Open Workshop // Join a Tour of Thor's Hammer for Design Canberra 2023 - 12:00pm session

We’re excited to announce we’ll be hosting an Open Workshop as part of DESIGN Canberra Festival 2023 run by CraftACT, running a series of workshop tours that’ll bring you behind the scenes of Hammer HQ.

You’ll learn about the skill and care it takes to safely salvage and recycle our timber, as well as the history behind it. You’ll meet members of our team from different sections of the business, from recycling, dressing & joinery, to the sales and office staff, to the guy himself, Thor Diesendorf (founder and director).

You’ll have the opportunity to check out the workshop, lumber yard, showroom and upstairs gallery, and there will also be time for questions. This is a really great opportunity to get to know us a little better, and would also be a great thing to bring a teenager to (must be supervised) to get them fired up about a career in sustainability, design, timber recycling, furniture-making or joinery.

Workshop Tours

We’ll be taking visitors on a timber recycling journey, from the raw demolition timber to the fine furniture produced by our craftspeople.

There will be three sessions available, at 11:30am, 12pm and 12:30pm, all going for about 60 minutes. It’s free, but tickets must be reserved because spaces are limited.

*N.B This is the event booking for the 12pm session. Book the 11:30am session here, and book the 12:30pm session here.

First up, we’ll take you down the back to the timber yard to show you where the timber arrives from the demolitions, before introducing you to Matt from our recycling team. Matt will demonstrate nail removal, species identification and grading techniques, and if there’s time you might even get a go at de-nailing yourself!

After that, we’ll take you inside to see the big machines in our dressing workshop and our recycled sawdust fire briquette production.

Next, you’ll have a chance to learn about making furniture with the joinery team, looking at things like machining, profiling, gluing, sanding, filling and finishing. You’ll get to see our 5-axis CNC machine in action.

Finally, Thor will take you upstairs to The Mixing Room Gallery and Showroom, to check out the design details of the furniture on show, and talk through some of the design thinking behind our work.

This is also the last day to enjoy our current exhibition up in the Mixing Room Gallery: Aggregate: Perspectives in Recycled Glass—make sure to take a moment to look around while you’re there.

Please note

• You must reserve your space for the tour. If you miss out, we’ll be running another tour in autumn next year. Make sure to join our email list at thors.com.au/subscribe so you don’t miss out.
• Kids/teenagers under 16 should be supervised by an adult.
• There is a fair bit of walking and standing on the tour, but you are welcome to bring your own fold up chair. The last part of the tour is up two flights of stairs, so it is not suitable for those with mobility issues—we're very sorry to those who that will affect.