Woodworking TV Shows

[Ron Willmert]

Am I the only one that is fed up with woodworking shows? I'm watching this weeks Rough Cut and they spent a good 5 minutes showing him push pieces through a dado blade and then a few more minutes spent at the mortiser. Then he walks over to the project table a plops them in place and says "Perfect! Of course we had to do a lot of chisel work to get them to fit like this." I'd rather watch the chisel work. I think all the table saw shots basically amount to woodworking porn. Show me the parts that require skill. Is the detail work too boring for most people? I want to see them fit the pieces. I want to see struggle and failure, and then what they do about it, not fantasy land ta-da... it magically fits perfectly. The Woodwright Shop is the only one that shows that kind of stuff. I wish the other shows would spend time on the futzy, fiddly parts, because that's really where I need the most help. Good woodworkers hide their mistakes better, and I make plenty of opportunities to get better! </rant>

[George Bokros]

I agree with your assessment of Rough Cut that is why I do not normally watch it. Woodsmith is better but being only half hour shows how can they show much of the build. I think it would be better if the projects were more than one episode shows.

[Aaron Conway]

Agree that there aren't any good ww'ing shows on tv. Rough Cut doesn't show enough detail throughout the entire project. Woodsmith hosts have no personality. Never really like The Woodwright Shop and The American Woodshop has really gone down hill. He caters more to pitching for his sponsors than traditional woodworking. I'll take an hour long FWW podcast any day over any of these tv shows.

Cheers,

Aaron

[Brian Henderson]

Agree that there aren't any good ww'ing shows on tv. Rough Cut doesn't show enough detail throughout the entire project. Woodsmith hosts have no personality. Never really like The Woodwright Shop and The American Woodshop has really gone down hill. He caters more to pitching for his sponsors than traditional woodworking. I'll take an hour long FWW podcast any day over any of these tv shows.

I haven't cared for any shows since Norm went off the air. It's not just woodworking shows though, all of the shows that used to show people building things are gone. I think a lot of it goes back to Discovery realizing on American Chopper that more people cared about the stupid family drama and not about actually building motorcycles. So the designing and building became secondary to stupid people yelling at each other.

[Pat Barry]

If you don't like the woodworking shows then just don't watch them. If they are too simple for you then you need to find another source for new sources of knowledge. FAct is, these shows are not and have not been for the skilled woodworkers to learn from

[Robert Engel]

If you don't like the woodworking shows then just don't watch them. If they are too simple for you then you need to find another source for new sources of knowledge. FAct is, these shows are not and have not been for the skilled woodworkers to learn from

Right on. They are made to appeal to the public who will get very bored very quickly with the stuff we are interested in.

Have you tried the FWW videos? I think they are worth the membership. I particularly like Garrett Hack and Mike Peckovich.

Other than that, if you want to know intimate details, you need to either buy some DVD's or join a guild like WoodWhisperer, Charles Neil, etc.

[Prashun Patel]

I'm with you, Ron. The shows are designed for the layperson and are probably more an advertisement for the machine manufacturers than a master class on joint fitting.

I'd love to see all the dirty fitting work too. It'd make me feel better that mine aren't perfect off the machines!

I bought a sculpted chair dvd from Scott Morrison a few years ago that went into painstaking details about how to grind and fit every possible joint. It felt so intimate and instructional. But that dvd was 3 hours without commercials to Tommy Mac's net 20 minutes.

[Steve Wurster]

I haven't cared for any shows since Norm went off the air. It's not just woodworking shows though, all of the shows that used to show people building things are gone. I think a lot of it goes back to Discovery realizing on American Chopper that more people cared about the stupid family drama and not about actually building motorcycles. So the designing and building became secondary to stupid people yelling at each other.

You can still find plenty of Norm videos online. They rarely (if ever) showed him having trouble fitting the pieces. But they almost certainly showed him cut (or chisel, etc.) at least one copy of every piece. His methods were generally not considered "fine", but his smooth delivery and the good camera angles more than made up for that.

I actually enjoyed the motorcycle building on American Chopper. The arguments between the family members was annoying to me, which is why I stopped watching that show fairly early on.

[Chris Padilla]

Perhaps it is that I am a more experienced ww'er than I was when I used to watch Norm but I'm finding that they are a bit boring and lacking in detail. I still record the shows and do watch some of them but I often just nuke them lately. There are better things on YouTube than on the networks. However, I still enjoy watching This Old House (And the side-bar, Ask This Old House) because it covers more trades and design and still captures my interest. I always thought David Marks' Woodworks was one of the more innovative ww'ing shows. Norm was good and appealed to more basic design...David went for more unusual topics...both helped me a lot. But the new shows are just too basic I guess. Roy Underhill is all right with his unplugged approach so I usually watch all of those. He did one on metalworking recently that was interesting and quite frankly I love that his shop is a mess like mine is as I work on things and my bench piles up with tools that I can never find.

[Brian Henderson]

You can still find plenty of Norm videos online. They rarely (if ever) showed him having trouble fitting the pieces. But they almost certainly showed him cut (or chisel, etc.) at least one copy of every piece. His methods were generally not considered "fine", but his smooth delivery and the good camera angles more than made up for that.

I have the whole run of NYW and I didn't complain about anyone not fixing badly fitting joints. But Norm was an example of a show done right, he was friendly and engaging, he didn't talk down to his audience, he showed enough detail to actually instruct and even for people who were more advanced, he was interesting enough and had enough personality to just have fun watching. Nobody does that these days.

I actually enjoyed the motorcycle building on American Chopper. The arguments between the family members was annoying to me, which is why I stopped watching that show fairly early on.

Same here, but I'm not the audience for "reality" TV. There was a time where networks like DIY actually showed people doing it themselves. Now it's all flipping houses.

[Steve Wurster]

I have the whole run of NYW and I didn't complain about anyone not fixing badly fitting joints. But Norm was an example of a show done right, he was friendly and engaging, he didn't talk down to his audience, he showed enough detail to actually instruct and even for people who were more advanced, he was interesting enough and had enough personality to just have fun watching. Nobody does that these days.

I don't remember NYW ever showing Norm going back to adjust his saw or whatever to make a joint fit right. That's because all the setup work is done off-camera. When you don't know what all is involved, you think all it takes is all the tools that Norm had. But once you get into it you realize there's a lot of work being done, including setup. All of that is off-camera in NYW, which I am perfectly fine with. I love watching old episodes online. Have I seen them multiple times before? Absolutely. Do I pay less attention now as a result? Definitely. But they are still fun to watch, primarily since Norm has the personality that we love and that works for what he is doing.

Same here, but I'm not the audience for "reality" TV. There was a time where networks like DIY actually showed people doing it themselves. Now it's all flipping houses.

Yup. HGTV has become the all real-estate channel. DIY is only broadcast in SD where I live, so I almost never watch that channel. It is fun to watch Renovation Realities though and see what the rank amateurs are trying to do.

[Brian Henderson]

I don't remember NYW ever showing Norm going back to adjust his saw or whatever to make a joint fit right. That's because all the setup work is done off-camera. When you don't know what all is involved, you think all it takes is all the tools that Norm had. But once you get into it you realize there's a lot of work being done, including setup. All of that is off-camera in NYW, which I am perfectly fine with. I love watching old episodes online. Have I seen them multiple times before? Absolutely. Do I pay less attention now as a result? Definitely. But they are still fun to watch, primarily since Norm has the personality that we love and that works for what he is doing.

I never really cared about the techniques Norm was using, if you wanted that, they were selling DVDs. But the one thing that Norm did very well, he got you excited to get out in the shop and build. I think to some degree, David Marks did that too. They didn't hand-hold but they showed you what they were doing and it made you want to go make something. Modern shows don't do that. They don't really try. Sure, Norm was far from perfect, shooting brads until the glue dries like they were going out of style, but he had that great personality and you could tell he really loved what he was doing.

Yup. HGTV has become the all real-estate channel. DIY is only broadcast in SD where I live, so I almost never watch that channel. It is fun to watch Renovation Realities though and see what the rank amateurs are trying to do.

I hate that show, it's an example of people who should never have access to power tools (or any tools really). They ought to rename it "Disasters Waiting To Happen".

[Steve Peterson]

Roy Underhill is all right with his unplugged approach so I usually watch all of those. He did one on metalworking recently that was interesting and quite frankly I love that his shop is a mess like mine is as I work on things and my bench piles up with tools that I can never find.

I like Roy's show more than any of the others, even though I am a power tool guy. At least he shows his mistakes. He often has bandages on his fingers. He will cut something, adjust it a bit, then say "Well that's close enough". His dovetails may be 10X better than mine in 1/10th the time, but you can still see that the results are not perfect.

Steve

[Don Jarvie]

I can always pick up a tip or two from any WWing show I try to watch what I can.

[Joe Skinner]

Youtube. Although, you might then be back here posting about too much detail.