The House That Norm Built - on PBS

[Frederick Skelly]

Back in the early ‘00’s I worked on a few TOH segments from Rich Trethewey’s side of things. Funny how it worked out. You would work on the segment with great inclusion anticipating being on camera, but when the cameras rolled…get real! Rich & I were Reps in the P&H, H&C industry and the show is great for his business. He is a good guy. It was interesting and all in all a pleasant experience. I did play in a couple of Bob Villa’s shows after he had left TOH. So often you look at a show like this and say to yourself, “I could do this.” Then when you see the how the show actually gets produced you have a better understanding of what it takes. The organization, the timing and the output are impressive and not everyone could do it.

Good story Jack. Thanks for sharing it.
Fred

[Pat Germain]

Years ago I had lunch with David Marks. He told me a story about being on airplane next to a guy reading a magazine article about Norm. He turned to David and said something to the effect, "Have you heard of Norm Abram? He's a amazing. You could learn a lot from this guy". To which David Answered, "Is that so?".

I never understood people who bashed Norm. I genuinely think people bash Norm out of jealousy and to give themselves a false sense of superiority. It's perfectly alright for people to say they don't do things like Norm, but there's no reason to bust on him.

FYI, I was able to watch "The House That Norm Built" with the PBS app on ROKU. You can do a free 7-day trial and then cancel if you like.

[Richard Coers]

The biggest hub bub about Norm making furniture was that he ignored seasonal wood movement for several years of New Yankee. His glue it and nail it was at the heart of ignoring that law of nature.

[David Bassett]

Doesn't show up in my zip code for DirecTV on two PBS stations here.

I don't know how they generated that info. It didn't show up for my zip code either, but it was there at Monday 9pm (Pacific, so our normal 3 hour delay) on our major PBS station. The listing didn't mention TOH or NYW, so searching didn't work (and was probably why the zip code listing didn't have it.)

[Alex Zeller]

I bet Norm would have done even better had DVRs been invented back then. Granted he had almost every hand tool made in multiple brands but he spoke clearly, is able to articulate what he was trying accomplish, and did it in a way that people who wanted to make stuff but thought it was too hard feel like they could.

[Mel Fulks]

The biggest hub bub about Norm making furniture was that he ignored seasonal wood movement for several years of New Yankee. His glue it and nail it was at the heart of ignoring that law of nature.

I don’t remember if Norm was using air dried wood or kiln dried stuff. Or some of both. Many shops that buy and use mostly kiln dried
stuff from trusted steadily used suppliers don’t do any acclimating . Kiln dried might be harder to work ….but we didn’t have to grow it ,chop it, or dry it.
Commercial shops will sometimes let kiln dried stuff “acclimate “ some …. and it’s a good way to get a little time away , ‘cuz they have a big
job going that has to be finished first !

[Curt Harms]

I never understood people who bashed Norm. I genuinely think people bash Norm out of jealousy and to give themselves a false sense of superiority. It's perfectly alright for people to say they don't do things like Norm, but there's no reason to bust on him.

I remember a lot of people saying "If I had Norm's shop & tools, I could produce stuff as good or better than him". No, most of them couldn't.

[Curt Harms]

I bet Norm would have done even better had DVRs been invented back then. Granted he had almost every hand tool made in multiple brands but he spoke clearly, is able to articulate what he was trying accomplish, and did it in a way that people who wanted to make stuff but thought it was too hard feel like they could.

VHS and Beta were very much a thing, I recorded many NYW episodes. Norm's coming off as Every Man was one of the reasons for the show's success IMO.

[Richard Coers]

I don’t remember if Norm was using air dried wood or kiln dried stuff. Or some of both. Many shops that buy and use mostly kiln dried
stuff from trusted steadily used suppliers don’t do any acclimating . Kiln dried might be harder to work ….but we didn’t have to grow it ,chop it, or dry it.
Commercial shops will sometimes let kiln dried stuff “acclimate “ some …. and it’s a good way to get a little time away , ‘cuz they have a big
job going that has to be finished first !

I was talking about seasonal wood movement. Are you suggesting that kiln dried wood doesn't move? You might want to research that.

[Mel Fulks]

Some woods might move some even after being kiln dried, but much less than air dried. You can test it by cutting off ends of KD and air
dried wood and soaking them in water for a day ,or many days.

I’ve worked with Old Timers who complained about kiln drying. Yes kiln dried can be harder to work than air dried , but now we have
machines! They saw machines like Union guys see a bum applying for a job while drink wine out of the bottle.

[Richard Coers]

Some woods might move some even after being kiln dried, but much less than air dried. You can test it by cutting off ends of KD and air
dried wood and soaking them in water for a day ,or many days.

I’ve worked with Old Timers who complained about kiln drying. Yes kiln dried can be harder to work than air dried , but now we have
machines! They saw machines like Union guys see a bum applying for a job while drink wine out of the bottle.

Not some woods might move, ALL woods move. It's not guess work or estimating, not folk lore and not the difference between air dried and kiln dried. It is science based on percentages of humidity and temperature! Still don't believe me, glue up 3' of wood width and measure the width several times a year. https://www.extension.purdue.edu/ext...nr/fnr-163.pdf

[Mel Fulks]

I did read it, did not see any fault , and I did not see anything that contradicts what I posted. The author has a sentence …that kinda’ goes
like this, “ trouble was likely because of improper drying “ I would have quoted it , but I remembered it’s still there !

[Greg Funk]

Some woods might move some even after being kiln dried, but much less than air dried. You can test it by cutting off ends of KD and air
dried wood and soaking them in water for a day ,or many days.

Depends on the temperature and location of the air drying. If it's air dried in Phoenix there won't be much difference in wood movement between kiln and air drying. It's a function of the moisture content of the wood not really how it was dried. You can't air dry to a low MC in Seattle in the winter.

[Mel Fulks]

Depends on the temperature and location of the air drying. If it's air dried in Phoenix there won't be much difference in wood movement between kiln and air drying. It's a function of the moisture content of the wood not really how it was dried. You can't air dry to a low MC in Seattle in the winter.

I disagree, kiln drying is pretty much irreversible. Try soaking a piece kiln dried in the same water as a piece of air dried . The air dried will
swell up , then be a bit smaller when dried out . Think it’s still called “ compression ring set”. The kiln dried will maintain same size or at
least closer than the air dried.

[Greg Funk]

I disagree, kiln drying is pretty much irreversible. Try soaking a piece kiln dried in the same water as a piece of air dried . The air dried will
swell up , then be a bit smaller when dried out . Think it’s still called “ compression ring set”. The kiln dried will maintain same size or at
least closer than the air dried.

Not sure where you live but properly kiln dried material will move just like air dried wood. Most hardwood flooring sold locally is kiln dried and it moves noticeably between summer and winter. In some locations there isn't a significant difference in the EMC of wood between summer and winter but on the west coast all wood moves between seasons.

You might be referring to case hardening that can occur if improperly dried in a kiln.

I'll leave you with this excerpt from Wagner Moisture Meters (not a scientific article but I expect they know a little about wood movement):

Wood may have the majority of its moisture removed during the kiln drying process, but it does not lose the ability to reabsorb moisture from its environment. Whether from a direct water source, moisture in an adjacent material or even humidity in the air, by its very nature, wood will be ready to absorb any moisture it contacts. Kiln drying doesn’t “fix” the MC level of a wood product; it merely reduces the amount of moisture to a generally workable range.