I never had more than a passing interest in actually doing this stuff, but I used to watch Roy Underhill’s The Woodwright’s Shop on PBS religiously in the early 80s. (Could it really be that he’s still filming episodes?) I admired him so much—his knowledge of old tools and techniques, and his expertise. He could build anything, using only what they would have used way back when. Just the thought of knowing how to turn raw materials into something useful and beautiful—without electricity, without high-tech gadgets—really appealed to me.
