David Marks... Woodworks

[SteveJ]

For sometime now I've been getting David Marks' show at 5AM daily (Pacific time) and also at 5:30 Pm on thursdays but it hasn't been on this week. Does anyone know if it's been cancelled or moved to a different time slot. I hope it's still on since I've learned a lot from watching David. Thanks............ Steve

[jnesmith]

I think DYI is phasing out Mark's show. Bummer. He is hands down the best TV woodworking personality.

[drumpriest]

I met David, and the show has been cancelled. He's not really sorry about it though, as it was stressful and a ton of work. I think DIY felt that the show was too high end for most viewers. This is a bummer because honestly, I agree with John, David's show was my favorite. I like Norm as well, but I've learned more from David's show.

BTW, as I've said here before, he's a really cool guy.

[SteveJ]

Well, I'll really miss his show because I learned a lot from it. But, I think David is in large part responsible for the show's cancellation because he started drifting away from woodworking and into things like patination and sculpting. He also did some very difficult projects which were probably beyond the interest and skill of a large portion of his viewers. This is understandable. After all, how many times can you make a bookcase? If he'd stayed on track and kept doing projects which demonstrated the basic skills he probably wouldn't have lost his viewership. I'm sure this gets harder with each project but it's possible.

In a way, it's unfair to his audience because he's enjoying a great deal of success now because of his show and it seems like as soon as he made it big he lost interest.

Steve

[RodKirby]

I've enjoyed him as well.

The only thing that turns me off is his "Mortising machine" - never see one of those in a Home Shop.

[drumpriest]

Rod, I've never seen a "time saver" in a home shop either, and I've seen plenty of wood works episodes where he does the mortising with a plunge router, rather than the multi-router. (which I agree is a bit much for a home shop).

I agree that many of his projects are not doable by many woodworkers, I've not yet ever built a project from ANY tv show. The shows serve me by giving ideas and showing techniques.

As to David losing track, I think he did fairly well with mixing easier and more difficult projects. Also some of his more difficult projects can easily be simplified. For instance the room screen with the patina panels. Make the panels without patinas, and it's a VERY doable project.

I would consider sculpting wood to be wood working, just as I consider turning wood working, just not an area of wood working that I'm ready to tackle, due to time or interest, or space/funds.

According to David, he had to shoot each show in 48 hours, and he was grateful for the exposure, but wasn't entirely unhappy about the cancellation. Also, DIY had approval over what was built, and control of the scripts. They made him wear the long sleeve shirts to hide his tatoos.

[btv]

Did you ever see the table he did with Bubinga Veneer (African Rosewood)
It looks like a ribbon or an ocean wave. It was the best piece I’ve seen.

[drumpriest]

I have that one on DVD, I have about 1/2 of the episodes on DVD now. That coffee table was amazing, the veneer was sweet.

[Alex from Sac.]

That is unfortunate they are taking him off the air. His show gave me alot of the woodworking techniques I use since I never took a class and have no one to learn from in person. Along with this site and his show the information has been invaluable. Does any one know if a dvd set is available for past shows. I tivo'd alot of shows but didn't save them permanently. I guess I just thought it would be on forever.

It is a shame since my mother and mother in-law love the round cherry and wenge mirrors I made them last christmas after watching his show for step by step instructions. His instuctions were excellent and gave a new woodworker like me some great ideas and basics for techniques that I otherwise would not have a clue existed. Hopefully they will come out with a similar program that has decent information and not just which end of the drill drives the screw like their get to know tool show.

[LarryG]

David J Marks is my favorite of all the woodworking TV hosts, and the one from whom I've learned the most, by a wide margin. It's true that a lot of his projects push the envelope a little, but that's exactly what I like about the show. He opens our eyes to aspects of woodworking and creative craftsmanship that we might not otherwise consider. I like Nahm, too, but David shows us that there's more to woodworking than reproduction moldings, M&T joinery, and polyurethane on cherry or mahogany.

(As an aside, if you'll check his web site, you'll see that most of the projects presented on WoodWorks are pretty toned-down in comparison to a lot of his work!)

[Pappy]

A lot of David's projects are beyond the skills of the average hobbyist and there a many that didn't appeal to me personnaly. Still, I don't think I ever watched an episode that I didn't see a technique or idea that couldn't be used in my shop.

On camera he always seemed a little stiff and uncomfortable. In person he was a different person.

[kwgeorge]

I started watching David Marks about in the middle of the 300 series of shows. I found him to be a great teacher of technique and inspirational for me to try things that were above my skill level. Like Don I also do not care for many of the projects that he had made but I always came away from the show learning something. It was also interesting to see how the show had grown over time when they started playing the 100 and 200 series that I had missed. As the shows went on he started giving the dimensions for everything he made so a person could potentially recreate the piece simply by watching the show which I think was a great plus. It was my understanding that the show was canceled not due to lack of viewers but rather the inability for David and DIY to come to a contractual agreement. I have recorded all but two shows I think and I will continue to watch them as I seem to learn a bit more every time I watch one of his shows.

Unfortunately David’s show has left the bar rather high and the other “Woodworking” shows on DIY are pale in comparison and have little interest to me.

[drumpriest]

BTW, Steve, wood works has 6 or 7 seasons, so it's been on for quite a while. I agree with others that the projects weren't always of interest to me, but that's mostly about artistic style, I think. I found most beautiful, but couldn't see putting them in my house.

The learning curve is what matters to me when watching a show like that, and David's show was a great teacher.

[9johnny5]

....figures...

we just got DIY about a month ago, and now this.

here's hoping lots of reruns (although they probably won't show more) until they find something to replace it with.

[Greg.B]

I really enjoyed this show. Regardless of his style, his techniques and methods were great to watch. it helped me to better understand how he did what he did. I actually liked most of the items he built but all were out of my skill range.