http://www.pbs.org/woodwrightsshop/video/2600/2607.html
Genius or madness?
The Spirit of Woodcraft
I have been a fan of Roy Underhill for years. Old time hand tool woodworking has become a lost art. There is nothing but pure satisfaction in making an item by hand. The learning of the skills, and development of the patience to use them, is soul soothing in these times of stress, strain, and the electro-digital enslavement we have given ourselves over to.
My father taught me woodworking in his shop, both hand tool and power tool. I would wince when he made me carefully check my lay out before cutting, and it seemed to take forever before we had done anything. Now, I am thankful to him beyond my imagination. Now I have all of his tools, plus probably thousands of dollars worth of tools I have bought myself. Much of what I have bought proved unnecessary in accomplishing what we did in Dad's shop with hand tools. There is immense satisfaction in building a piece of furniture yourself. A lot of the wooden furniture in my house was built by me. Some of it took months to a year to build and finish, of course doing it back then when time allowed.
Some of the finest and dearest memories of my life included being in the shop, just me and Dad, and having him show me how to measure, cut, shape, sand, and make joints and fasten the wood. I went from keen impatience to having a settled, smooth, confidence in what I was doing. Dad always kept a pencil behind his ear, wedged between the ear and his glasses. I can see him stand up straight, slap his shirt pocket to find a smoke, and then pull the pencil out behind his ear. Then he would say "Well, well allrighty, allrighty". And then he would lay out the work.
Woodworking is medicine to the soul!!!!!
My father taught me woodworking in his shop, both hand tool and power tool. I would wince when he made me carefully check my lay out before cutting, and it seemed to take forever before we had done anything. Now, I am thankful to him beyond my imagination. Now I have all of his tools, plus probably thousands of dollars worth of tools I have bought myself. Much of what I have bought proved unnecessary in accomplishing what we did in Dad's shop with hand tools. There is immense satisfaction in building a piece of furniture yourself. A lot of the wooden furniture in my house was built by me. Some of it took months to a year to build and finish, of course doing it back then when time allowed.
Some of the finest and dearest memories of my life included being in the shop, just me and Dad, and having him show me how to measure, cut, shape, sand, and make joints and fasten the wood. I went from keen impatience to having a settled, smooth, confidence in what I was doing. Dad always kept a pencil behind his ear, wedged between the ear and his glasses. I can see him stand up straight, slap his shirt pocket to find a smoke, and then pull the pencil out behind his ear. Then he would say "Well, well allrighty, allrighty". And then he would lay out the work.
Woodworking is medicine to the soul!!!!!
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George the original one
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Celebrating his 30th season! I started watching his show back in the early '80s, about halfway through my college degree I think, so nearly as long as he's been on PBS.
People today think a lot of manufacturing requires power tools, but they never stop to ask themselves where the tools came from or how they developed, so they think it can't be duplicated without a factory. Roy Underhill shows what is possible with simple tools and takes you across the divide from simple tools to early production items.
The madness on the early shows was how often he bloodied himself... much less evident in this past decade.
People today think a lot of manufacturing requires power tools, but they never stop to ask themselves where the tools came from or how they developed, so they think it can't be duplicated without a factory. Roy Underhill shows what is possible with simple tools and takes you across the divide from simple tools to early production items.
The madness on the early shows was how often he bloodied himself... much less evident in this past decade.
Have to agree with HSpencer, I love building - although I use mostly power tools. Time is limited when you have 2 kids under 4 in the house. I built a bookshelf and cool little bench for our porch over the summer and plan to build a bed frame for my son or daughter this year and perhaps another one to sell, just to see if it would be a worthwhile pursuit. I'd love my son (or daughter) to have the memories of me that H has of his father (minus the smoking) 
@KevinW,
Thanks for the link. Brought back lovely memories...
@'uncle' spence,
Fantastic story, Honest! It warmed the cockles of my heart. And that, coming from a vegetarian who's never even seen cockles
!
@George, I never realised that he bloodies himself... Oh dear... And on today's TV it would be "health & safety (psychos!)" suicide...
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EDIT: Just broke the post into two for convenience.
Thanks for the link. Brought back lovely memories...
@'uncle' spence,
Fantastic story, Honest! It warmed the cockles of my heart. And that, coming from a vegetarian who's never even seen cockles
!@George, I never realised that he bloodies himself... Oh dear... And on today's TV it would be "health & safety (psychos!)" suicide...
==================
EDIT: Just broke the post into two for convenience.
We had woodworking as shop class for a semester in Uni, and I loved it then! Speaking about Shop class, anyone read this book (Shop class as Soulcraft)? It is quite nicely written too (Not "awesome", but the author communicates well!)
I got into Japanese / woodworking / joinery, George Nakashima and Roy Underhill a few years ago (maybe not in that order, but not sure now).
Indeed as an aside, here's an Indian guy, who was so inspired by Nakashima's book that he packed in his older career and became a furniture maker (now he's THE go-to man for all foreign embassies in Chennai when they need fancy seating!)... Now that's a story, Eh?
Back to that original story, no doubt, Roy's a genuis (does that automatically make him mad?), but what made me warm up so much to him was his story of perseverance and belief (Wikipedia entry)! I think that alone makes him inspirational enough in my book.
Oh, and what did I do with my wood-working interest, I hear you say? After I walked out of my last job, I wanted to recharge the batteries and build DW a small shelf of sorts to store her bric-a-brac (and my books; they're falling out of my ears :-[). I nearly had a heart-attack when I discovered that wood (even stupid plywood, HA!) was traded in the same price range as bloody silver! The expression I had used then, rhymes with "Clucking-Bells", I think! I enquired around and it was the same price in all the saw mills... I asked one of the saw mills, "WTF is this big deal on wood, man?", and the answer shocked me! The guy told me, that there's no more wood in India to meet local demand and be ecologically sound, so collectively as a nation, we were shipping logs from Africa by the freighter-load. There's freighter'S' that pull into Tuticorin port EVERY WEEK carrying just timber... and it is not enough to satisfy the demand it seems...., so the mills have taken to getting pally with the customs to tip them off before arrival, so they can bid and finagle for their shares (which also jacks up the price automatically)!!!
The whole thing just did not seem or sound right to me and I walked away (I don't think I am a saint though - I think the price also played a big part
). The missus got a shelf all right, it was more a shelf(-of-sorts), fashioned from old corrugated cardboard boxes (she was very nice about it all, she even helped me build it) and I used some remaining old boxes for my books, and stacked the boxes into a seat(-of-sorts) - you know the stupid types they show in some museums as 'art'? DW is nice about that too. Bless her beak.
In case my story wasn't (LOL) funny enough, check out this comic, the last three featured are about woodworking (01-Dec till 03-Dec) Quick - you have to read this before January ends, then the replace with the next set.
Regards,
Surio.
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P.S:- Maybe I need to compromise my principles (and my purse) when I need to finally get a wand*strikethrough* broom for myself ;-P
P.P.S: Original one part post, in two parts now.
I got into Japanese / woodworking / joinery, George Nakashima and Roy Underhill a few years ago (maybe not in that order, but not sure now).
Indeed as an aside, here's an Indian guy, who was so inspired by Nakashima's book that he packed in his older career and became a furniture maker (now he's THE go-to man for all foreign embassies in Chennai when they need fancy seating!)... Now that's a story, Eh?
Back to that original story, no doubt, Roy's a genuis (does that automatically make him mad?), but what made me warm up so much to him was his story of perseverance and belief (Wikipedia entry)! I think that alone makes him inspirational enough in my book.
Oh, and what did I do with my wood-working interest, I hear you say? After I walked out of my last job, I wanted to recharge the batteries and build DW a small shelf of sorts to store her bric-a-brac (and my books; they're falling out of my ears :-[). I nearly had a heart-attack when I discovered that wood (even stupid plywood, HA!) was traded in the same price range as bloody silver! The expression I had used then, rhymes with "Clucking-Bells", I think! I enquired around and it was the same price in all the saw mills... I asked one of the saw mills, "WTF is this big deal on wood, man?", and the answer shocked me! The guy told me, that there's no more wood in India to meet local demand and be ecologically sound, so collectively as a nation, we were shipping logs from Africa by the freighter-load. There's freighter'S' that pull into Tuticorin port EVERY WEEK carrying just timber... and it is not enough to satisfy the demand it seems...., so the mills have taken to getting pally with the customs to tip them off before arrival, so they can bid and finagle for their shares (which also jacks up the price automatically)!!!
The whole thing just did not seem or sound right to me and I walked away (I don't think I am a saint though - I think the price also played a big part
). The missus got a shelf all right, it was more a shelf(-of-sorts), fashioned from old corrugated cardboard boxes (she was very nice about it all, she even helped me build it) and I used some remaining old boxes for my books, and stacked the boxes into a seat(-of-sorts) - you know the stupid types they show in some museums as 'art'? DW is nice about that too. Bless her beak. In case my story wasn't (LOL) funny enough, check out this comic, the last three featured are about woodworking (01-Dec till 03-Dec)
Quick - you have to read this before January ends, then the replace with the next set.Regards,
Surio.
---
P.S:- Maybe I need to compromise my principles (and my purse) when I need to finally get a wand*strikethrough* broom for myself ;-P
P.P.S: Original one part post, in two parts now.