By Roy Underhill

Review by Mark Gezella – August 2003

I've finally gone multi-media! This month's review is a slight departure from past subject material. Since we just received some new videos in the library, I thought I would take this opportunity to review them.

Three videos were entered into the Guild library in July, which are all copies of past "Woodwright's Shop" episodes. All are presented by Roy Underhill, who you may be familiar with. Roy has been hosting the show since it's inception in 1979. It has aired nationally since 1981 thanks to the University of North

Carolina's Center for Public TV. Roy is also actively involved with continued restoration/re-enactments in Colonial Williamsburg as a Master Housewright.

The first video I viewed is entitled "Two Old Tool Pioneers", and gives us a quick introduction to two respected historians; Eric Sloane and Henry Mercer. The presentations take place on site at the Sloane-Stanley Museum in Kent, Connecticut and the Mercer Museum in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.

Eric Sloane was a gifted illustrator, historian and painter. He sold much of his work and was thought to be the best cloud painter of his day (his clientele consisted of some familiar names, such as Amelia Erhardt). Fascinated by Americana, Mr. Sloane wrote over 35 books, and is most famous for a book entitled "Diary of an American Boy". He believed tools gave the most accurate account of how man lived in the past, which is why he created the museum. He accomplished this with an assemblage of tools he collected over the course of his life.

Henry Mercer was an architect, designer and builder. He visualized, designed and built the five-story museum that bears his name. It contains the largest group of tools of any museum in the world. His intent was to have the museum evolve over time, and curators continue to modify and reshape the collection to

honor his wishes. Mr. Mercer is most famous for his book entitled "Mechaniks Exercises" which is considered to be an authoritative source on tool usage.

There is much more to these two men and their museums than is described here, but I think the tape delivers just enough material to whet an appetite for more about these two gentlemen and the legacy they left behind.

The second video I viewed is entitled "Lyle Wheeler – Chairmaker". There's an interesting spin to this video - literally! Though introduced as a chairmaker, Mr. Wheeler also makes spinning wheels. After a quick introduction, Roy yields the floor to Mr. Wheeler who runs through a fairly descriptive lesson in how

chairs and spinning wheels are made.

The tape begins with a few quick sentences about basic chair construction, using several variations of chairs he makes. It then shows how wood is used as a medium for crafting them. Mr. Wheeler delivers a very good explanation of how billets are cut, sectioned and rived to yield the pieces needed for chair legs,

splats and cross-members. He methodically runs through his process of taking a rough section of stock, shaving it to an octagonal stick, and then "turning" it round with a concave sole spokeshave. Ends are then treated with a series of tendon cutters fitted to a hand brace. Once the basic process is explained, they

step over to a grouping of parts already fashioned to assemble a complete spinning wheel, of the "great wheel" variety. The tape ends somewhat abruptly, but I feel it does an adequate job of presenting a good deal of subject matter in a one-half hour segment.

The third and final video I viewed is entitled "Wheeled Toys in Wood". Roy begins to tell of the local weather, regaling us about how it's rained so heavily it's "...only fit for ducks...!". Which is an appropriate seguing to what he presents in the episode; a group of pull toys shaped as ducks! One is a straight-line pull that has floppy web feet made of leather, the other is from an eccentric wheel variety that causes it to wobble and shake its head from side to side as it's pulled. The latter is quite amusing, accomplished by a pair of cylindrical wheels cut with an angle offset to 90 degrees, mated through the body with a shaft at 90 degrees to the cut. He claims kids and grown-ups alike can have fun assembling and playing with these creations, and judging from his antics I'd guess he's right!

Roy Underhill has a knack for delivering "old timely" information in an authoritative, yet amusing fashion. He comes off a little high-spirited at times; filming is usually done real-time and by the end of some shows he has worked up a pretty good sweat and possibly a cut or a scrape as well! However, I think he made it through all of these shows unscathed. But don't let the "rough around the edges" fool you - he is well educated and holds a master's degree from Duke University.

If you find old tools and their use of interest, I think you may enjoy viewing one or more of these videos. I really liked the chair maker’s presentation on spinning wheels. I haven't seen too much available on that topic, so I thought it was especially interesting.

These tapes are available for checkout in the Guild library.