The Woodwright’s Shop……FINALLY!

August 19, 2007 | Filed Under Blog 

Roy Underhill

I haven’t been able to watch an episode of The Woodwright’s Shop in years because my local PBS station doesn’t carry it. If you aren’t familiar with this show, its hosted by Roy Underhill. He’s an odd one, to say the least, but in a quirky cool way. As far as woodworking goes, he is a complete Neanderthal. The only thing electric in his shop seems to be the lights! I just love watching this guy do his thing. It really puts things in perspective for me. In fact, after watching a few episodes, I feel like a real jerk because I concern myself with issues like whether or not my 8″ jointer is wide enough. This dude is cutting his own stock from logs with an ax! Anyway, I was delighted when my buddy Paul emailed me and told me that Season 26 is available for viewing online! Yeehaa! So go to The Woodwright’s Shop website and check it out. Its time well-spent! Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go unplug some tools.

Comments

19 Responses to “The Woodwright’s Shop……FINALLY!”

  1. PrettyMuchIRock/Taylor on August 19th, 2007 11:12 pm

    Thanks Marc! My PBS doesn’t have him either. I didn’t see the episodes before, thanks for pointing them out. I am starting to get more and more into hand tools, I love the idea of working with them, kind of “closer” to the wood.

  2. Paul-Marcel St-Onge on August 20th, 2007 12:09 am

    I had never seen this guy before and yeah he’s quirky. I definitely recommend episode 2612. I had no idea production shops were like that long ago and some pretty cool engineering at that. If someone knows how the whole place is powered, I’d love to know. Obviously some huge motor turning the first crank wheel… can’t imagine the loss on the belts…

  3. Brad Nailor on August 20th, 2007 4:29 am

    I used to tune in to this guy all the time. It was cool watching him do everything by hand. Really made me appreciate electricity!

    Paul I think alot of the old time production woodshops, in my area anyways
    (New England) were water powered. They would dam a river and build a building next to it. Then transfer the power from the water wheel to the machines through a complex series of belts and wooden gears. later on when the industrial revolution took over I think they changed the power source to steam.

  4. Rick Kirk on August 20th, 2007 5:31 am

    This guy is pretty cool. He always has a ton of guests, (all traditional craftsman) I get a kick when he misplaces a tool and starts tearing the place apart looking for it. I read were he is in charge of building restoration in historic Fredricksburg Va. If its pre-industrial revolution you desire, Roy is your man.

  5. Richard in Indy on August 20th, 2007 5:54 am

    Hi Marc. I’ve been lucky to enjoy Roy’s show for years. It’s nice to hear of your respect -even a yearning -for the old ways, Marc. In fact, I’ll be happy to help you by taking all those awful, modern, yellow machines from your sight. I know, don’t mention it. Anything to help a fellow woodworker find his way.
    Anyway, thanks alot for the awesome site and podcasts. It makes it harder and harder to be “self-taught” now days with people like you. Keep up the great work!

  6. Jim_ny on August 20th, 2007 6:17 am

    awsome I used to watch him all the time it does give you a good reality check on our modern shops and he is great to watch

  7. LordLQQK on August 20th, 2007 6:41 am

    I used to watch him about 8 years ago all the time, he is a curator or consulting historian for Williamsburg, VA if I remember correctly. There everything is done as it was in about 1850 era. It is really nice seeing him go from logs to Winsor chair, and explaining how even “in the day” they had a sort of assembly line when it came to such things. One shop would make the spindles (out of ash, or similar, if I remember) with a foot driven lathe, another shop would make the seats with adzes (out of elm because of the cross matching grains), and then sent the parts to the chair maker. The big thing I remember was that the spindle maker was paid by the gross (that is 144, a dozen dozen), and it wasn’t that much. The big money man was the guy who put the chair together.

  8. PFox on August 20th, 2007 6:59 am

    The guy kind of looks like a younger version of Furnitology guy.

  9. Tim on August 20th, 2007 11:39 am

    Are any of the David Marks from DIY shown on the web. I don’t get the DIY channel but you have me interested in seeing them. I searched the DIY site but didn’t find any archives?

  10. thewoodwhisperer on August 20th, 2007 12:29 pm

    You can see some clips here:
    http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/.....27,00.html

    Or you can buy them from Amazon.com

  11. Andy on August 21st, 2007 11:35 pm

    Great review! I am glad to hear that more people enjoy Roy. I remember watching him with my grandfather when I was much younger. My only wish is that they would put the various seasons on DVD. Granted there are 26 of them but I would certainly do my part in purchasing as many of them as I could afford. Thanks for the info.

  12. Vic on August 22nd, 2007 6:22 pm

    I always loved to watch Underhill’s show, but it always made me nervous. I just knew at any time an adz or sledge or whatever he was wielding, was gonna slip and blood was gonna flow! Every show, though, he managed to make something cool and not maim himself in the process.

  13. Nicole on August 23rd, 2007 10:36 am

    For the woodworkers wives out there; I especially like this find. No longer do I have to lay in bed watching the Woodwright Shop as I go to sleep. Now if I could just do something about Norm :)

  14. Tim on August 28th, 2007 5:11 am

    The Wood Wright’s Shop has been playing for years(20+ I believe), and it used to show LIVE here in NC. Until one day, Roy sliced his hand wide open, on air. It’s been taped ever since.

  15. Ted on August 30th, 2007 8:09 am

    Thanks for pointing this out. I watched Roy religiously on Detroit PBS at noon on Sundays when I lived in Southern Ontario. I Moved to New Brunswick in May and though Maine PBS shows the Woodwright Shop at 4:00 Saturday, I never seem to be able to catch it. Now I can catch up.

    One of my favourites was the one in which they put together a show made up of injuries Roy did to himself during taping. In introducing the clips, Roy said that even though it is taped, it is taped continuously which continues to give it the ‘feel’ of a live broadcast. Quirky is a good word to describe Mr. Underhill, but he is an inspiration!

    Ted

  16. Byron on August 30th, 2007 9:59 am

    What ever happened to the guys from the router workshop? They are also a couple of interesting fellows!!

  17. Ted on August 31st, 2007 5:50 am

    The Router Workshop is still around (see http://www.routerworkshop.com) and carried by a number of PBS stations. They are based in Winnipeg, Manitoba I believe.

    Byron is right, they are also interesting fellows - the son gives a weekly safety primer and then the dad proceeds to use none of the advice. I believe I’ve also seen that he has a finger or two which should be longer.

  18. Frederick on September 18th, 2007 4:19 pm

    I never herd about it. I just started to watch it on the site. This guy is really nifty.

  19. Jim on November 8th, 2007 7:43 pm

    Half my life is spent in the past. I have a full medieval woodworking shop and teach bowmaking. Much of my ability to do this comes from watching Roy. I have seen him speak in person many times. If you ever get a chance, don’t miss it. He tells stories of all the PBS woodworking shows. Just a great time.

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