Paul Sellers DVD Opinion

[David Shoemaker]

I'm looking to buy Paul Sellers Essential Woodworking Hand Tools book. I see that there is a DVD set, as well. Does any one have a review of the DVD set? Is it worth the extra $20. Thanks!

[Scott Winners]

I guess it depends on how much of his content is down from youtube and behind a paywall now. When I started the artisan course series book, two , almost three years ago now, there was enough free content from him on youtube a DVD set would have been redundant.

[Luke Dupont]

I've never owned his DVD's, but I've subscribed to his paid online content years ago, and would say it was definitely worth it.

I would just go ahead and buy it if you get value from his free content. The only two things that can come of it are:
1: You support his work, which has already provided you with great value.
2: You benefit from additional value.

I mean, assuming the DVD's are reasonably priced. I don't think twice about putting a dinner or two's worth of cash down for things like books or DVDs that contain knowledge that may benefit me for a lifetime. There are far more meaningless things that one can save that amount of money on.

[George Wall]

Paul Sellers Youtube channel currently has 336 videos, as he does periodically add some of his older paid projects to the channel for free. He also has some various livestream and "tips and tricks" videos on his channel that are also free. I don't think he has ever taken a free video and later locked it behind a paywall.

I have the book but not the DVD, so cannot really comment on it. I don't know how much redundancy there is between his channel and the DVD, but from the description it does appear that the DVD organizes the videos into chapters, which can be easier to navigate than a Youtube search bar. YMMV.

[Don Dorn]

I have the DVDs because I'm a huge fan of Paul Sellers. They are good in that his part of the content is excellent, but the way they are made try to hard to make them "high tech" and there are "intros" with with graphics and sounds that lead into each segment. I learned a great deal with them but agree with the others in that you can get what you need on youtube. Sharpening, different projects, tool maintenance, etc. I really like the dovetail shaker candle boxes. They are "practice" boxes that make wonderful gifts and keep you tuned in dovetailing, squaring, using a plane to bull nose and smooth, chisel to mortise hinges, etc.

I started using his sharpening system and combined with Ian Kirby's grinding system, I've never looked back. No more jigs for me and my edge tools have never been sharper.

[Scott Clausen]

I don't know how much the DVD's are but the subscription to the Masterclasses seems like a good investment. You can start and stop at anytime so if you are using it a lot its worth it. If you slack off you can stop it, no complicated pressure. I also don't own a DVD anymore.

[Ben Ellenberger]

I subscribed to his paid site for more than a year. I found it really helpful. If you would rather buy a dvd than sign up for streaming, I’m sure his dvds are really well done.

[Colby Campbell]

I've been subscribed to his site for years now. Absolutely worth it. It's nice to be able to jump around videos on my laptop while in the shop. I'm not sure you could do the same with a DVD as easily.

[David Shoemaker]

Thanks for everyone's 2 cents! I went ahead and purchased the DVD set along with the book. $20 isn't too much and I agreed with Luke in that there's value just in supporting Sellers work. I'll just download the DVD's to my Plex server, which will make the content easy to access on any of my devices.