"TWS" wrote in message
...

I can not imagine working in a wood shop and trying to put on a TV
show at the same time. Given Roy's level of animation I am surprised
he isn't hurt more often. It is a good thing he doesn't use power
tools...

The only thing that may top that is working in front of the public. Like
Roy, I worked at Colonial Williamsburg in the Crafts Dept. One constant
concern was to make sure the public didn't get hurt... No small feat. I had
visitors try to pick up items that they just watched me take out of the
forge, red hot, and hammer into shape. I had a woman sit down on a chopping
block while I was splitting a walnut log to make short boards for a storage
box. I watched people reach into a wooden tub of corn meal, ground in a
quern, take some cornmeal and eat it. Mind you, there were so many bugs in
the tub that if you watched it the corn meal moved! I also had kids take
hand-filed wood screws off my workbench when I looked away. Another time
someone stole a hot-cut hardy that we left in the anvil when we went inside
for a break. Visitors never ceased to amaze me...

I'd been on site with Roy while the carpenters were pitsawing lumber and
other times when they were hewing beams. It was interesting to see how
willing people were to put themselves at risk... they'd walk right up to
someone using an axe or stand so that chips could hit them. It was also
interesting to see their reactions when they realized it was Roy--if they
recognized him.

When Norm was at Sturbridge Village the public was kept significantly
further away from the intepreters who were hand hewing beams than what I saw
at CW... I guess they were more risk averse.

John