Discovery Shed

[misterfish]

I answer various 'consumer questionnaires' for Discovery TV programs and in the last few months have had the opportunity to comment on 'Shed'.

Today I received the latest newsletter and they said

"You told us there was not enough varied content on Discovery Shed. We listened to you and as a result of your feedback more build and DIY content has been scheduled for the channel."

So hopefully less fishing and (maybe) more woodworking!

Misterfish

 

[yo_chuci]

wicked... bring back norm lol...
i do get sick of the fishing days they have on a weekend. shouldn't people be out fishing on a weekend not sat at home watching fishing...
almost as interesting as golf.

but then yesterday that anton fitzpatrick was on making a coffee table... OMG. plastic blocks to hold top to legs. trim was glued then panel pinned with no attempy to hide the pin heads..

 

[FogggyTown]

wicked... bring back norm lol...
i do get sick of the fishing days they have on a weekend. shouldn't people be out fishing on a weekend not sat at home watching fishing...
almost as interesting as golf.

but then yesterday that anton fitzpatrick was on making a coffee table... OMG. plastic blocks to hold top to legs. trim was glued then panel pinned with no attempy to hide the pin heads..

Talk about low standards. Hey! That means that even I could host a WW show! :shock: I think I'll call it, "Cut to Shape . . . Pound to Fit"

 

[mailee]

What is even more worrying is that he builds boats! :shock:

 

[wizer]

I think that was the problem. The boat building show was much better because he prety much knew what he was doing. I think after that series ended some bright spark at the TV company thought he'd be great hosting a general WW show. Truth is he probably never designed or made any furniture before. It's laziness on their part as there must be millions of woodworkers more capable than he is.

 

[fossil]

i think ha has a lot of woodworking skill ,ie his boat building
but i think the tv bosses got him to do a woodwork for dummies program

i know a bloke who would'nt know which end of a hammer to hold !!

so for a laugh i bought him an IKEA tool set :twisted:

 

[hivisvest72]

I see what people mean about Anton Fitzpatrick, however as an amateur woodworker I find his methods, projects and choice of materials much easier to get stated with than the likes of New Yankee Norm (much as I love watching him).

For him to use normal pine, plastic blocks and good old nails to create his projects is a good entry into the potentially very expensive and frustrating world of woodworking.

I'm sure I'm not the last to have started with this type of approach and as my confidence with handling the tools and materials grows, I find myself moving on to (and investing in) dedicated power tools, better materials (who wants to pay £100 for a pile of hardwood only to ruin the build - better try it first with softwood at a fraction of the cost) and using more sophisticated jointing techniques (to get rid of the plastic blocks).

So don't be so quick to criticise the 'woodworking for dummies' approach - we all need to start somewhere and I find Anton's approach a good stepping stone (or wooden stool) onto mor complex projects.

 

[Gill]

I would like to be able to endorse the comments about it being good to have a television woodworker show novices how to produce something worthwhile with the minimum amount of skill and tools. Sadly, I don't think Anton Fitzpatrick achieves that because he does not produce items that I can envisage ever becoming family heirlooms. I miss Richard Blizzard, whose projects did meet that requirement.

Gill

 

[user 5053]

There is a lot of wood things made on How its Made on Discovery

 

[Shultzy]

I agree Gill, Richard Blizzard was responsible for awakening my desire to make family heirlooms. I was mainly a "glue 'n screw" man until I saw one of his programs. I have all his books and have made a number of his models.

 

[Rob_H]

shouldn't people be out fishing on a weekend not sat at home watching fishing...
almost as interesting as golf.

And shouldn't woodies be in the workshop?? :lol: :lol:

 

[Woodmagnet]

There is a lot of wood things made on How its Made on Discovery

Thanks for the information Soulfly, i don't
bother with that station so i would never have
thought about looking there.
Cheers. :wink:

 

[StevieB]

I quite like 'How its Made' although it does tend to have an American slant (baseball bats, pitchers gloves, ice hocky skates etc). It has recently been introduced by Robert Lleywellen (sp?) of Red Dwarf fame and he does his intro in a fairly impressive looking workshop.

Anton doesn't do anything for me I am afraid. You can build up slowly and introduce newbies to woodworking without using 6 inch nails and 2x4. :roll:

Steve

 

[FogggyTown]

Who was the guy who was on a few years ago - not many programmes though? Mid 30s, had funky music accompanying his actions, always wore a battery-powered ice hockey-style breathing mask. I quite enjoyed him although nothing he ever did was particularly "deep".

Bring back Rico!

 

[Calpol]

Was that 'Cutting Edge Woodworker' Foggy?

What put me off Anton Fitzpatrick was he cut a finger joint by clamping the two pieces together and chopped both pieces at once, had big nasty gaps everywhere :shock:

 

[wizer]

CEW was good but he used the spindle moulder too much. The designs were modern and he wasn't scared to use different materials.

 

[FogggyTown]

Was that 'Cutting Edge Woodworker' Foggy?

What put me off Anton Fitzpatrick was he cut a finger joint by clamping the two pieces together and chopped both pieces at once, had big nasty gaps everywhere :shock:

Yeah, that was it! Paul Bradburn. I quite enjoyed that programme although I didn't learn much from it.

 

[Calpol]

Paul Bradburn, the very chappie! I liked that program, he had a bit of a laff when he worked... Didn't like some of the features like the blue backlit holes on the TV stand but all in all well worth a watch!

Awesome workshop as well, one of the best I've ever seen in fact! Although I don't think that belonged to him did it? The guy Leicster who helped him out owns it as far as I know...

 

[OPJ]

There's a site for Cutting Edge Woodworker here. I wasn't too keen on a couple of his designs either but, he was a brilliant presenter.

 

[Dave S]

i think ha has a lot of woodworking skill ,ie his boat building
but i think the tv bosses got him to do a woodwork for dummies program

I don't know - I would expect an accomplished boat builder to be able to turn out some reasonably tight-fitting joints! :?
His foray from boats to furniture was far less convincing than JK's, that's for sure!