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Thread: The Woodwright Shop quality

  1. #1
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    The Woodwright Shop quality

    So recently I have been watching some episodes of The Woodwright Shop on PBS since I started becoming more interested in hand tools. I have noticed that on a lot of the furniture that he makes the quality seems to miss the mark a little bit (gaps in miters, blow out, etc.) I'm not saying for a minute that I can do a better job with hand tools, but I didn't just start making furniture. It seems at least to me that he kind of just throws it together quickly. Maybe it is just to highlight the technique rather than the furniture. Has anybody else noticed this? Maybe I am just being overly critical.

  2. #2
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    I think you need to cut Roy a little slack there. He is attempting to demonstrate the construction techniques of (usually) an entire project in about 20 minutes of program time. Not too many people are going to knock out perfect joints when going that fast. He is trying to demonstrate the technique more than the result, and keep things moving to avoid becoming boring to a general audience. And his style tends toward the rustic side to start with.

    Ask yourself whether you can take a technique he has shown and use it yourself to produce good quality results. If so, then his approach was successful and it doesn't matter the roughness of the on-air sample pieces.

    Roy is sort-of the hand-tool equivalent of what Norm did in the power tool world. Neither would be accused of fine woodworking, but they have both gone a long way to bring their techniques to the masses.

  3. #3
    Nothing wrong in noticing the flaws and resolving to make your own work better. I think the show's grant is based on traditional every day objects and the proper period context. Few pieces of antique middle class furniture are flawless. Sometimes he's making a rake or shovel! Never seen a perfect MODERN shovel....or one with a good wooden handle.

  4. #4
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    I'm not trying to knock Roy, but a lot of the furniture he starts his show with is already made. I'm not talking about the joints he demonstrates on camera.

    I do like most of his shows and do learn things from him. I'm kind of a perfectionist so that's not helping anything either.

  5. #5
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    Much of what displayed at the beginning is only dry-fitted and not glued/final assembled.
    If the thunder don't get you, the lightning will.

  6. #6
    Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe that show is filmed in one long take. Things are pre-made to a point so they can show the crucial steps in 27 mins.

  7. #7
    Based on Roy's comments, I always assume that the "already made" furniture is made by him, assistants, and students in preparation for the 30 min show. Is that true?

    As a teacher myself (not woodworking!) I think his shows and presentations are well thought out; he has his eye on the clock, knows what he needs to demonstrate in a time period, and almost always gets it done, sometimes bleeding in the process. He regularly jokes about speed and errors, so I don't think he would disagree with you there.

    It sometimes takes me 30 minutes just to find a pencil, much less lead someone through the thought process of making a piece of furniture.

  8. #8
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    Yes I have noticed the same thing.
    As others point out he is working in real time and has hardly any time.

    I think the thing to know, in my opinion, is that he is excited about the whole, hand tool / from tree to finished project aspect. Kind of a conveyer of how THEY did it back when.

    That is his thing. Not fine cabinetry.
    You want perfection and fast watch Frank Klausz. But he takes longer than a few minutes though.

    I don't know. I watched Roy do a bridal joint yesterday on a saw sharpening pony.

    He said "you need to trim the cheeks to fit the gap in the mating board" . . . roughly that was what he was saying. Then he takes a chisel and goes at it like he had no idea and it didn't fit.
    BUT
    he was out of time and needed to move on.
    If he would have had a few more minutes he might have grabbed a rabbet block plane or a skew block or a shoulder plane or a router plane to trim the cheeks nice.

    Or have clamped the board so he could have used his chisel in a more precise manner.

    Right at the end, the music was playing, he did a real nice job with a large bit in a brace cutting the arch for the saw handle where the bit had to be really sharp so it could over lap the side of the work and still cut a smooth arch. He did good there.

    I say . . . read his books, listen to what he tells you because he DOES KNOW what he is talking about and then watch the shows for some light entertainment and to see the guests he has on and just relax about the whole precision thing because it is what it is.

    PS: It only takes reading what he has to say about the finer aspects of making draw bore pegs ("trunnels") for post and beam construction etc., to realize he is the real deal.
    Last edited by Winton Applegate; 03-20-2014 at 2:50 AM.
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  9. #9
    When you watch a TV show, any TV show, alwas remember that it is TV, not real life.

    Roy is plenty enjoyable though. Something you can't say about most TV shows.

  10. #10
    Roy is an entertainer and a housewright, and not a cabinetmaker. You get what you get. I'd suspect if george did a show on precise work, a lot of non-woodworkers wouldn't be able to stand it and a lot of woodworkers would think he was arrogant just because he has the discernment to know and do fine work and appreciate little else.

    I'll bet a very large percentage of Roy's audience is non-woodworkers, and the reality is that he has to entertain them, too.

    I don't generally watch the show, but I do enjoy it when he has super craftsmen on, like Peter Ross or someone else like that, because they do fine work on the show.

    One of the things that irks me about display of techniques, and this isn't limited to roy, but stuff like a video of cutting a rabbet with a chisel (on youtube) or other such things that fly across youtubes "recommended"
    things for me to watch - the work is done in white pine. And often very low density white pine. I don't want to see that, I want to see half as much of the work accomplished instead in a subject wood I'd actually use a lot of.

    roy uses a lot of pine, too, but I usually only keep the channel on his show if I like the guest, not because i have a problem with roy, but just because the kind of stuff he's working on by himself isn't something I'd want to do.

    I wonder when he's going to do a show on sharpening stones and straight razor shaving?
    Last edited by David Weaver; 03-20-2014 at 7:55 AM.

  11. #11
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    Years ago when I was just getting into wood working, I watched shows like TNYW. I watched every episode and recorded some to review later (on VHS tape!). I always struggled just getting through an episode of the Woodright's shop. It seemed like he was making things I didn't want or need and using tools and techniques that were totally foreign to me. I wanted to make a table or a book case, how was using a draw knife and a pedal powered lathe going to help with that? Moreover, the results always seemed crude to me. Norm was on a schedule and his stuff looked precise to me.

    I appreciate the show more now but I still only watch excerpts to see something specific. I appreciate Roy far more that I do the show.
    -- Dan Rode

    "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." - Aristotle

  12. #12
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    I appreciate his dry humor and frequent bloodletting. He talks so fast and so much, trying get it all in, sometimes I think he's gonna pass out and the whole time dripping in sweet.

    He's cool in my book.
    I got cash in my pocket. I got desire in my heart....

  13. #13
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    It is not easy working in front of a camera. The lights are very hot,and you are under pressure. When we made my film,I was running sweat inside my shirt,working in front of a fireplace,with several hot lights in front of me. A wiglet was pinned into what seemed like the back of my skull. The whole thing was VERY uncomfortable,and it went on for months during the Winter season.

    I had to keep everything very organized,because when there was a pause,several camera crew were standing around with nothing to do. The film was very costly to make already.

    So,I can appreciate the pressure of putting together a weekly show. And,it IS filmed in 1 take.

    There are some problems with the show that I won't get into now. I would be called arrogant by Roy's followers.
    Last edited by george wilson; 03-20-2014 at 10:05 AM.

  14. #14
    George, do you agree that it's made a little more hokey to try to draw in non-woodworkers and keep them tuned in?

    I think that's a large part of it - if you made something look hard or say you had to do it a few dozen times before you'd get something acceptable, the group of folks who likes to sit around and watch other people do things and think "I could do that!" but not ever actually do any of the things they watch...they'd go watch something else that seemed more attainable.

  15. #15
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    I think that Roy draws people by making it look like they could do it too,yes. It has served him well. Simple tools,a lathe they could make,etc..

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