On Tue, 25 Apr 2006 02:54:51 GMT, "Charley"
wrote:

What Norm has really accomplished with his shows is to get a huge number of
people interested in woodworking and furniture making who probably would
never have attempted it if they hadn't watched Norm do it. Watching him
makes people say to themselves "I could do that", and then many of them
actually have. With the large number of high schools discontinuing their
shop classes in recent years, the number of people even interested in doing
woodworking would have been falling significantly faster than it is if it
wasn't for Norm. He is a very good teacher and he shows machining and
assembly steps well enough for people to actually learn how to do it by just
watching his shows. I don't care if he's not perfect, he's a hero in my mind
for what he's done for the woodworking public and for increasing interest in
woodworking among our young generation, many of whom might not have ever
picked up a tool and built something out of wood if it wasn't for Norm. We
need him and more like him.

That's right, that's exactly what he is. He's the guy that gets
people who have never held a hammer to think they could do what he
does. But it doesn't take too long after you've got that hammer in
your hand to realize that what Norm does isn't what you should be
striving for. He's like the high school English teacher when you're
trying to be a professional novelist. He'll get you started, but it
doesn't take too long before you outgrow him and have to move on.

The thing is, the mistakes that Norm makes, he could EASILY do better.
If you're trying to show beginners how to do things, you don't show
them how to do it easy and take shortcuts, you show them how to do it
right the first time. I don't think he's really quite sure what his
audience is. He produces servicable work, sure, but what he makes is
more suited to the weekend handyman with a couple of power tools, but
how he does it seems aimed at the dedicated craftsman with a huge
budget for every power tool under the sun. And the wood he uses seems
aimed at high-end artists who cringe when he paints over antique pine.
It seems to me that he's trying to be all things to all people and
isn't doing any of it particularly well.