School of Practical Stereotomy - École Pratique de Stéréotomie

School of Practical Stereotomy - École Pratique de Stéréotomie Stereotomy; the fundamental mental skill of envisioning in 3D. Masters of it are true master builders

The purpose of the Professional School of Practical Stereotomy is, after apprenticeship, the training of elite craftsmen. This is a school for construction design arts where it counts among its pupils, from all points of North America and even from abroad, distinguished contractors in carpentry and timber framing, public construction, well-respected foremen, architects, and numerous craftsmen, who

se gratitude and recognition were always one of the best rewards. This Professional Element (Art du Trait), called upon today to render so much service to the industry, cultivates good design by teaching practical ways to seek all that one can give to work, to insure that the solution to each problem is rational and produces, in construction, a solid and well-thought-out execution. The pupil at the School starts with the elementary study of joinery, essential to any work; then he draws his first scale drawings, creates a scale model; then, with the same data, realizes the design, in life size, on a building site; thus, while working, he studies the various combinations containing all that is necessary for construction.

Had a fantastic 2-day weekend workshop at America's 🇺🇸 oldest trade school - North Bennet Street School, in Boston, M.A....
08/23/2026

Had a fantastic 2-day weekend workshop at America's 🇺🇸 oldest trade school - North Bennet Street School, in Boston, M.A. ( North Bennet Street School ) teaching and introducing nine wonderful people to the incredible world of stereotomy.

Thank you!🙏

I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to have spent this past week in Boston teaching at the North Bennet Street ...
08/22/2026

I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to have spent this past week in Boston teaching at the North Bennet Street School. North Bennet Street School NBSS is truly a remarkable institution, and both their faculty and staff are absolutely amazing people.

Participants learned the geometry behind the bell curve, which gives this dormer its unique and sweeping shape. They also learned how to layout the curved valleys and the curved bevels ontop of the eyebrow rafters.

You can see on the inside we also laid out and cut what essentially is a groin vault. This piece, set between the rafters, us to provide solid backing on the interior side.

North Bennet is truly an incredible school! Along with their faculty, amazing people!

Thank you so much to all the participants and to NBSS for hosting the workshop. It is such an honor to share this amazing intellect with you all!

To all the Finnish carpenters out there 🇫🇮—here is a slice of Northern Ontario history that speaks directly to the art o...
08/12/2026

To all the Finnish carpenters out there 🇫🇮—here is a slice of Northern Ontario history that speaks directly to the art of survival and craft.

​In the late 1920s and 1930s, Finnish settlers arrived in communities around Hearst, Ontario, facing unbroken forest, subarctic winters, and tough terrain. Before they even finished their main homesteads, one of the very first structures to go up was often the sauna—built circa 1930 using traditional round log construction techniques.
​These pioneers cleared the land with raw manual labor, timber-framing log dwellings, harvesting pulpwood, and adapting traditional Nordic joining methods to local softwoods. In some pockets of Northern Ontario, Finnish communities were so dense that generations grew up speaking English with a distinct Finnish accent.

​Structures like this restored 1930 sauna stand as a testament to self-reliance, resourcefulness, and carpentry craftsmanship built to endure subzero climates.

Had a great chat with Eric Fourthon from Grain de Vérité We chatted about all things Compagnonnage and work. It was a bl...
08/02/2026

Had a great chat with Eric Fourthon from Grain de Vérité

We chatted about all things Compagnonnage and work. It was a blast and I learned so much about the history of the Compagnons. A fascinating talk!

Merci pays !

What an incredible weekend workshop! We brought geometry, timbercraft, and a little structural magic together to design ...
07/13/2026

What an incredible weekend workshop! We brought geometry, timbercraft, and a little structural magic together to design and build these reciprocating (Mandala) timber roof structures.

​Over two hands-on days, we used practical stereotomy to solve the entire layout on paper; figuring out every rafter length, angle, and bearing, before translating that layout onto the rafters.

One of the funnest moment was learning the scaled model was able to hold more than 250lbs of direct weight! 🤯 (Hence the photo of the students literally standing on their work!)

Students walked away with a finished model, the templates to repeat it, and the confidence to scale this idea up.

Thank you so much to all the participants and to the Marc Adams | School of Woodworking & Time Honored Crafts for hosting. 🙏🙏

Had a fantastic week at Marc Adams | School of Woodworking & Time Honored Crafts teaching the wonderful and amazing worl...
07/12/2026

Had a fantastic week at Marc Adams | School of Woodworking & Time Honored Crafts teaching the wonderful and amazing world of stereotomy.

Participants built this really cool three legged trestle that was heavily inspired by the Zimmerer-Nationalmannschaft training model.

It's essentially a scaled down high-top patio table.

What an amazing experience!!  This was such an awesome workshop!! It was so much fun getting to meet and know the whole ...
06/20/2026

What an amazing experience!! This was such an awesome workshop!! It was so much fun getting to meet and know the whole crew at Bob Cornell Construction in Spirit Lake, Iowa. 🇺🇸

A massive thanks to Elijah Cornell for putting on the workshop and for being such a wonderful host. And a huge thanks to his whole crew for being so interested, involved, and working so hard. What an awesome bunch of people!

Thank you!! 🙏🙏🙏

06/18/2026

Wait until you see this incredible masterpiece!! To celebrate 80 years of the Compagnons Charpentiers, 14 young carpenters from across France spent over 9,800 hours to create this.

In the heart of the mid-west - Spirit Lake, Iowa. Giving a professional development course to Bob Cornell Construction. ...
06/17/2026

In the heart of the mid-west - Spirit Lake, Iowa. Giving a professional development course to Bob Cornell Construction.

It's so awesome to see companies like this providing educational opportunities to their people. This week they are learning all about stereotomy and how it's applied to roof framing, specifically a four sided hipped timber framed gazebo.

06/04/2026

Off to the races!! The SkillsUSA carpentry competition has started.

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