Supporting the development of traditional skills, knowledge, and productivity around the world.
Take a Class at Tillers International USA
Classes range from traditional blacksmithing, driving draft horses and oxen, woodworking with handtools, timber framing, coopering, and more. Each time you take a class, it helps support the spreading of historic tools here and abroad.
One of our trainers at a farming with oxen clinic in Uganda.
Support a Class at Tillers International Worldwide
Your support makes it possible to provide clinics on tool use, animal handling, and appropriate scale mechanized farming. More than 20,000 farmers have gone through these clinics since 1981.
Watch a short introduction video on YouTube
Watch a short Intro Video on YouTube
We produced a short video to introduce people to Tillers International and the work we do in the U.S. and Internationally with an emphasis on how historic tools and methods connect everything we do.
T.i. on Woodwright’s Shop on PBS
Season 27 Episode 11 | 26m 46s | - Ox yokes & timber-framing number among the projects at a school using low-tech solutions.
Say You Wood.
Woodworking provided the foundation of important innovations throughout human history in many fields including agriculture, art, tool making, architecture, exploration, sailing, and so many others.
In many countries, woodworking plays a vital part of day to day life especially it the role it plays in tool making.
You can learn how to work with this invaluable resource alongside our expert volunteers and instructors many of whom have taught woodworking professionally before joining T.i. USA.
Most our wood classes focus on using traditional hand tools to accomplish fun and amazing things. Whether you’re a knowledge worker who has never touched a saw and hammer or if you’re a longtime woodworker and want to try something different, we have a class for you.
Burkina Faso | Haiti | Senegal
The Right Tools.
Most people understand the value of having the right tools for the right jobs. The core of what we do is tool development for use with draft animals in what’s called “appropriate-scale mechanization.”
Appropriate-scale mechanization means creating the right tools for small-scale farmers in developing countries that allow them to mechanize tasks and improve productivity on their farms.
A practical example of this is creating a planter that precisely drops seeds in straight lines that then allows for the use of an animal-pulled weeder. In addition to boosting productivity, being able to efficiently farm empowers women and enables more children to attend school.
We collaborate with universities, Amish manufacturers, craftsmen, and the farmers themselves to create the appropriate tools, but we need your help to continue.
Your support helps continue developing tools so that small-scale farmers can feed their communities.
Learn more about appropriate scale mechanization at the Appropriate Scale Mechanization Consortium’s website.
