Is posting videos on youtube showing second-rate skills or results fine with you?

[Simon MacGowen]

I have come across quite a number of "tutorial" videos on youtube with good intentions, trying to share hand tool techniques with everyone, that are in my opinion below the fine woodworking quality. The most common examples are those showing the finished joints with tiny or unsightly gaps, including one coming from a well-known, very skilled woodworker and another from what was usually paid online content (the latter shot professionally). Both, I believe, could produce a perfect joinery if they had taken the time to retry and reshoot.

Does sharing a technique video (free of charge) with sloppy results bother you?

Simon

[Patrick Chase]

I have come across quite a number of "tutorial" videos on youtube with good intentions, trying to share hand tool techniques with everyone, that are in my opinion below the fine woodworking quality. The most common examples are those showing the finished joints with tiny or unsightly gaps, including one coming from a well-known, very skilled woodworker and another from what was usually paid online content (the latter shot professionally). Both, I believe, could produce a perfect joinery if they had taken the time to retry and reshoot.

Does sharing a technique video (free of charge) with sloppy results bother you?

Simon

My employer would not want me discussing my opinions of what gets posted to YouTube specifically, but in general... https://xkcd.com/386/

[Frederick Skelly]

I wouldnt share sloppy results - I'd be embarrassed. But I increasingly see people posting "weak" woodworking content on the web.

[Patrick Chase]

I wouldnt share sloppy results - I'd be embarrassed. But I increasingly see people posting "weak" woodworking content on the web.

I think that one key challenge is that to avoid posting weak content you actually have to realize that your content is weak.

[Frederick Skelly]

I think that one key challenge is that to avoid posting weak content you actually have to realize that your content is weak.

Oh yeah, absolutely.

[Mel Fulks]

It bothers me to the extent that if I find them lacking I go to another one. But I confess to starting with the short ones. It also bothers me that those seeking help here often seem to go with majority opinion. But ,on the other hand, some of the real experts here insist on rattling on for a whole paragraph before giving us the magic SECRET that makes it quick and easy.

[Patrick Chase]

But ,on the other hand, some of the real experts here insist on rattling on for a whole paragraph before giving us the magic SECRET that makes it quick and easy.

Or they don't tell you the secret at all :-)

A classic example from a number of years back: "You need to learn how to use a double iron".

[Pat Barry]

of course not. If I don't like what I'm seeing I just click awya and its forgotten. On the other hand, I appreciate that there is lots of content to choose from. I might even watch (a bit) if Patrick posted something

[Normand Leblanc]

of course not. If I don't like what I'm seeing I just click awya and its forgotten. On the other hand, I appreciate that there is lots of content to choose from. I might even watch (a bit) if Patrick posted something

You beat me at it !!!

[Bruce Page]

Like Pat, I just move on, life’s too short. We are bothered entirely too easily today.

[Doug Hepler]

Simon,

At one time, it bothered me a lot. When I first started serious woodworking I tried to learn from the web (mainly woodworking forums). I'm a bit embarrassed to admit it, but I was very naive about the wide variety of motivations people have for posting things on the internet and about some people's willingness to pontificate about matters of which they knew little. I was taken aback by the petty squabbles about pins vs tails, the best adhesives, finishes, tool badges, dust collectors, sharpening methods, etc. So, yes. I was also naive about woodworking TV. It really bothered me that I couldn't get the results that the guy in the plaid shirt was getting.

Things got better when I realized that learning how to winnow the wheat from the chaff was actually an important part of learning this craft. My reliance on the internet went way down and my use of professionally produced material went up. There actually is a factual basis for a lot of what we do. Eventually I was able to start acting on intelligence (knowledge) as guided by experience. And I learned who the BS artists are. Fame is not much of a credential.

Doug

[Jim Koepke]

If it is possible to learn from one's own mistakes should it not also be possible to learn from the mistakes of others?

My videos are as low budget and likely mistake prone as any. Though I have received unpleasant comments from an occasional viewer, others send messages saying they have learned or enjoyed something.

Besides, some of it is amusing.

Here is one of my videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apLzrpsdcK0

It was made using planes rehabbed as part of this thread:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...hab-Enthusiast

Hopefully some who read the thread and watched the video saw that if some old fart can do it, they should be able to get results.

jtk

[Andrey Kharitonkin]

If it is possible to learn from one's own mistakes should it not also be possible to learn from the mistakes of others?

Agree, if only viewer can recognize the mistakes. When I started I could not and felt into many traps, like many others, it seems... until I came across videos of Paul Sellers and The English Woodworker and alike. It was professional stupidity on my side, naive me indeed...

So, watch all excellent videos first, before watching just good ones or worse!

[Malcolm Schweizer]

There is one guy in particular who appears to have a following and he builds stuff with dovetails going the wrong way, and a complete lack of balance in the design. It makes my skin crawl... then I get over it... mostly.

[Brian Holcombe]

There's one guy whose always wearing a nice shirt and working on the floor, watch out for him.