Roy Underhill did it again!

[Dave in Fairfax]

Hellalewya, praze the laird!

Dave in Fairfax

[Bruce Barnett]

Is he still doing the entire show with no "jumps" in the process?

[TWS]

I can not imagine working in a wood shop and trying to put on a TV show at the same time. Given Roy's level of animation I am surprised he isn't hurt more often. It is a good thing he doesn't use power tools...

TWS

[John Grossbohlin]

The only thing that may top that is working in front of the public. Like Roy, I worked at Colonial Williamsburg in the Crafts Dept. One constant concern was to make sure the public didn't get hurt... No small feat. I had visitors try to pick up items that they just watched me take out of the forge, red hot, and hammer into shape. I had a woman sit down on a chopping block while I was splitting a walnut log to make short boards for a storage box. I watched people reach into a wooden tub of corn meal, ground in a quern, take some cornmeal and eat it. Mind you, there were so many bugs in the tub that if you watched it the corn meal moved! I also had kids take hand-filed wood screws off my workbench when I looked away. Another time someone stole a hot-cut hardy that we left in the anvil when we went inside for a break. Visitors never ceased to amaze me...

I'd been on site with Roy while the carpenters were pitsawing lumber and other times when they were hewing beams. It was interesting to see how willing people were to put themselves at risk... they'd walk right up to someone using an axe or stand so that chips could hit them. It was also interesting to see their reactions when they realized it was Roy--if they recognized him.

When Norm was at Sturbridge Village the public was kept significantly further away from the intepreters who were hand hewing beams than what I saw at CW... I guess they were more risk averse.

John

[Bob]

[J T]

Mon, Feb 21, 2005, 7:15pm (EST+5) [e-mail] (Bob) says: I saw on Sunday's program where he had another finger stitched up. I wonder if he has ever thought about getting into another line of work.

Doesn't matter. Roy is a demi-God. As is Norm.

JOAT Intellectual brilliance is no guarantee against being dead wrong.

- David Fasold

[Puff Griffis]

I like Roy. I wish I had just half his talent. His knowledge of = tools is a treasure and should be admired. I know he looks like a spaz = but I would bet anyone putting out the volume of work he does with the = tools he uses would be "in stitches" also. Puff

[Buck Turgidson]

I always assumed he was just trying to cram in as much as he could in 24 minutes, and had to get a little sloppy now and then. He's no longer on the air in my area, and I miss him.

[Lowell Holmes]

I met Roy in Williamsburg while attending a conference last January. He had no bandages at that time. He's really a nice person. He let us examine a collection of antique tools and handplanes he has acquired. I was flabbergasted, as some one in the crowd of 250 could have pilfered something. I think he demonstrated a basic trust in people that he possesses. I did get his autograph on an unused Band-Aid. It broke up the group (of about six woodworkers) when I approached him about the autograph.

[Swingman]

I've met him also ... anyone making a value judgment about him being a "dope" and a "spaz" is seeing his own reflection in the TV screen

Roy Underhill is one of the nicest woodworkers you will ever have the chance to meet ... any woodworker worthy of the name should hope for the opportunity.

[myxpykalix]

[Tim Douglass]

I always figure he is trying to move the show along. They don't edit it a lot and he needs to get through the whole thing in a half hour.

Besides, he definitely suffers from ADHD.

Tim Douglass

[fredfighter]

I helped Mr Underhill set up for an appearance at the local Woodcraft store. (He's a Washingtonian and his parents were still living in DC at the time, maybe still do.) Anyhow, after taking a look at the shaving horse I said, "The blood cleaned up real well didn't it." He replied "Yeah, I hose it down after use."

The worst injury he has had, which resulted in a very ugly thumb for several weeks, happened when he dropped a heavy piece of equipment (I disrememeber what) while moving it.

[fredfighter]

Odd, I think he's a great teacher.

[Knotbob]

When I try to go medieval like Roy I always hurt myself. I sliced a 1/16" thick tip off of a fretting hand finger this weekend after I was done handcutting some dovetails. Freakin' razor blade marking tool was sharp! I got called to dinner and as I was walking out of the shop I saw a little sliver of wood hanging on to a pin. I had already dry fitted the drawer side and it was a good fit but that little sliver was going to bother me until I got back in the shop so I grabbed the Exacto knife and sliced it right off, fingertip too. Dumbass. Watch TV and you won't get any cuts or bruises and you'll never have to sharpen anything. Well you can watch Roy or even Norm and sharpen your brain a little. Robert Smith Jacksonville, Fl. "If there isn't blood on the bench there's an unhappy wench."

[Larry Jaques]

On Tue, 22 Feb 2005 08:20:55 -0500, the inscrutable "Buck Turgidson" spake:

Same here. I miss his shows a LOT.

I'd like to see how long it would take Norm to do a complete project. Y'know ONE live, uncut camera session. I'd like to know how much _he_ bleeds, too.

[LRod]

Why? Is that the way you work?

In any event, although Roy does a complete 24 minute show in one take, he doesn't build a project in that time. He shows the steps in the project, but he may have as many as five or more of the same part in various stages of preparation.

I fail to see what the point of this is.

- - LRod

Master Woodbutcher and seasoned termite

Shamelessly whoring my website since 1999

[George]

You see it. Most all of us see it. Envy. Any gain is ill-gotten, any praise undeserved, unless it devolves on me or "my" guy. Same old story.

The difference, as I see it, is that the hand is part of the tool for Roy. The reason they began building machines to work wood was to diminish the importance of skill in the hand that fed it. Along the way they reduced the number of operations which required handling, reducing the opportunity for the knuckle-scratching, finger stubbing (stabbing) piece pinching types of injury. Of course, there's a new, and more horrible set possible now!

I've done a bit of lesson-planning, and initially it's often tough to distill what you want into the time alloted. By rev two you've got a more refined piece that leaves a quarter of the time unused, some visual aids, etc. If you continue to polish, you either have to include more material, or learn to tap-dance.

As I see it, Roy begins with a sketchy lesson plan, assumes no knowledge on the part of his viewers, makes poor use of his visual aids, and ends up crammed for time because he never made a run-through - or should I say "prototype?" Norm is maybe too smooth, as the Norm thread also running shows. He may assume too much knowledge on the viewer. Does anyone really _not_ know why you plow a centered groove with two passes on the saw? Apparently that presumes too much from the viewer, as does a prototype, rather than staged interim work.

[Beej-in-GA]

Hey Guys, I figure we play with sharp things and they do bite occasionally. That doesn't mean we're stupid, just that sharp things have to be respected. But then, we knew that right? Later, Beej

[LDR]

I agree with the above and would add I kinda like the sight of Roy Underhill's sore thumbs: it validates what I am seeing, that he is in fact doing what he shows. I have no doubt that Norm Abram, another hero of mine, is absolutely capable, but I do have the feeling he is more an ormament to his work, which I suspect is pureed for him by unseen grunt woodworkers.