Thread: Norm Is Back - New Yankee coming to How To Channel

Anyone with as many routers as Norm has cant be all bad

cheers
BD

Originally Posted by derekcohen

For the shows to be aired, I heard that Norm will only use hand tools. No powered tools at all. And I was so looking forward to seeing his routers and biscuit jointer! Rats!!

Regards from Perth

Derek

Derek, you should be ashamed of yourself!

Actually, Norm is rather fond of his handtools. He is using them more and more in his shows. Some might say that he is a closet darksider!

Don't believe me? When asked what he would grab in the event of a fire in the workshop ..... what do you think he said? ........!

Go here to find out ....

http://fw_woodworking.permissiontv.c...?showid=282533

Regards from Perth

Derek

About time they put something on pay TV worth paying for

I quite like Norm, actually. Like Hammer I probably prefer the David Marks' show as he seemed to place far greater emphasis on hand tools - at times, anyway.

As with any TV show he (Norm) is allowed plenty of "creative license" in putting his show together, which pretty much covers points 1-10 of jmk89's note. Personally, I think that Norm would generally like to go into much more detail on "dark side" topics, but is no doubt hobbled by his producers, time allowed and the expectations of his audience demographics. I don't think he has too many restrictions on goodies supplied by his sponsors.

Let's face it, nobody's gonna tune in to watch him sweeping the floor or emptying the dust bag. And wouldn't we all like the big workshop? It always reminds me a little of the Tardis from Dr Who. Very modest from the outside with those old doors etc, and then inside it has every piece of machinery ever known to man. And yes, everything always perfectly sharp, tuned and fitted with the right blade/cutter for the job. The place is always neat as a pin, perfectly laid out with the necessary jigs, timbers and resources at hand.

Just like mine.

Wayne

Why do I enjoy Norm's shows? Because they are fun, interesting, move along fairly quickly and I've learnt a lot about different things that would have taken me much longer to learn by myself. His previous shows have included a bit of history on the piece or the timber and I've really enjoyed that too.

Besides, it's another great workshop to drool over and put some of his ideas to work in my workshop.

cheers
Wendy

My problem is I don’t like what he makes and how he makes it. They are like the stuff you get from Fantastic furniture. It is just not that interesting.

I have 20 episodes in a DVD. I watched 3 so far and did not watch the rest. Maybe I just don’t like nail-gun joinery.

David Marks is different though. As least his works are a lot more inspiring.

DVD????? I tried watching David Marks, but his show just didn't interest me. Maybe it was not one of his best episodes - horses for courses.

I would rather watch David Free (The great British Woodshop). Its just a personal thing but he appeals more than the Yanks. I watched it for a while and thought he sounded Ozzie then read his bio saying he spent a large part of his earlier life here. For my money he is clever as he never had any formal training and somehow his approach is more down to earth. But they all have that air of ease about doing things that never seems to happen in real life, or not to me anyway.

This is good news.

I hear they are still looking at another season with the Milton Workshop.

With my level of woodworking skill I learn something good from all these shows.
I now have 5 routers!!

My eyes have gone square...maybe I should move back from the TV

Ah - the magic of TV. If only I had someone to hold the camera, I could do a Norm too. I could edit out my mistakes, not show me vacuuming, take 15 days and make it look like one, etc, etc, etc.
Justt like I do when I'm making TV commercials or Educationakl DVDs.
But even so and after all - I'd still rather watch a woodworking show, a woodworking show, a woodworking show........

I agree that I'm happy to watch anyone work with wood and teach me something new, even if I never use it. At least Norm looks like he has a good time about it! But as its been said already, a smirk will grace my face when he says things like "then take it over to your 36in bandsaw, then when your done there over to your RAS, router table, spindle moulder and 20 inch thicknesser." Wish I had that workshop! What am I supposed to do with my stanley handplane, single screwdriver!

Originally Posted by jmk89

What pi$$es me off is that he :

4. never has to tidy up
5. never has to leave the job in the middle to go shopping with SWMBO
6. never has to sit down and work out what he needs to do next
7. never measures twice and cuts it wrong
9. never has to make a jig - it's always there already
10. ...never has to dash down to Bunnies to find something ...

Huh? That is woodworking for me... you mean that it's not meant to be like that?!!!!!