Tools you bought because you saw Norm Abram use them...

[Peter Quinn]

Maybe it's a generational thing, I watched Norm regularly with my Dad as a kid and young adult, but was never really influenced by his choice of tools or methods. I do have a few hand planes that I felt I must have after watching DJ Marks, they rarely get used, but that's my failure not his. I also seem to have one of those silly biscuit glue squeezers, not a lamello. Just a nuisance, one more thing to keep filled and clean, guys at work won't even use one when gluing up a whole kitchen. That little trim saw is a gem, just last week I used another guys on an install to scribe a cabinet bottom to a tile floor, seriouslly fantastic little saw. But in the cabinet shop it would see little use, more of an install tool in my mind. As my skills have grown my collection of "users" shop aids has been pared to an essential collection of things I like. Not too many gimmicks. But I still like having oddities and gadgets, sort of like collecting hummels, useless in a practical sense, still fun to own. Does anybody want a biscuit glue bottle....I have several.

[lowell holmes]

+1 for the trim saw.

[jack forsberg]

thanks to knock it out nail gun Norm I got a nail gun.

[Rod Sheridan]

I purchased a Porter Cable biscuit joiner...................Boy is that something I don't use..................Rod.

[David Weaver]

A pinner and a finish nailer. I did a lot of my woodworking before watching any norm, and am glad to have the pinner. The nailer doesn't get used a lot in woodworking projects, but it has turned out to be useful for putting a floor in, etc.

All of the other stuff that he used, like OSS and various gadgets to avoid hand work - no interest in that stuff. I understand its place, but it's not for me.

When I first got into WW, a buddy insisted that I get a biscuit joiner, though. I'm sure that was norm influenced, as a lot of his tools were either norm or FWW influenced. I have used it probably twice. Maybe again someday on a medicine cabinet or something, who knows - it's more likely to just sit around until I drop something on it and break it.

[Charles Taylor]

I'll second the Whiteside router inlay kit. Thought it was a great idea, bought it, never used it. Although I do use straightedge clamps like I saw Norm do, I discovered this weekend that I still had the back-to-back version still in the box from when I picked it up years ago. Wish I could blame Norm for all the other workshop gadgets I've bought and rarely if ever used...but I can't.

[Ellen Benkin]

I have a pinner and love it. Beats clamping and waiting for glue to dry every time. I remember Norm praising the drill/driver (Jack Rabbit?) but I never found one for sale that made sense to me.

[Joe Hillmann]

If any tv host has influenced any of my tool purchases it would have to be Roy Underhill. He is the reason I bought my first hand plane.

[Clarence Martin]

What was that resaw bandsaw that Norm used ?

[Jason White]

It was made by Hitachi.

What was that resaw bandsaw that Norm used ?

[Ben Hatcher]

The only tool Norm had that I coveted was that wide belt sander. Though, it would take up half my shop.

[Dan Hintz]

Maybe it's a generational thing, I watched Norm regularly with my Dad as a kid and young adult, but was never really influenced by his choice of tools or methods.

Same here... watched it religiously with my dad, learned a whole lot about woodworking in general. But for the life of me I can't remember a single specific tool he used... I remember hammers (pneumatic and manual), planers (electric and manual), sanders (pneumatic, electric, and manual), etc., but not brands. Years later when the New Yankee Workshop came on, I started watching it, too... but by then I was noticing the same info showing up time and again, so the newness wore off and I stopped watching.

[Tom Scott]

I can't say that he directly influenced me to buy anything that I don't use, but he influenced my wife to buy me a biscuit joiner...which gets pulled out once every 5 years or so.

[Gordon Eyre]

I made Norm's router table and use it all the time. I can't think of anything that I bought specifically because Norm had one. Perhaps my mortiser was influenced a bit by Norm's use of one. I never missed a show.

[Alan Lightstone]

I just finished a piece I used the Whiteside router inlay kit for. Made that part of the piece far easier and more accurate to do, so I like it.

I wish you could see the New Yankee Workshop episodes easily where I live. Now that I'm into woodworking, I would appreciate them far more.