MAKE A Wall-hung Coat Rack

Over a full day you’ll learn why wood bends — and make something with it. Steam bending is one of the oldest techniques in woodworking: heat and moisture unlock the lignin that gives wood its rigidity, and for a short window after leaving the steambox, the fibres can be formed around a shape and held there permanently. This course uses that window to make three hooks, then connects them to a hand-shaped ash bar with simple joinery, producing a wall-hung coat hanger that goes up with three screws and a pair of wooden plugs. 

The course opens with a taught session on the anatomy of wood — what lignin is, how moisture and heat affect it, and why the process works the way it does. Then the bending begins. Students work through the steambox and former with teacher guidance, clamping each hook while the ash is still hot. While the hooks dry, the rest of the day is hand tool work: planing a square bar round with a hand plane and spokeshave, marking and cutting the relief joints that receive the hooks, and drilling the fixing recesses. Glue-up in the afternoon, plugs cut on the drill press, and two coats of hard wax oil to finish. 

Across the day you’ll learn to: 

• Understand the anatomy of wood: what lignin and fibre content are, how steam disrupts them, and why the wood must reach the former before it cools — the theory that makes the practical make sense 

• Steam and bend ash: moving hooks from the soaking tub to the steambox to the former, clamping before the window closes — satisfying, fast, and unlike anything else in woodworking 

• Mark and cut relief joints in the wall bar: understanding the geometry that angles the hooks away from the wall; cutting shoulders that fit the bent hooks once they’ve dried to their final shape 

• Shape a round bar with a hand plane and spokeshave: planing a square ash section round across its length, then refining the curve with a spokeshave to a surface that’s ready to oil 

• Drill counterbored wall fixing holes on a drill press: a two-bit sequence that leaves a recess for the wooden plug and a through-hole for the fixing 

• Glue hooks to the wall bar: fitting each hook, checking orientation and glue quantity, clamping in sequence 

• Cut wooden plugs on the drill press: matching plug to recess diameter; understanding how they conceal the fixings once the hanger is on the wall 

• Finish in hard wax oil: two coats across all components, leaving the ash grain open and the surface ready to hang 

Brandon Harrison is a fine furniture designer-maker with an international formation — trained at Sturt Craft Centre in Australia and Yacademy in Italy — and a practice built around heirloom-quality work where the construction is part of the design. Steam bending, wedged tenons, and exposed joinery run through his own exhibited work, recognised at Craft + Design Canberra, Vivid Furniture Design Melbourne, and Wood Review’s Student Maker of the Year. He brings the same depth of thinking to the workshop. 

All timber, tools, and finishing materials are included. Come in clothes you can work in and closed-toe shoes — no open-toed footwear in the workshop. 

Please note we cannot accommodate pets or children who are not registered for the course.