Which wood working magazine?

[David Song]

Which wood working related do you subscribe to and why? favorite/recommendations?

Thanks!

[Judy Kingery]

Hi David,

I like two magazines quite a bit: American Woodturner and then Woodturning Design. I like each of them for articles, pictures, comprehensive information. AAW also has a membership directory that's kind of fun, but the dues are worth the magazine alone. I am generally not interested in other wood working magazines because I mostly just do wood turning.

Best to you,

Jude

[John Keeton]

David, check these threads -
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=50737&highlight=magazines&page=4

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=58820

[Rich Engelhardt]

Hello,
I pick up Shop Notes @ Lowes from time to time. I'm in the process of putting together my shop & Shop Notes is geared towards that.

- shameless plug follows -
I "subscribe" to SMC (It's only $6.00 a year to become a contributor here)
Thought I'd toss that in.
Best bang for the buck going. The "reviews" here on tools are first rate & based on user input - not advertising dollars.
Q.& A./letters to the editor are in real time and all of them are published.

[Tom Cross]

Fine Woodworking and Popular Woodworking - a few good articles in each issue, mid to advanced level

Woodworking Magazine - advanced level articles, I learn something new in every issue, Chris Schwarz blog on their web site is fabulous, my current favorite and highly recommend it

I subscribed for many years to Woodsmith and Shopsmith but no longer subscribe as they seem to aim at low level skills and am well beyond that now. These two helped me learn basic skills.

[John Eaton]

I've taken Shopnotes and Woodsmith for several years and still enjoy them. I think they rehash procedures from time to time but they ususually put a different "spin" on them when they do. As stated it's geared towards the less experienced, as are most of the magazines. I also still read Wood and Fine Woodworking and subscribe to all 4. As with any magazine, you end up glancing through the articles that don't seem interesting (usually because it's something you think you already know or something you've tried and figured out). I like having the hard copy as a distraction, especially for late night readin - there are times when you see something and it's not relevant to you right now - but later you're trying to figure something out and remember an old article which you've got as a reference so it becomes more relevant. With everything going digital I most often reference the indexes to the pdf libraries going around (at least for Shopnotes - most of those are available). I still enjoy looking through the first four or five years of FWW in paper form - for the nostalia mostly.

-- John

[Brent Leonard]

I don't subscribe to any, but read all of em (that intrest me)

I will buy single issues based on the articles that month. Of all the mags, Fine Woodworking is the best IMO.

The mags like Shopnotes, can have interesting ideas, but I generally just thumb through it at the local grocery store, commit the "ideas" to memory, but not buy the mag.

I know the morality/judgement police will chastise me for such dishonesty (looking and not buying)....... :eek::eek::eek:

[Jack Dickey]

Used to scribe to American Woodworker and Popular Woodworking , now i jus pick one up ever so often ..

Adam Cherubini's Neander stuff is fascinating reading in PW

[Russ Sears]

I'm with Rich. This site is the best handful of pennies I've ever dropped.

[Brian Kerley]

I've got Fine Woodworking and Popular Woodworking subscriptions right now. I've got both until the end of the year. I'm thinking about adding Woodworking magazine, and dropping FWW. Something about it, that I just don't feel that I read through it quite like I do the PWW articles.

[Larry Fox]

I am with Russ and Rich. I spend some $$ here to help keep the lights on (so to speak) and am an on-again-off-again subscriber to FWW online so I can look at articles. I personally detest being constantly marketed to so, in general, I tend to steer clear of the mags.

[Jim Eller]

Fine WoodWorking - On-Line

It gives me the magazine when published, plus access to all of the previous projects, articles, videos, weekly e-letter and etc. I refer to it all the time.

For what I do, I also subscribe to Wood and find it interesting reading.

Jim

[David G Baker]

David S
I do not subscribe to any woodworking mags at this time but frequently go to the "Classified" forum and look at what magazines fellow Creekers want to pass on. Think Green! :D

[Jim Becker]

Fine Woodworking, Woodwork and Woodworking (as well as American Woodturner that comes with my AAW membership) are the only woodworking magazines I subscribe to anymore.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

This has been discussed numerous times recently, but its still fun. Fine Woodworking is it for me, but each issue is seeming to offer less and less. The reader tips are apparently being chosen by a non woodworker now, the articals are getting less in depth, and the focus is slipping to more of a beginner level.

I think I know why, beginners buy a lot of stuff, some of which, more experianced people would not. Because FWW, and all other mags like this, are a business needing the revenue of advertising dollars, the advertisers are more likely to spend their budget on mags that cater to their potential customers. I'll just have to accept it I guess, that as our skills mature, and we get closer to a fully stocked shop, we are a less appealing demographic.

I wish one of these mags would realize that to graduate to this less appealing demographic, a bunch of us have built the means, and desire to pay more for subscriptions, if they where to offer better content. This is why I am a contributing member here. There is a lot of review, but you can also pick the subject matter.

For example, anyone ever seen a good article on veneering in any of these mags? Not the one where "you can hammer veneer for cheap" that is vague at best, but a real in depth look at what is out there now? Maybe even some photos like that eye candy that Bill Wyko just posted? It happens here. Same with a gazillion other subjects as well.

IMHO, the internet is showing the weakness of print, in all areas, and I doubt that magazines as they are today, will survive.

[Brent Leonard]

IMHO, the internet is showing the weakness of print, in all areas, and I doubt that magazines as they are today, will survive.

I hope that doesn't happen. I enjoy my newspapers and magazines.

I heard an interesting quip the other day......
imagine if the "newspaper" was just now invented and up until now all your news came from internet, people would be saying what a great idea a "newspaper" was..... cheap, disposable, need no batteries or electricity, can be carried in a briefcase, no need for an internet connection, can be bought and read anywhere, etc...
People would think it's GREAT!

I thought it was ironic and quite true.

[Judy Kingery]

I'm with you, Brent - while I truly enjoy and appreciate the connections on the net, research capabilities of various search engines, not to mention the such as the Creek forums; the tactile is important to me when I read a book or magazine. I want to take it out on the deck and read it, or smash it face down open beside the bed to resume where I left off. So in tandem with technology we enjoy, also live on hard copy! Jude

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Brent, Judy, I agree that it is nice to see actual paper sometimes, but the built in limitations to publishing something on paper, costs, time, inflexibility, postage, are all addressed by publishing to the internet. If it is really nothing more then nostalgia that gives paper value, be ready to pay big bucks to enjoy that vice!

I'm 35, and I get everything that a paper would give me, on my Blackberry or my PC. I also get the option to choose what I want to see. I am most certainly not obligated to flip past the fifteenth story on how to tune a plane that I have seen in the last year and a half. Gives me more time to find what I want, then use it quicker. My age seems to be about the boundry for easy acceptance of technology IMHO, but there are exceptions both ways. Like it or not, the times, they are changing!

[Dwain Lambrigger]

I agree with a few here. I will subscribe to SMC, Woodnet, Lumberjocks et al. I still enjoy purchasing shop notes and FWW when they have articles that really interest me. I find that it is almost impossible to get my specific question answered in a magazine, but I have lots of dedicated and professional woodworkers here that will absolutely help out.

Just my two cents.

[Brent Leonard]

Brent, Judy, I agree that it is nice to see actual paper sometimes, but the built in limitations to publishing something on paper, costs, time, inflexibility, postage, are all addressed by publishing to the internet. If it is really nothing more then nostalgia that gives paper value, be ready to pay big bucks to enjoy that vice!

I'm 35, and I get everything that a paper would give me, on my Blackberry or my PC. I also get the option to choose what I want to see. I am most certainly not obligated to flip past the fifteenth story on how to tune a plane that I have seen in the last year and a half. Gives me more time to find what I want, then use it quicker. My age seems to be about the boundry for easy acceptance of technology IMHO, but there are exceptions both ways. Like it or not, the times, they are changing!

Your correct, interactive media is and will continue to surpass printed copy.
I travel alot for my job and do alot of reading while travelling. I don't enjoy reading from my blackberry (way too small) or even from my laptop. I have even tried the electronic handheld book readers that amazon sells. Still don't like it. On the other side of the coin, I don't like hardback books either (unless it's a refrence book such as a woodworking book), just paper back for me.

Not to mention the enjoyment I get while out of town, having a nice resturant breakfast, alone with coffee and whatever local newspaper or USA Today. I will never enjoy that with my laptop.

The day may come where it costs me more, but I'll pay it.

[Rob Price]

I subscribe to Wood magazine and enjoy it, stuff for beginners up to more advanced stuff. I appreciate their tool reviews, they seem to do a thorough job. Someone gave me Woodworker's Journal as a gift but I didn't renew it. Mostly articles of interest (ie how machines are made in China and how wood is harvested in Africa) but less nuts and bolts. Plus their tool reviews are mostly a reading of the tool features without a true scientific comparison.

I just bought a DVD of Popular Woodworking 2008, and now I have all the articles in PDF format, I may consider an electronic subscription. This may be how I "subscribe" to Pop Wood, buying a year at a time electronically (when they're on sale!).

As to paper vs. screen, when I get the magazine, it's nice to browse through the articles and flip the pages, but for archiving it, and finding an old article, I much prefer the digital method. I can sort articles by topic, I can do a Finder search on my Mac and look for the word "resaw" for example in all the articles, and I don't have to dig through my shelves to find that one issue a few months back that had that one tip I need now. Otherwise I tear up my old issues and sort them according to topic in a filing drawer for future reference. Not nearly as handy.

I have a small laptop, and an iPhone, so I can take my articles anywhere, but sitting in the lounge chair flipping pages is more relaxing.

[Terry Brogan]

I've subscribed to most of them at one time or another. They fall out at varying levels of who they aim at. I'm with Steve that the Taunton magazines seem to be less and less, rather than more and more, over time. Their DVDs have also been a disaster. They are clearly driven by revenue. That said, their graphics are superb. The formula is tiresome. If you ever have occasion to glance through back issues of FWW and any other magazine, such as WWJ or WoodSmith, from their beginnings, it's striking how much more experimentation and innovation there was, then, over now, even though the general level of capability--tools and skills--is now five or ten times what it was then. Truly creative woodworking doesn't appear in FWW. By contrast, I still subscribe to WoodSmith, which is kind of the opposite end of the spectrum, I admit. They give the most detailed drawings in print. But, all in all, Adam Cherubini's columns are the best in print, right now. One month he had a learned, detailed, and kind of scholarly discussion of five ways to do a thing, then said "I used a hatchet"--and it worked. Moral: you can build a Federal piece with no power tools at all--it just takes longer. Lang's editorship is inspiring. PWW is good on a variety of levels. The recently revivied Woodwork has the most creative work on display--and every single issue has a PERSON on the cover. Not an object, but the maker. If I was banished to a desert island and had to take only one? Damn. Woodwork, I think. No plans at all and pathetic graphics, but inspiring pictures and storeis. That's enough to build from, some nights.

[Aaron Berk]

I love the ZERO add technology. But I also go to Barns and Nobel for coffee and a good read. I'll pick up every publication on the magazine rack that has anything to do with wood and read em all. But as for subscriptions, only ShopNotes & Woodsmith work for me.
I've even opened up a yahoo group SPECIFICALLY for discussions about ShopNotes mag. and projects. Do a search on yahoo groups for ShopNotes and you'll find us. We can't hold a candle to the quality found here on SMC but we do have a decent group.