Britain's Best Woodworker

[Jameshow]

Surprisingly better programme than I was expecting. My wife and I quite enjoyed it.

For most watchers, were it just about wood working joints and mallets, it would be a single watch and that would be it. Add in a human element and a few numpties and the show has promise. Same format as so many others and it makes a change for the format to be directed toward me rather than something than my wife naturally enjoys.

Tim really dodged a bullet on that first show. I can't see him lasting long, unless he becomes Britain's most improved woodworker.

Plenty of tool porn to go around. I think my wife got fed up with my "I have one of those" statements

I must admit I did see a bit of myself in Tim lol.

Cheers James

 

[Chunkytfg]

Surprisingly better programme than I was expecting. My wife and I quite enjoyed it.

For most watchers, were it just about wood working joints and mallets, it would be a single watch and that would be it. Add in a human element and a few numpties and the show has promise. Same format as so many others and it makes a change for the format to be directed toward me rather than something than my wife naturally enjoys.

Tim really dodged a bullet on that first show. I can't see him lasting long, unless he becomes Britain's most improved woodworker.

Plenty of tool porn to go around. I think my wife got fed up with my "I have one of those" statements

I've just finished watching it on catch up and got to agree with all of it.

The boat concept could have been good but it was like Tim had never heard of cutting at an angle so mating faces fit flat!

An odd mix of tools used. Festool router and Mitre saws but Makita everything else seems a bit random.

I'm at a loss why the sleepers were not just stuck though a bench top thickneser and the woman who got booted would have had 1.5 days to then actually do something other than stack them badly together!

The mix of contestants was typical C4 exactly as expected. A couple of actually good people and then a mix of characters who add to the watchability of those viewers who dont have an interest in woodworking.

 

[Kinz]

For me, the slavish adherence to the GBBO format is too much! 2 days is too short to do anything of quality, which leaves the purpose to be crises, stress & failure (tv jeopardy). My concern is when you add power tools/machinery to the mix.
I’ll watch another one, as woodwork on mainstream tv is a rarity but expect to be frustrated, annoyed, insulted etc

 

[MichaelAD]

My OH and I watch all of these type shows...it passes as 'light entertainment' for us. Normally we get a 'Series link' to programmes we enjoy and watch them at our leisure. So, if it's baking, ceramics, woodwork, sewing, metalwork etc etc we dip in and out at a time that suits us.

One thing that does cause us concern is that neither our children nor grandchildren have any interest at all in any of these programmes. We wonder where the future 'hands on' artisans are going to come from?

I'm an ex aircraft engineer who has a DIY interest in woodwork and woodturning (my garage workshop and my shed are probably equipped a little better than a weekend DIYer though). My OH is an ex teacher who is an artist in all of the paint mediums, she bakes, cooks, sews, knits, woodturns and loves her garden.
I guess we are throwback dinosaurs who were brought up in an age of 'make do and mend' when utilising anything and everything to the max was the norm.

Times, people and generations change. We like to think that we too have changed with the times by keeping up with technology as best we can, but while technology is advancing at an exponential rate all of the 'basic' hands on skills seem to be getting bypassed.

My hope is that TV will continue to to produce programmes that show woodworkers, turners, metalworkers etc etc so that maybe, just maybe, it may inspire others to 'have a go' at something that will give them a skill that they can develop and enjoy for the rest of their lives.
In the meanwhile we have fun watching, laughing and wincing (and sometimes admiring) what we see.

 

[ian33a]

My OH and I watch all of these type shows...it passes as 'light entertainment' for us. Normally we get a 'Series link' to programmes we enjoy and watch them at our leisure. So, if it's baking, ceramics, woodwork, sewing, metalwork etc etc we dip in and out at a time that suits us.

One thing that does cause us concern is that neither our children nor grandchildren have any interest at all in any of these programmes. We wonder where the future 'hands on' artisans are going to come from?

I'm an ex aircraft engineer who has a DIY interest in woodwork and woodturning (my garage workshop and my shed are probably equipped a little better than a weekend DIYer though). My OH is an ex teacher who is an artist in all of the paint mediums, she bakes, cooks, sews, knits, woodturns and loves her garden.
I guess we are throwback dinosaurs who were brought up in an age of 'make do and mend' when utilising anything and everything to the max was the norm.

Times, people and generations change. We like to think that we too have changed with the times by keeping up with technology as best we can, but while technology is advancing at an exponential rate all of the 'basic' hands on skills seem to be getting bypassed.

My hope is that TV will continue to to produce programmes that show woodworkers, turners, metalworkers etc etc so that maybe, just maybe, it may inspire others to 'have a go' at something that will give them a skill that they can develop and enjoy for the rest of their lives.
In the meanwhile we have fun watching, laughing and wincing (and sometimes admiring) what we see.

As an ex electronics engineer who is willing to have a go at most practical things, so many youngsters these days don't have jobs with any manual/practical element attached. Apprenticeships were made demeaning by governments who wanted to shovel youngsters into university education (and so keep them off the unemployment statistics) and many engineers use computers to build and model stuff rather than physically experimenting with real hardware (as I did when I was younger).

Add in the throw away society which we have where people would rather buy something on Amazon and have it tomorrow (or today) than actually make it and feel the sense of satisfaction of having done so.

I hope that the reawakening of the benefits of apprenticeships, perhaps a hike in prices generally and shows such as this will encourage people toward craft skills again. Trouble is, with the everything costing more, buying decent tools and raw materials isn't as easy or as cheap as it once was.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Trouble is, with the everything costing more, buying decent tools and raw materials isn't as easy or as cheap as it once was ...

I thought that the other day looking at my twenty+ different pairs of pliers.

Another shame, to my mind, is that evening classes are now so expensive - one I did 15 years ago was 10 weeks for £30 (it was worthwhile for the use of the facilities alone) it's now £160. It discourages people from finding new interests and skills.

 

[Orraloon]

Well that was almost an hour of my life I will never get back.
Regards
John

 

[Droogs]

britain's best woodworker? my hairy pimpled chocolate sphincter. 1 of them didn't even grow up or live in the UK unless the Queen has taken up old Henry's claim to France.

 

[woodieallen]

..... My concern is when you add power tools/machinery to the mix.
...

Absolutely. Really looking forward to when they fire up the spindle moulder on the Hammer.

 

[Spectric]

If nothing else it shows that you may not be as bad as you first thought, or you may pick up some new techniques like kicking the joint together rather than clamps or a mallet. What about that bed using large sleeper sized timber, never mind getting it upstairs with modern housing you need to reinforce the floor otherwise it could end up in the living room and what a waste of timber.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

britain's best woodworker? my hairy pimpled chocolate sphincter. 1 of them didn't even grow up or live in the UK unless the Queen has taken up old Henry's claim to France.

They didn't actually say "Best British Woodworker".

 

[Droogs]

They didn't actually say "Best British Woodworker".

She lives in Paris FFS so not even based here.

My dog has chewed out better joints than most of this lot

 

[Gareth62]

Not impressed so faron a plus side they could all carve to varying degrees and there were enough tools on display to bankrupt a small country and satisfy both hand and power fans .There were couple that will be worth keeping an eye on in future episodes.
The one that lost should have,no imagination at all and even less ability to carry it outthough to be fair it would have made a lovely raised bed down the allotment .Even my old eyes can tell the difference between sander and planer(that poor planer suffered some serious abuse )both judges seem to have missed that one.

With regards to the sleeper bed.

What I don’t understand is:

A: all the wood was cut and prepped for them with finished sizes

B: with all that kit there, where was the thicknesser and why not use it.

 

[Robbo3]

At least the filming was all in focus.
Now all we have to do is get the camera to show what is being done rather than the speaker's face.

 

[Orraloon]

I guess following the reality tv format of getting people on screen for the express purpose of making them look like complete pratts then the show is an outstanding success. They all talked the talk at the design stage but at the building they utterly failed to walk the walk. Most did not even know what they could never achieve. May be entertainment to some but its not woodwork.
Regards
John

 

[Peter Sefton]

It was meant to be called "good with wood" and was set up for aspiring woodworkers, some TV exec changed the name after filming, I think their name should be changed to "clueless tosser" Hopefully it will get people into woodworking and at least let the general public see what goes into what we do.

Cheers

Peter

 

[Woodchip Wilbur]

I think that my sadness was the general lack of connection between:

Design ("I'm going to design something stunning")
Practicality ("I'm going to make something that could actually be used")
Construction ("I'm going to design something that I'm going to be able to make")

Before ever the cameras start to roll, they have the time and opportunity to consider the facilities available to them. A number of these projects failed at that stage.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

At school we weren't allowed to make anything we couldn't first draw proper, adequate plans for. That always seemed to me to be sensible.

 

[Lonsdale73]

On first watch, for me it was too much like GBBO with too many GBBO-type contestants. I have a deep-rooted scepticism of overly exuberant or exciteable people, or glaikit eejits as they're known where I'm from, so that immediately turned me off with regards to over half the contestants and most of them had me muttering a variant of Droogs' "FFS"! The only likeable one among them is Joe.

On second watch, I was maybe a bit harsh first time round or maybe just in a better mood this morning. Chantall deserved to go, there wasn't even a hint of joinery in the sleepers laid out for her by the technicians and frankly Tim should have joined her. Best part was the carving of printing plates although I disagreed with the judges' choice for the immunity award, hinted of "Must keep the transgender at any cost!" Again, similar to GBBO where there are weeks when the wrong person is ejected. Think often as not it comes down to whether or not the judge likes an individual or not. So Jade's time is probably limited as neither judge seemed to care much for her (incidentally, at the start of the program, it does say that entrants were drawn "from across the UK" and later that she was "born in France" which is not the same as being French, raised in France or still living there now. And she speaks far better English than most certified English, possibly the best outside of Edinburgh!)

I suspect I'll continue watching until it looks like a sinal contested by Tim and 'Misti' (FFS)

 

[recipio]

Firstly, that workshop was to die for. I can hardly swing a cat in mine. Secondly I kept thinking ' fail to prepare, prepare to fail'. It seems like £1000's of wood were bought without any finished plans. The contestants were always going to be struggling given their inexperience but the designs really let them down. It was more Art College than Woodworking School ?