The Woodwright's Shop | |
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![]() Title screen for The Woodwright's Shop | |
Genre | How-to woodworking |
Created by | Roy Underhill |
Written by | Roy Underhill |
Directed by | Gary Hawkins Geary Morton |
Presented by | Roy Underhill |
Theme music composer | Rod Abernethy |
Opening theme | "Kildare's Fancy" |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 38 |
No. of episodes | 481 (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Executive producers | Galen Black Caroline Francis Shannon Vickery |
Producers | Geary Morton Roy Underhill |
Production locations | Eno River State Park, NC UNC-TV studios, Research Triangle Park, NC |
Editor | Peter Olafson |
Running time | 27 minutes |
Production company | UNC-TV |
Release | |
Original network | UNC-TV, PBS |
Original release | 1979 – 2017 |
The Woodwright's Shop is an American traditional woodworking show hosted by master carpenter Roy Underhill and airing on television network PBS. It is one of the longest running how-to shows on PBS, with thirty-five 13-episode seasons produced. Since its debut in 1979, the show has aired over 400 episodes. The first two seasons were broadcast only on public TV in North Carolina; the season numbering was restarted when the show went national in 1981. It is filmed at the UNC-TV (University of North Carolina Center for Public Television) studios in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.
The Woodwright's Shop teaches the art of traditional woodworking, using hand tools and human-powered machines. Viewers learn how to make furniture, toys, and other useful objects out of wood. Viewers also learn how to lay out wood projects and which tools to use for specific purposes. The show also teaches viewers how to use tools properly.
The host, Roy Underhill, instructs viewers on creating wooden joints using hand tools and machine tools.
Underhill often shows the viewers how to create several useful and strong wooden joints, which are commonly used in carpentry. [1]
Timber framing techniques are often used in conjunction with the wood joints described on the show.
Hand tools are a major focus of the show. All of the hand tools used on the show are manually operated (i.e. non-electric).
Proper handling and maintenance of tools is also part of the show. This includes the sharpening and sometimes making of tools, such as a scraper made from an old saw blade.
The most commonly used machine tool on the show is the lathe. Underhill typically uses a treadle lathe, but has also shown the viewers how to build and operate a spring pole lathe. He also often uses a gouge, in conjunction with his lathe, to remove material and smooth out a workpiece.
One of the simplest types of machines used on the show is a miter box. This is used to create square and perpendicular saw cuts, or to create saw cuts at a specific angle.
The show started as an idea that Roy Underhill had in 1976. [2] He built a workshop and historic museum in Durham, North Carolina, in the mid-1970s. He called it "The Woodwright's Shop" and started teaching classes on how to build things out of wood. [3]
Underhill pitched the show idea to the PBS affiliate in Chapel Hill in 1978 but was rejected. He tried again in 1979 and filmed a pilot. [3] Only in the fall of 1979 was the show accepted. 1979 was the same year that This Old House started airing on PBS. [3] Underhill admits that he made up the term "woodwright" and that it is not an actual term. [4] Initially, he was concerned about using the made-up term in the show's title, but decided to use it anyway. [4]
The show has a tight filming schedule. [5] The show does not have a real script; instead, Underhill works out the story he is going to present and how to do it. He decides where camera shots are needed and sets workpieces and tools in those locations. [5] The filming of different shots is limited to three takes because of the limit of workpieces used on the show[ clarification needed ]. [5]
In recent years, the show is filmed in one take with no editing and as a result, the host is often out of breath by the end of the 24 minute program. [3]
The show also does not hide the nicks and cuts that come from woodworking with hand tools. The first such incident occurred in the third episode of the series, "Dumbheads in Action". [6] A dumbhead is a clamping fixture on a foot-operated shaving horse used to hold unseasoned ("green") wood.
On one occasion, Roy seriously injured his hand with a hatchet. [5] The scene was kept in the show because it was the last take of this particular scene. Underhill reviewed the take and felt that it gave the show some realism. [7]
Roy Underhill is the host and creator of The Woodwright's Shop. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a B.F.A. in theater direction. [3] [8] Roy went to Duke University for environmental studies in the mid-1970s. For his thesis, he did a live presentation titled "How to start with a tree and an axe and build your house and everything in it." [3] Somebody told him "You ought to do that on TV", when he was finished with his presentation. [3]
He went on to work at Colonial Williamsburg as a carpenter, building houses the way they were built in the 18th century. [3] During this same time, he also started producing The Woodwright's Shop television show for PBS. [5] For 10 years, Underhill was a master housewright for Colonial Williamsburg. [8] He helped with program development for another five years before he left over a disagreement about the authenticity of slave quarters on the project. [3]
Roy has written several books on woodworking, most of which have been published by the University of North Carolina Press. Some of the books include, The Woodwright's Shop: A Practical Guide to Traditional Woodcraft ( ISBN 0-8078-4082-3) and The Woodwright's Guide: Working Wood with Wedge and Edge ( ISBN 0-8078-5914-1).
Roy lent his woodworking expertise to the 2005 movie The New World about the founding of the settlement in Jamestown, Virginia, in the 17th century. He also taught actor Colin Farrell about woodworking for the film and acted as an extra in the movie. [3]
Roy has had a wide range of woodworking professionals as guests on his show from many different fields of woodworking, Frank Klausz, Christopher Schwarz, Nora Hall, Steve Latta, David Calvo, Michael Dunbar, Dan Mack, Don Weber, Wayne Barton and Curtis Buchanan as well as many lesser-known specialists in the fields of tinsmithing, spoon carving, cooperage (barrels, buckets, canteens), lutherie (stringed instruments), whirligigs, archery, puppetry, basket making, spinning wheels and blacksmithing. Guests have also included famous people with a woodworking hobby, such as Governor Mike Easley. [9] Roy's wife and children have appeared on various episodes over the show's thirty-plus-year span of production.
Each season of The Woodwright's Shop consists of 13 episodes broadcast during the last 13 weeks of the year, typically starting at the beginning of October.
The show was first released on VHS tapes in 1993. [10] In April 2012, Popular Woodworking announced an exclusive deal to bring the show to DVD, beginning with the first three seasons and Season 20. [11] The current season of the show can be watched online at the PBS video website. [12] Also, the last few seasons of the show can be watched online at the official website. [13]
Woodworking is the skill of making items from wood, and includes cabinet making, wood carving, joinery, carpentry, and woodturning.
A chisel is a tool with a characteristically shaped cutting edge of blade on its end, for carving or cutting a hard material such as wood, stone, or metal by hand, struck with a mallet, or mechanical power. The handle and blade of some types of chisel are made of metal or of wood with a sharp edge in it.
A lathe is a machine tool that rotates a workpiece about an axis of rotation to perform various operations such as cutting, sanding, knurling, drilling, deformation, facing, and turning, with tools that are applied to the workpiece to create an object with symmetry about that axis.
Metalworking is the process of shaping and reshaping metals to create useful objects, parts, assemblies, and large scale structures. As a term it covers a wide and diverse range of processes, skills, and tools for producing objects on every scale: from huge ships, buildings, and bridges down to precise engine parts and delicate jewelry.
Machining is a process in which a material is cut to a desired final shape and size by a controlled material-removal process. The processes that have this common theme are collectively called subtractive manufacturing, which utilizes machine tools, in contrast to additive manufacturing, which uses controlled addition of material.
A smoothing plane or smooth plane is a type of bench plane used in woodworking. The smoothing plane is typically the last plane used on a wood surface, removing very fine shavings to leave a smooth finish. When used effectively it quickly produces a finish that equals or surpasses that made by sandpaper.
A try square or try-square is a woodworking tool used for marking and checking 90° angles on pieces of wood. Though woodworkers use many different types of square, the try square is considered one of the essential tools for woodworking.
Woodturning is the craft of using a wood lathe with hand-held tools to cut a shape that is symmetrical around the axis of rotation. Like the potter's wheel, the wood lathe is a mechanism that can generate a variety of forms. The operator is known as a turner, and the skills needed to use the tools were traditionally known as turnery. In pre-industrial England, these skills were sufficiently difficult to be known as 'the mysteries of the turners guild. The skills to use the tools by hand, without a fixed point of contact with the wood, distinguish woodturning and the wood lathe from the machinist's lathe, or metal-working lathe.
A drawknife is a traditional woodworking hand tool used to shape wood by removing shavings. It consists of a blade with a handle at each end. The blade is much longer than it is deep. It is pulled or "drawn" toward the user.
The phrase speeds and feeds or feeds and speeds refers to two separate velocities in machine tool practice, cutting speed and feed rate. They are often considered as a pair because of their combined effect on the cutting process. Each, however, can also be considered and analyzed in its own right.
Turning is a machining process in which a cutting tool, typically a non-rotary tool bit, describes a helix toolpath by moving more or less linearly while the workpiece rotates.
Roy Underhill is an American woodworker and television show host. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., he was the first master housewright at the Colonial Williamsburg reconstruction. Since 1979, he has been the host of the PBS series The Woodwright's Shop. Along with This Old House, which debuted the same year, it is the longest running PBS "how-to" show.
A lathe center, often shortened to center, is a tool that has been ground to a point to accurately position a workpiece on an axis. They usually have an included angle of 60°, but in heavy machining situations an angle of 75° is used.
A mitre box or miter box is a wood working appliance used to guide a hand saw for making precise cuts, usually 45° mitre cuts. Traditional mitre boxes are simple in construction and made of wood, while adjustable mitre boxes are made of metal and can be adjusted for cutting any angle from 45° to 90°.
Although an antique tool might be said to be one that is more than a hundred years old, the term is often used to describe any old tool of quality that might be deemed collectable.
Sloyd, also known as educational sloyd, is a system of handicraft-based education started by Uno Cygnaeus in Finland in 1865. The system was further refined and promoted worldwide, and was taught in the United States until the early 20th century. It is still taught as a compulsory subject in Finnish, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian schools.
A fence is a part of many woodworking tools, they are typically used to guide or secure a workpiece while it is being sawn, planed, routed or marked. Fences play an important role for both accuracy and safety. Fences are usually straight and vertical, and made from metal, wood or plastic.
In metalworking and woodworking, an automatic lathe is a lathe with an automatically controlled cutting process. Automatic lathes were first developed in the 1870s and were mechanically controlled. From the advent of NC and CNC in the 1950s, the term automatic lathe has generally been used for only mechanically controlled lathes, although some manufacturers market Swiss-type CNC lathes as 'automatic'.
A square is a tool used for marking and referencing a 90° angle, though mitre squares are used for 45° angles. Squares see common use in woodworking, metalworking, construction and technical drawing. Some squares incorporate a scale for measuring distances or for calculating angles.
Roy looks back at 20 years of subversive woodworking, including memorable guests, travel to foreign lands, hundreds of projects, and some of the most amazing hand-tool injuries ever captured on tape.
The two-term Democrat [Mike Easley], who left office earlier this year, had made the simple walnut table on a special episode of 'The Woodwright's Shop' in 2007.[ dead link ]