Before Tommy MacDonald hosted his public television show “Rough Cut – Woodworking with Tommy Mac,” he had an alter ego.
Before Tommy MacDonald hosted his public television show “Rough Cut – Woodworking with Tommy Mac,” he had an alter ego. He was T-Chisel, who made videos of himself as he built a copy of an antique secretary desk.
On Saturday’s third episode of Season 4, viewers will see the photogenic, matter-of-fact MacDonald showing Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis – and a national television audience – how to make a white oak memory box, with walnut dovetail and an inlay of the blue and yellow Boston Strong ribbon. In the show, MacDonald placed in the box a photo of his late mother, Mildred, who raised nine children, and his late sister, whose slaying remains unsolved.
Now working on the show’s fifth season, MacDonald still marvels at his unlikely television popularity, where he is watched weekly by 750,000 people. The show received Emmy nominations for both Outstanding Lifestyle Program and Outstanding Directing in a Lifestyle Program.
He had what he called “problems” as a teen, dropping out of Blue Hills Regional Technical School. After training as a carpenter’s apprentice and earning a journeyman’s certificate and supervisor’s license, he worked on the Big Dig. When a shoulder injury ended his days of heavy construction, he enrolled at North Bennet Street School, the acclaimed trade school in the North End.
In fact, he made such fine furniture that he impressed Bob Vila, who included his works on his show “Home Again with Bob,” and later asked him to create content for his website. MacDonald – who previously didn’t own a video camera or a computer – filmed himself over the 14 months in 2006 and 2007 as he built the antique secretary.
MacDonald got his big break when fellow students who had ties to WGBH arranged a meeting for him with Laurie Donnelly, executive producer for WGBH Lifestyle Productions. In 2010, he signed a three-year contract, which last year received a two-year extension.
And that’s what the show does. In the 13 episodes this season, MacDonald makes a bird house and visits with Norman Smith, director of the Norman Smith Environmental Education Center in the Blue Hills. He goes to the Axis Bat Factory in Fall River and makes a bed frame with baseball bat posts. And he visits marquetry expert Silas Kopf in Easthampton and makes a cookbook-size bookstand.
One of the challenges of the show is to explain an entire project in under 30 minutes.
He also offers some advice along the way, as he does when making the memory box.
“I have to tell you it’s a little frustrating (to make it square), so just take your time and make sure you get it as dead on as possible,” he said in the program.
When MacDonald is not working on “Rough Cut,” he is renovating the home he shares with his wife and appearing around the country at woodworking shows.
ROUGH CUT – Woodworking with Tommy Mac, 4:30 p.m. Saturday, WGBH Channel 2. www.wgbh.org.