I watch just about every week, and am slowly (56k dialup) downloading some of his episodes, I don't like the fact that he uses brads all the time, but he is on a time crunch, he trends to over complicate things as well.
I really like when he show how to build and use jigs, looking at one in a book and seeing how to use it.
I love watching NYWS and TOH, but it seems like any references to him on here are people making fun of him. Is Norm not as good as we are lead to believe?
Actually Norm is pretty darn good up until it comes to finishing, IMHO.
I too like watching Norm, I just don't care for the stains & finishes that he uses. I've always like the many different approaches he uses from one project to another (with the exception of that brad nailer that's' ever so prevalent). Norm has opened my eyes to different ways of approaching a design and build. His projects are on a level of practicality where as many of David Marks projects belong in a home I've never lived in or even walked in before.....
Gar
All I know is that he is a lot better than me. (Or maybe he just doesn't show his failures). Jim
Yes and no.
He generally does quite a good job on the projects but as some folks have noted his finishes leave a bit to be desired. I will note that he bills himself as a "master carpenter", not a "master cabinetmaker" and I have no argument with that title.
There are certainly people out there that can run rings around him in the furniture / cabinetry world, however they don't have TV shows probably due in large part to their projects taking months to complete rather than the perhaps one week of Norm's typical projects. Additionally Norm's projects and his techniques are generally within reach of the capabilities of a committed weekend woodworker.
Just my $0.10
Pete C.
Speaking for myself I respect, like, and watch Norm quite often.
Having said that, I also have noted and mentioned his propensity for using a "few brads to hold it together until the glue dries". Nor am I a fan of his finishing techniques. I'd guess that may be a common sentiment here?
Dave
The thing I don't like is when he does stuff with equipment that the majority of use will never have. I don't think there are too many people here who have a molding cutter with custom laser-cut knives for each project. And how about his $800 pocket-hole machine?
That being said, he's still pretty damned good, and he was making nice stuff long before he got all these nice gizmos and gadgets. Plus, I suppose there is some merit to showing us what's out there for the state-of-the-art and letting us see how much easier it can make our lives.
As far as his finishes go, I'd guess that he's trying to cram a project into a couple days of cutting and assembly and only a couple more days of finish time. A really nice finish might take him a couple of weeks, and he probably doesn't have that kind of time for a given project.
IMHO, he would be well servered to just skip to the poly on every project. It might be dull, but I think it would produce a more attractive piece, the exception being reproduction pieces. Sometimes it's appropriate to stain, and it's good to show those techniqies and recipes. I think I'm most likely to just tung oil poly most projects.
brian
Nobody is as good as we are led to believe. The nice thing about 'Nahm' is he make the same mistakes as 'normal' folks and sometimes the cameraman is fast enough to catch them and the producer leaves it in the show. If you had the resources that the two productions he's in have available to them, you too could look good if you had presence. Norn has learned to get some and he hosts the show very well.
Pete
There are molding heads for table saws and better ones for shapers. There are lots of stock knives available and companies that will do custom knives fairly reasonably.
He may have the $800 production pocket hole machine, but you can get the $20 Kregg pocket hole jig and do the same thing or spring for the $120 Kregg kit which works beautifully and is just not as fast for production use.
Norm just has the high end versions or things that are still available to the weekend woodworker.
That's the key right there, he needs to be able to shoot the shows pretty quickly. I'd expect that most of the projects are shot in a week or less. Probably a week before to figure out and build the prototype and then a few days to shoot building it again.
Pete C.
Norm is fine for what he does, he attracts a lot of people to woodworking, but once you get past the initial stages and are making finer projects, he's really not all that interesting. I still watch him from time to time when I can, but there are things that he does that makes me cringe, especially his finishing and the ever popular "shoot a couple billion brads until the glue dries".
It's different tastes, I guess.
He has that stuff because the underwriters want it seen on the show. In PBS you can't have sponsors with ads but you can have underwriters who generally have an extremely short identification clip at the beginning and end and then have to rely on him using the stuff on the show to get it seen.
I think he (and the producer) does a good job of picking projects that hit a middle ground in degree of difficulty. And the finishing is usually just an afterthought that takes up about 20 seconds at the end of the show. You could do a whole show to put a first class exotic finish on a piece.
And off the show in person he is a genuinely nice guy.
Frank
He talks funny !
Wear gonna bowar a 1/2 nitch hooe in this baward.
True but at least he admits it.
He has stated on the show that he is not very good with finishes. Everyone's got a weak spot.
How true--my weakness is chocolate.
dave
IMHO a decent finish is not hard to achieve. I wonder if it is simply the time period that he is going for. Surely Norm has the ability. Perhaps he simply tries to copy furniture store finishes. :~)
But on various occasions Norm has demonstrated all of those options. While we marvel at the coolness of his most elaborate tools (none any more unobtainable, I might ad, than David J Marks' multi-router or 20" jointer), and they are perhaps freshest in our memories, Norm will often show the use of the cheapest Kreg jig or or even even take a stab at freehanding.
Lee
"Pete C." wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@snet.net:
If you look at the bottom of his "New Yankee Workshop Web Cam" page
They've put up a slideshow for each day of shooting (nearly 600 pictures/day!) -- among other things, it shows how much downtime they have during the shooting. There are a *lot* of shots of Norm & what must be the producer just standing around the set.
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