes through the course. I had several ah ha moments. I also had several realizations as to why the block planes were behaving as I used them.” – 11/19/25

“1. The communication with the course admins/leaders is excellent. They sent the right amount of reminders, emails, and methods to keep us engaged about the upcoming course.
2. The instructor was very prepared and had a great deal of knowledge about block planes. The camera angles for the demonstrations were great.
3. We spent too much time on cutting angles, bed angles, bevel angles. It became confusing for the new users and went on for about 30 minutes. Recommend we move the demonstration up to the front and explain how the angles work after the students see the plane in action. It is easier to explain a technique after a demonstration vs powerpoint slides.
4. The instructor handled one of the students trying to take over his class very well. The instructor is very professional and let the man have his points but it started to get overwhelming for me to listen to another student try to outshine the instructor. Kudos to the instructor for his tact.
5. I am truly thankful for this organization and am so glad I found it. You are doing great work and I look forward to future classes.
All the best!!!” – 11/19/25

“Great explanation on bedding angle vs cutting angle for low angle block planes” – 11/24/25

“The teacher, James Wright, was excellent. Well informed, patient, and was willing to answer questions and go “off script” when needed. Yet, he also kept things going so it didn’t lag… So thankful for this opportunity to learn woodworking!” – 12/6/25

“class was great. As an experienced woodworker I picked up a few things that I didn’t know!” – 12/8/25

“If you can afford it, perhaps you could get better cameras and microphones for the instructors. Thank you!!!” – 12/17/25

“Elizabeth was fantastic – thank you!!!” – 12/23/25

“Course was taught well. I enjoyed the use of hand tools more than the previous course using power carver.” – 12/31/25

“: I recommend this class to anyone, especially those who have an appreciation for vintage tools and history. I really appreciated the laid back atmosphere Chris brought to the class and the Nova Labs facility is nothing short of awesome! Like many others, I’ve watched all the videos on plane restoration and sharpening techniques but was more confused than anything. Chris broke everything down in the simplest fashion for anyone to understand and shared hands-on knowledge that made it easy to turn an old rusted plane into a cutting machine. I left the class with a new excitement to restore the collection of old rough hand planes I was gifted.” – 1/14/26

“It was a Fabulous course. I really learned a ton. I am feeling inspired to make Mortise and Tenons. Sadly being on the west coast (Vancouver) it was a bit early to make chips bu I am very appreciative of the info and the recorded video” – 1/24/26

“I found this course to be very helpful. The pacing was a tad quick, but ample time was given to catch up and ask questions. Overall I feel that I walked out of this class with some new skills and confidence. One point of constructive criticism: be careful with asking people to introduce themselves. For many people, myself included, social interaction is a large part of our mental health struggle. In some cases, it’s so crippling that we can’t even handle group therapy to address it. For people like me, it’s not easy to introduce ourselves in front of a group. It may be better to instead invite people to introduce themselves if they want to.” – 1/24/26

“James is a great instructor and did a great job making sure the virtual students were participating and given time to address questions, giving instruction, and ensuring a good view of the work for closeup visuals of the tasks being done. He also did a great job of explaining the multiple methods of accomplishing a task and of giving the pros and cons for various woodworking traditions.” – 1/24/26

“Great teacher. Fun lesson” – 1/24/26

“It might be helpful to have basic skills in woodworking taught… how to saw straight or how to hold tools when using like chisels and how to plane, etc. Just a thought…” – 1/24/26

“: I was able to go in person so everything was great. The work shop is set up great and I was able to try every type of tool. Mr Wright helped me with understanding the issues I have been having and I will be able to improve greatly. he kept the flow of the class going and it flew by. It was so much fun Thank you.” – 1/24/26

“Course was well-organized and the instructor was knowledgable. Was very useful in exhibiting sharpening techniques and how planes work. Access to good sharpening tools was great. Enjoyed spending time with variety of other woodworkers.” – 1/24/26

“I really loved the course and how open James was to questions. I am a teacher and I have had to teach in a hybrid model before it often leads to the online community being left out but James was very good about checking in!” – 1/25/26

“What I learned the most was Gary’s nuggets of knowledge …. Rout. Cross grain first so when routing long grain any tear out will be removed , NOT to use an oil finish on the inside of the box this is extremely help since I’m starting a blanket chest for my daughter” – 2/2/26

“Instructor is really good.” – 2/3/26

“Eric’s instruction and the video was clear and I figured out some tips to using my block plane which always seemed to get stuck before.” – 2/26/26

“Thank you for being awesome” – 3/2/26

“I would have liked to have a more comprehensive list of tools to bring. From a building community perspective, it would be great to have a group dinner Thursday or Friday to enable more folks to attend. Shea’s extensive experience and ability to connect with the students created a positive environment which was conducive to learning. He not only explained the tools and techniques, he helped us to understand the intangible aesthetic aspects of designing an object.” – 3/2/26

“Good effort on the part James Wright” – 3/2/26

“The course was awesome. The only change would be to take more time to think through all the tools we need and let us know so we can bring them. Like a drawknife. Feeling prepared lowers the stress for some people like me.” – 3/2/26

“This was absolutely a fantastic course and I was glad it was my first one. i know this de-anonymizes the survey, but my only regret is that I was unable to show you all more of the local area because of my schedule.” – 3/3/26

“Great class in every aspect! Great instructor – Shea was knowledgeable, patient, helpful…. The shop and setting were amazing. It was great to meet everyone face-to-face – it provided a real sense of community. I really enjoyed getting to know my fellow students. I’ve taken a number of woodworking classes and I’d have to say this was probably my favorite!” – 3/3/26

“Enjoyed very much!” – 3/3/26

“The class was really great! I am at the beginning of my woodworking journey, having only made simpler joints like lap and mortise-and-tenon, so hadn’t attempted dovetails before, but James is an excellent teacher and gave plenty of advice and tips that I’ll be digesting for some time. The only criticism if any is that the audio was a little spotty here and there which occasionally made it hard to hear what James was saying. He did say at the beginning he’d been having network trouble that morning, so it could have been that or it could have been the result of noise cancellation turned up a little too high, though it wasn’t a big deal and only happened now and then.” – 3/8/26

“I enjoyed the course. It was my first class with Plane Wellness and I learned a lot. I’m really new to hand woodworking so this class was very helpful. I learned that there are many different types of block plane and they are a very versatile tool. Eric did a good job explaining the different types of planes, he explained how the angle of the plane affects the wood and the techniques he shared will be helpful” – 3/15/26

“I’ve never had a bad experience with a Plane Wellness class, which is wild considering how many I’ve taken. Shea himself is a very effective teacher, and I feel very privileged that I was able to attend his course. Jamie makes sure everyone feels welcome and is as comfortable as possible. I feel I’ve made several friends during it as well.” – 3/28/26