George Wilson on youtube!

[Matt Lau]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSCUpA2T1JQ

I was browsing Youtube, and I came across a New Yankee Workshop episode that has our very own George Wilson interviewed!

I'm not sure if this has been posted before, but I got a kick out of it.
If I can age half as well as Roy, I'll be a happy man.

[george wilson]

New Yankee? That was indeed a short interview!! Half the time was spent watching Roy walk to his shed in the woods(which is really a sound stage at the TV station):) Wonder what happened to the rest of the episode. I want to watch it because I have absolutely NO recollection of having done the show. I remember DOING it,but have no idea what was done. Getting old!! Someone was going to send me the episode,but that seemed to fall through.

That's Gerald Kowalski playing the guitar. Last I heard,he was running the neck making dept. at Taylor guitars in California. They made them with CNC milling machines.

[Winton Applegate]

Thanks for putting that up.
I have been considering buying DVDs of The Woodwights's Shop (that wasn't New Yankee with Norm by the way) and that gave me a taste of what the very earliest shows were like.
Looks like about $30 to $35 a season from Amazon.
? Worth it ?
Does any one have a set of the early shows that can comment on them?
I won't be cutting trees down and making things from wet wood but lately i have been reading his first books on my Kindle none the less.

[george wilson]

We once had a museum president who wanted to hew logs at the housewright's site. I found him a broad axe and made an offset handle for it. I don't think it ever got used. The new president used to come in my shop pretty frequently.

Then,it seemed the hewing and visiting stopped. Always seemed like someone "put the words" on new presidents to not hang out with the troops,or something. Or,was it just my imagination?

[Tony Zaffuto]

Thanks for putting that up.
I have been considering buying DVDs of The Woodwights's Shop (that wasn't New Yankee with Norm by the way) and that gave me a taste of what the very earliest shows were like.
Looks like about $30 to $35 a season from Amazon.
? Worth it ?
Does any one have a set of the early shows that can comment on them?
I won't be cutting trees down and making things from wet wood but lately i have been reading his first books on my Kindle none the less.

So far I have season 1 through 7 of "The Woodwright's Shop". As with DVD transfer of TV shows, sometimes the quality is a bit off, but as a whole very worthwhile purchase. On each season, there are some absolute gems and maybe a show or two that are less impressive.

I get them, by telling my kids to buy me a DVD for either a birthday or Christmas present, instead of the obligatory Northface vest or UGG slippers! I've seen virtually every episode already (from when first broadcast) and that makes the purchase all the more interesting from eliciting other memories of the times.

[george wilson]

Aww,Tony,aren't you REALLY wanting a pair of Crocs shoes for Christmas? (The most atrocious things ever invented,perhaps?)

[Tony Zaffuto]

Aww,Tony,aren't you REALLY wanting a pair of Crocs shoes for Christmas? (The most atrocious things ever invented,perhaps?)

No Crocs for me! My wife, over the past decade, has worked her way through the LV & LN catalogs. I tell her and my kids I don't want or need anything, but they insist, so the DVD's.

[Ryan Baker]

I have the first 20 seasons so far. I think they are worth having, though it is more for entertainment/nostalgic reasons than purely instructional ones. Roy tends to repeat a lot of topics every few years -- the newer versions tend to be a lot more polished/better demonstrated than the earlier ones. I watched some of those early shows when they originally aired, but I missed a lot of shows back then. At 8 years old, it wasn't my first priority. :) It's fun to go back and see some of those episodes again, as well as seeing the various ones I missed along the way. As Tony said, generally each season has some really interesting shows and some I could personally do without. Overall, definitely worth watching.

I agree that putting them on your "gift" list is a good idea. It's something that non-woodworkers can easily get you, and it saves some of the cost.

[Chris Fournier]

George is a handsome devil! Just sayin' is all.

Crocks rule.

[Winton Applegate]

Hey Tony and Ryan,


Thanks for responding about the Woodwright Shop DVDs.


That is a great idea about the gift thing.
Ha, ha . . . I guess I just answered my question as far as the later episodes . . . just now Queenmasteroftheuniverseandbabybunnytrainer and I happened to be watching PBS when Roy came on next and we were planing to throw in a movie next. She said "oh watch your wood shop show; that is fine". I said "I probably won't but let me see what he is up to tonight ". It was Steve Latta doing hammer veneering and banding.
She watched it with me and enjoyed it.
I said "That's world class woodworking right there . . . doesn't get any better than that".
So yah, I need to get me some Roy DVDs.
I have a good excuse to even order that one; I didn't quite hear the explanation of the "gram strength" measuring mechanism he was talking about.
Sumpin about metal rods and a weight and sinking into the glop.


Anyway thanks again for info there.

[Winton Applegate]

I don't know much about Crocs.
Rope sole shoes with cotton uppers ?
Queenmasteroftheuniverseandbabybunnytrainer makes me wear cotton soled Kung Fu slippers after she goes to bed. In the house; not in the shop. Says all my clomping around all night keeps her awake.
Like these http://www.karatemart.com/cotton-sole-kung-fu-shoes

Anyway, what I was going to say about that is one has to be careful in the shop with stuff like that. One day I was wearing real, hand made, moccasins. Very thick leather soled jobs. I was using a bench grinder and standing on an old concrete floor in a shed. Not my shed some body elses. Turns out the plug had the ground prong broken off and the non polarized plug was plugged in upside down. Very old plug.
Some of you are starting to hear what is coming next . . .
This ment that even with the switch off the case of the grinder, including the cast iron rest on the front was charged.
If the soles of the moccasins had been wetter or the floor of the shed had a puddle I might not be sitting here pontificating this way.
Anyway, walking across the grass gave the mocs just enough moisture that every time I touched the work rest, I was dressing the stone with a big old iron handled star dresser, I got a whomp on the arm that felt like some body hit the funny bone on my fore arm. If a fore arm could have a funny bone.
Took several hits to get it through my thick skull what the hell I was doing to my self.
The mostly dry leather soles where kind of like a resister rather than a full on conductor.
Lucky me.
So yah . . .
funny thing . . .
just like the safety posters say :
Don't break off the ground prong (some body else did that before I got there).
and
wear rubber soled shoes.

[Mike Brady]

George Wilson looks so......normal!

[Ryan Baker]

While you are waiting for some of those DVDs, you can watch the Latta episodes, and all the others from the last few years, on the PBS web site.

[george wilson]

I was never a hippie type. The long hair on the back of my head was a "wiglet" that they pinned on. It was very uncomfortable. But,before I changed my name to George Wilson,my name was A.B.Normal.

[Alan Caro]

George Wilson,

",.. never a hippie type"? But what about involvement with all those "wood stocks" ?

Alan Caro

[george wilson]

The actual instrument shop was reserved for filming the violin. It was handy to separate them. The natural light in the instrument shop was always better,too.