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Norm Abram is Retiring

5265 Views 65 Replies 28 Participants Last post by mart, 3 mo ago

StarBright

Discussion Starter · May 20, 2022 (Edited by Moderator)

Norm Abram's retirement from This Old House was announced yesterday.

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220519005404/en/This-Old-House%C2%AE-to-Air-Tribute-Special-to-Master-Carpenter-and-Television-Trailblazer-Norm-Abram

PBS will air a tribute show to him titled The House that Norm Built. While Norm is 72 and has not appeared on camera for a while, it is sad to see him described as "hanging up his tool belt." I hope he continues woodworking in his retirement, as 72 years old is certainly not too old to do most things with wood. I hope he isn't ill, and I wonder if there's a deeper story to this.

I'm hoping to see him on a YouTube channel, but he doesn't seem to have much of an online presence.

Here's to the legend himself!

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splintergroup

· #3 · May 20, 2022

Watched him a lot as a kid with my Day.

I'll never forget all the "galoo" and the brads to hold things in place while it dried "p'that, p'that, p'that"

He made things look easy.

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splintergroup

· #7 · May 20, 2022

IMO Bob Villa is an idiot.

Last time I caught him on a show, he was "helping" build a brick wall. They left a gap in the wall for him to put in the last brick. He buttered the bottom and slapped it onto place, but forgot to butter the sides.
He stepped to the side and mentioned how easy it was to get "pro" results easily. You could see the brick layers staring at the gaps on the sides of the brick crack smiles when he made that comment.

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splintergroup

· #10 · May 20, 2022

Reminds me of one Wood Whisperer video. He had this new-to-him router table and he wanted to profile the edge of a long, thin strip.

Set the bit away from the fence so the strip was between the two, begin the cut….

Before I could scream "Nooooooo!" the strip shot across his shop.

Norms incessant safety intro (read, understand, and follow…) has always stuck in my head, but common sense isn't so common.

I would have enjoyed seeing Norm get pissed off and smashing something up 8^)

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splintergroup

· #37 · May 21, 2022

+1 on Marks.

I saw an interview where he said how much work it was to produce his show. Multiple prototypes to catch the process filming and all the time for setups, etc. Basically it took 100% of his time during the filming of all the episodes, which were done in continuous production.

Norm was easy to follow along with and I'm sure inspired a lot to try woodworking.

Marks was good for demonstrating the more advanced techniques and projects.

Norm would never show how to guild and patina a tall vase, though I'd bet he could do it.

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