TV Show featuring furniture building on Easter Monday

[Graham Orm]

Monty Don's series on 'Real Crafts' this week is about three amateur furniture makers competing to win a commission from a furniture company.

9pm on More 4. That's channel 147 on Virgin....not sure about other carriers. It's on for an hour, looks promising.

Thanks to Workshop Heaven for the tip off. They supplied the tools.

 

[AndyT]

If the first one of the series is anything to go by, don't get your hopes up!

https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/monty-dons-real-craft-9-pm-t79377.html

 

[Graham Orm]

If the first one of the series is anything to go by, don't get your hopes up!

https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/monty-dons-real-craft-9-pm-t79377.html

Hadn't seen the other thread Andy. I skimmed through the blacksmith show over 20 minutes, quite enjoyed it.

 

[Mike.S]

I also enjoyed the Blacksmith show - and am grateful for the original tip, as I would have missed it otherwise (Tivo now set).

 

[Graham Orm]

Hope there's a pretty contestant in the woody show eh Mike? ;-)

 

[Mike.S]

Don't know what you mean :shock: :wink: - perhaps a nice looking chisel if I'm lucky.

 

[Shultzy]

I was disgusted at the wood show. It was disrespectful to the many amazing amateurs which grace our forum with their remarkable skills as shown in the many projects here. The three contestants were not woodworkers as they demonstrated with their box making skills. As they all didn't know how to use the powered machinery properly you would have thought their hand skills would have been good. In the box making task (8hrs time limit) the "token" female chopped all the pieces to length before she had sized them. Surely even 1st year students know you have to "keep it as long as you can, for as long as you can". The youngest only finished one corner, although he managed to plane the lid, before dropping out; I suspect he realised he was out of his depth. The older of three, who had ideas above his skill level, managed part of the box but his dovetails were awful.

The two remaining contestants made tables for the judges. The end results could have been bettered by any 5th form woodwork student. The trainer didn't really help, fancy allowing someone to steam bend table legs when they have never done it before, especially for a competition entry. These people wanted to make a career of woodwork and didn't appear to have worked at it for very long.

I'm sure this is one of those programmes made for the accidents / incidents / comedy, rather than the genuine skill component.

 

[Mike.S]

I was disappointed by the wood show (especially compared to the Blacksmiths) - I suspect they picked three low skill level 'wood workers' to be even handed in the competition. As Schultzy says, there's better skills evidenced on this forum by non-professionals.

On the positive side the hand tools were beautiful :wink:

 

[tekno.mage]

I too was very disappointed with the woodworking show - at least the three amateur blacksmiths in the previous show all had a modicum of skill at what they did and they all completed the final challenge with potentially saleable, well made, and good looking benches. The woodworkers they picked made amateur woodworking in general look really bad - especially as neither of the finished challenge peices were actually saleable or even all that functional :-(

I don't think I'll bother to watch any of the rest of the series - although I did enjoy most of the blacksmithing one - but that might just be because I have a close friend who is a blacksmith and was comparing the contestant's methods to hers

 

[KevM]

- at least the three amateur blacksmiths in the previous show all had a modicum of skill at what they did and they all completed the final challenge with potentially saleable, well made, and good looking benches.

At the risk of sounding argumentative, which I'm not trying to be, but did they? I suspect there may be some element of it being easy to critique that which we know about, and equally easy to be dazzled by the mysterious dark arts of which we know little. Is there a community of heavy-browed anvil-jockeys out there grunting disapprovingly around their forges?

 

[tekno.mage]

As I said, I have a close friend who is a blacksmith - so I do know a little about the trade. I suspect, however, that the "mentor" in the case of the blacksmiths may have been giving more sensible advice to the contestants than the woodworking mentor was.

 

[KevM]

As I said, I have a close friend who is a blacksmith - so I do know a little about the trade. I suspect, however, that the "mentor" in the case of the blacksmiths may have been giving more sensible advice to the contestants than the woodworking mentor was.

Ah, missed the bit about your blacksmith friend - it's all sparks to me. I agree that it did seem that the two woodworking contestants were left a bit more to their own devices than in the blacksmithing show; but I suspect a great deal was left on the cutting room floor in the interests of 'better' TV.

 

[-Matt-]

- at least the three amateur blacksmiths in the previous show all had a modicum of skill at what they did and they all completed the final challenge with potentially saleable, well made, and good looking benches.

At the risk of sounding argumentative, which I'm not trying to be, but did they? I suspect there may be some element of it being easy to critique that which we know about, and equally easy to be dazzled by the mysterious dark arts of which we know little. Is there a community of heavy-browed anvil-jockeys out there grunting disapprovingly around their forges?

Put simply from what I've seen. Yes.
It was all very rushed seemingly. They showed... not a lot. And lost time at the beginning of each section telling us what happened before the break. We saw. Get on with the show. Or not since it was terrible.