Good TV show!

[tracy]

I haven't watched it yet, still downloading, but this series on country crafts looks really interesting!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00qsc3j/Mastercrafts_Green_Wood_Craft/

[jillybean]

saw it last night Tracy. As always its the formulaic BBC will she or wont she scenario followed by some competition, but Monty Don is a good presenter, and the bodging course looked really quite challenging and informative. Monty did another about a farm , farm rescue I think its called, and that was less believable.

[James M]

I saw it, but I honestly can't share Monty Dons belief that making a chair is a challenging personal journey through adversity on the route to enlightenment. It's just a chair.

Thew thatching one next week looks good, as long as it's about thatching and not about personal journeys.

[Keith Williams]

Monty Don also has an artilcle in the Mail todat (Saturday p16) Basis is that there's increasing interest in the traditional crafts, which I think is right. Far more 'right' feeling that a 9-5 office job.

[DaveTaz]

Most of the british viewing piblic is only interested in other people's "journeys" and that's why the BBC put those programmes out, same as strictly come dancing and the like - pure voyeurism. If it was genuinely about the crafts it would have been a lot more informative - but hardly any one would have watched it then!

[RichardKing]

I tend to agree with the previous comment. If they were genuinely interested in showing people how to actually do green woodwork in should have been done in a much more systematic manner. Jerky editing caused it to be all over the place.

I fail to understand why we needed Monty Don there at all.

Since he trained as a jeweler he obviously has some idea of "craftmanship". But exactly how he ended up as a gardening presenter I have simply no idea. He was then heavly slagged off by the real gardeners as quote "he could not garden", sadly suffered a stroke, but has now re-emerged as yet another reborn celebrity. They should have let the bodger himself present it.

We have recently had a flush of other TV "celebs" presenting subjects that they clearly have not the foggiest idea about. Alan Titchmarsh (a "real" gardener ) on buildings and David Dimbleby on some art history. Somebody should have told Dimboby that the "thing" on the top of the column is in fact a "capital", but then of course he is only a news & current affairs presenter.

[tracy]

Well! You grumpy lot ;-) I really enjoyed it. Normally I get very annoyed with the hype in a documentary, but I thought this one was great.

Mike and I did a 2 day bodging course at the Greenwood centre. It was brilliant and really hard work for people not used to it. By the end of day 2 my fingers were covered in plasters and really stiff! I think these 3 did very well.

It was shame they didn't give Sarah a decent mallet. She was using one that was clearly too big and fat for her to use and then made fun of... it was the wrong tool for her. I must admit, I felt her pain when she was struggling and thought she did very well to carry on. Sorry James, I find making stuff a very challenging personal journey as I try to do something that I find difficult and my attitudes and moods swing around madly as I learn. That could just be me and Sarah though...

I thought it was a shame that Monty didn't have a go and realise that it is not as easy as the bodgers make it look!

So, all in all, I thought it was a great little show and makes me want to get our pole lathe working. Now have to make a shave horse!

[John H]

I too thought it was very good. It was never going to be a program on how to make a chair. One wonders how much it was edited to try to make a good story. The girl's mallet was obviously too heavy for her, yet the bodger was an excellent teacher and I am sure would have made sure she had the right size tools.

He was obviously well set up to run courses. I think the girl was probably alot better than she was made to appear, she looked like she new how to turn in the shot at the start of the film when she was on an electric lathe.

I was surprised that they didn't use digital calipers if they were tryng to work to 0.2 mm.

I really liked the shelters with the fire in the middle and the way they had stacked logs to form walls.

I don't know about a personal journey but I do know how satisfying making a good chair must be,not that I have made one.

Anyone got a good link for plans for making a shave horse?

I am really looking forward to next weeks program on thatching.

John

[rogerspianocat]

I enjoyed it too - of course they got a celeb in to do it, but it wouldn't have been on at all if they hadn't. I will be learning green woodworking over the next year or many, as well as other woodlandy crafts, and I found detailed plans for a shave horse at http://www.greenwoodworking.com/ShavingHorsePlans which I think I'll go for. I also need a pole lathe, which I think there are plans for there too.

Happy shaving!

[Twybill]

I enjoyed the programme and all the hand tools but was amazed when the trees were felled with a chainsaw. A lost opportunity to show how to fell a tree correctly, showing the beak, the hinge, directional felling etc. Why wasn't a bow saw used; the tree was only small diameter.

I can understand when a commercial organisation uses a chainsaw but for most small woodland owners a tree can be felled with handtools more safely and, might I suggest, with more satisfaction and without the horrendous noise.