Watching Norm's early stuff

[Mike77]

I just spent some time watching early episodes of New Yankee Workshop. It was kind of fun and interesting. It was basically watching a carpenter trying to be a furniture maker. He would reproduce a period piece and produce a very nice facsimile. But he would use mostly carpenter techniques relying on a lot of screws and pneumatic nails. Rabbits and dados replaced many more standard joinery like dovetails and M&T. He loved his biscuit joiner. I watched him make some Ogee bracket feet. And he worked way too hard. Had he looked up how furniture makers do it, it would have taken half the time and probably yielded better results.

You could see in some of his later shows how he (slightly) evolved. And you could see some serious tool upgrades.

No knocks on Norm. The finished products always looked very good and his precision was excellent. I just think it is interesting to see other people's process.

[AHill]

Must be the pocket screws came into play after Season 1. I disagree that Norm only slightly evolved over time. He made trips to see antique furniture and how it was made, and he did use more hand tools over time. Keep in mind, though, the show's goal was not to replace the North Bennett Street School, but to offer the hobbyist an opportunity to make his own furniture. Had it not been for Norm, I'd have never started woodworking.

[R Clark]

AHill said:

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...Had it not been for Norm, I'd have never started woodworking.

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+1. I always thought he did things that I could do "mostly" with the tools I had. Yeah, in the later years be began using things like the wide belt sander and $600 biscuit joiners, but overall, he was a regular guy doing nice pieces.

After a number of years of watching his show, I finally decided to stop "watching" and start "doing." As I got farther into it, I accepted that I wanted shortcuts like pin nailers rather than being a purist. I'm a hobbyist, I don't depend on high-fidelity period reproductions for my living, and I need projects I can finish in a reasonable period of time.

[Doug_H]

Allan and Clark

Your comments are interesting to me in two respects. First that Norm encouraged you and second that you had to get into the shop to learn.

Norm's show confused and somewhat discouraged me because he made everything look so simple and straightforward. To be fair I thought I knew more than I actually did and I did not watch every show. But -- I never saw a show where he explained that you actually have to set up a table saw, etc. You know, stuff like how to make the miter gauge actually 90 deg and how to make sure the rip fence is parallel to the blade. I do not remember much from him about about making stock four-square before you use it, etc etc. You know, boring stuff like that. So I did not get the results he did until I went outside the scope of his show and actually studied how to do it.

I guess that it all worked out in the end. I'm still at it after all these years.

Doug

[daveferg]

I've read every sort of complaints about Norm----including my favorite, where some joker complained it took him longer than Norm's 30 min. of time to make the project.

Watching the very early shows, Norm's tools were more of an average Joe's shop----including a Craftsman RAS, and Shopsmith used for the drill press, etc. Later, of course, Delta and other mtgs. took the hint and started sending him more and more tools. He also made a lot of pieces out of pine---again---an affordable wood for many beginners.

As to pocket screws----I will say Norm limited their use to bare essentials. Unlike Scott Phillips who has really disappointed me in that his shows are now more of an infomercial for Kregg.

I'm still sorry he decided to retire. On one of his last shows he had a young girl whom he helped making an chair. I thought the concept could have worked well as a new show approach, but guess they decided it was over.

[AHill]

A 30 min show has to figure out what to show and what not to show to meet the time constraints of half an hour. There weren't too many shows that were two-part shows. Most shop machines come with instructions on how to set them up, so it's understandable he didn't go over that. I don't recall ever seeing Norm use a jointer or planer in his show, either, but those are fundamental tools that are needed in a power tool shop. I think NYW's starting point assumed his viewers already possessed the rudimentary skills to operate the equipment. It focused more on how to use them to build a project. Kind of like a TS comes with instructions on how to set up and use a TS, but no instructions on how to build a chest of drawers.

Woodsmith Shop TV show does show some basic skills every once in a while. Rough Cut is sort of like NYW.

Every show will always struggle with how much tutorial to do on basic skills. If the first 5 shows are how to set up and use tools, a viewer who tunes in for the first time in Season 2 will wonder where to learn those basics.

Doug_H said:

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Allan and Clark

Your comments are interesting to me in two respects. First that Norm encouraged you and second that you had to get into the shop to learn.

Norm's show confused and somewhat discouraged me because he made everything look so simple and straightforward. To be fair I thought I knew more than I actually did and I did not watch every show. But -- I never saw a show where he explained that you actually have to set up a table saw, etc. You know, stuff like how to make the miter gauge actually 90 deg and how to make sure the rip fence is parallel to the blade. I do not remember much from him about about making stock four-square before you use it, etc etc. You know, boring stuff like that. So I did not get the results he did until I went outside the scope of his show and actually studied how to do it.

I guess that it all worked out in the end. I'm still at it after all these years.

Doug

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[Cian]

Norm kept it real, and was one of my primary inspirations to nose dive into this mess. I do miss Norm.

[Bill Holt]

Cian said:

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Norm kept it real,......... I do miss Norm.

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+1

[Robert Adams]

I still enjoy watching his older episodes. Like his ways or not he had a huge influence in getting people into woodworking as here really wasn't much at the time to get people motivated. And look at today how many woodworking you tubers are out there and some do an excellent quality show with just 2 people or so and whatever cash they put into it. Kind of makes the professionally produced stuff look bad considering the lack of infrastructure the tubers have.

He did a great job of showing that anyone can make this stuff if they put the effort into it. His tools did get better over the years and he didn't use much hand tools but so what only the hand tool purists care about that. He does like I do I use both as they both have a place depending on the need. But at the end of the day he made a point that you didn't need those $$$ machines to get the same finished product it might take longer without them but you still get there.

[Woodenfish]

I always liked Norm and new episodes of The New Yankee Workshop was always fun to watch for me and my family. I realized what he was trying to do was to entertain and reach out to bring new people into the shop for their personal enjoyment. I also remember the hell the publisher of FWW took for putting him on the cover of the magazine. What a uproar that caused. The man certainly did a lot to sell some tools. I know I bought a few he used that I probably never would of on my own.