Fine Woodworking magazine rant

[Michael Hendricks]

I really haven't paid all that much attention to Fine Woodworking's projects until lately when I have been wanting to build several of them (Michael Fortune's Adirondack chair and Seth Rolland's sliced ash table). I wrote to Michael Fortune asking for additional information. He quickly responded but told me to ask Fine Woodworking for the details that I was looking for. I haven't heard back from Taunton or Fine Woodworking.

So, should I know that Fine Woodworking shows projects that are generally there to showcase a builder? What should I be getting out of these projects other than than they look cool and know that I have very little chance of duplicating it. I do have a membership to their website and while good for some things does not give me any additional information on these projects.

I'd be curious about any constructive thoughts that you might have.

[Will Overton]

Other than WoodSmith and ShopNotes, I think all magazines show some projects with plans, and others just for inspiration. Very often, even if they provide plans, I don't follow them. I take the ideas I like and work them into my own overall design.

[Peter Aeschliman]

I agree with Will.

I'm sure it's frustrating that they aren't being responsive, and that's just bad customer service... All they should do is reply to and let you know that their goal is to give you inspiration and maybe tell you about a building technique or two that you could adopt.

I personally get the most enjoyment out of coming up with my own ideas. Sometimes I fail miserably, but that's how I learn. I wouldn't have nearly as much fun simply doing a "paint by number" project. And maybe that's the magazine's philosophy as well.

[glenn bradley]

+1 on the Woodsmith format although that doesn't really help you with your trouble. The articles in WS are written by the guy doing the build and often include a Shop Tips" and "Builder's Notes" sections describing the required techniques in detail and show jigs and such that help assure success. . . are you listening FWW?

[Greg Book]

I think Fine Woodworking has always been a magazine of technique and inspiration for projects. I first subscribed to it in the mid 1990s and they rarely listed dimensions for the furniture they showed. If they did list any dimensions, they were very simple and were just there to give you an idea of how you would want to design your own project.

Wood magazine does a good job with their project plans. Even going overboard in my opinion to show cut lists on dimensional lumber. For example, its rare you will go to a lumber yard and find dimensional cherry.

If you contacted the author directly and he referred you to the magazine, there may be something in the author's contract that published projects become the property of FWW. Maybe FWW is saving the projects for a book of plans or special issue?

[Van Huskey]

I for one wish they had done an in depth article on the ash table. Not only would I like to build it as is, but it is a really cool set of skills. Will probably end up havking away at it until I get it right based on the little info they supplied.

[Mark Woodmark]

I enjoy creating my own designs. I like to draw them up and then see them come to life. In this regard, I only use Fine Woodworking for basic ideas

[Matt Kestenbaum]

The OP's premise is very interesting...that woodworking magazines have some inherent promise...that they should enable us to do great work.

I spent my young adult years training as a chef. I not only had years of formal training, but also worked in lots of fine restaurants. I read everything I could get my hands on. The amazing thing is that as my skills progressed, my eye and palate more attuned, my experiences broadened...the same article communicated totally different things to me at different stages on my career. Even a published recipe never comes out the same from different cooks.

I once actually worked on FWW's sister publication FC...and (15 years ago) it was certainly their publishing philosophy to offer a range of material and information to nurture and inform a wide range of artisans.

So while you look at those projects and wonder where is the recipe. Other woodworkers are no doubt reading the same article and thinking about different methods to manage the internal tension other than gluing discs into the dados. Generally, on the more advanced the material less detail is revealed.

I have read probably a dozen posts on SMC that decry the exact opposite...that after the first 100 issues the magazine went soft and has reverted to real beginner's stuff. And in fact if you look at the first several years of FWW there are few pictures, fewer measured drawings and a lot of very, very complex topics covered by masters from the past generation...many of whom, it seams from the writing, would not suffer beginners lightly. THere is plenty of philosophical writing about the craft too. These articles gave rise to the early books, e.g. Tage Frid series.

[Stephen Cherry]

One idea would be to look at magazines and books for ideas, and then take what you like and make your own variation of the design.

Structurally, look at all of the plans for adirondock chairs, and tables that you can find. Compare the designs- how are they the same, and how are they different. If you have a good picture, you can take a good guess at the dimensions. Maybe make a prototype. Woodworking, for most of us is a hobby, so have fun with the process. (If you want an adiron. chair it would be much cheaper to buy one)

Also, one great thing about this forum is that there are many people who post who are very knowledgeable. Why not post your specific questions here- I'm guessing there will be a generous response.

[Steve Bracken]

One idea would be to look at magazines and books for ideas, and then take what you like and make your own variation of the design.

Structurally, look at all of the plans for adirondock chairs, and tables that you can find. Compare the designs- how are they the same, and how are they different. If you have a good picture, you can take a good guess at the dimensions. Maybe make a prototype. Woodworking, for most of us is a hobby, so have fun with the process. (If you want an adiron. chair it would be much cheaper to buy one)

Also, one great thing about this forum is that there are many people who post who are very knowledgeable. Why not post your specific questions here- I'm guessing there will be a generous response.

Then build Norm Abrams :D

This is one item he got very right!

[Eiji Fuller]

I have long since given up on WWing magazines to provide anything substantial. If you are a beginner than there is alot of stuff you can learn from them but once you have had a solid couple of years WWing they are fun but not worth anything more than that IMO.

[Paul Atkins]

Many years ago I kicked myself for not getting the first 5 copies of FWW. I got them religiously since till about 1990 when I saw the same stuff over and over again. I hardly look at them anymore. I still love to look at the old black and white copies once and a while. Thinking of giving the kid next door the stash for inspiration. This place is my new addiction.

[Matthew Kenney]

Michael,
I'm sorry you haven't heard back from customer service. I'm an editor at the magazine and can give you at least a partial answer. First, we do not have plans for either the Michael Fortune or the Seth Rolland pieces or a more detailed explanation of how to make them. On the Fortune piece, we do include most, if not all, of the necessary dimensions and a detailed drawing of the bending jig he used to make the arms/legs. If you have specific questions about how to bend the wood, etc. you can email me directly and I'll try to help. My email address is my first initial followed by my last name at taunton dot com.
Thanks for reading the magazine. Matt Kenney, assoc. editor, Fine Woodworking

[george wilson]

There are plans for an 18th.C. style sawhorse I made,which there are a pair of in the cabinet maker's shop in Williamsburg. Maybe there are other plans there,too,though you have to subscribe to that site to access them.

Some other person I don't know made plans of the sawhorses and published them there.

[John Mark Lane]

The OP's premise is very interesting...that woodworking magazines have some inherent promise...that they should enable us to do great work.

I spent my young adult years training as a chef. I not only had years of formal training, but also worked in lots of fine restaurants. I read everything I could get my hands on. The amazing thing is that as my skills progressed, my eye and palate more attuned, my experiences broadened...the same article communicated totally different things to me at different stages on my career. Even a published recipe never comes out the same from different cooks.

I once actually worked on FWW's sister publication FC...and (15 years ago) it was certainly their publishing philosophy to offer a range of material and information to nurture and inform a wide range of artisans.

So while you look at those projects and wonder where is the recipe. Other woodworkers are no doubt reading the same article and thinking about different methods to manage the internal tension other than gluing discs into the dados. Generally, on the more advanced the material less detail is revealed.

I have read probably a dozen posts on SMC that decry the exact opposite...that after the first 100 issues the magazine went soft and has reverted to real beginner's stuff. And in fact if you look at the first several years of FWW there are few pictures, fewer measured drawings and a lot of very, very complex topics covered by masters from the past generation...many of whom, it seams from the writing, would not suffer beginners lightly. THere is plenty of philosophical writing about the craft too. These articles gave rise to the early books, e.g. Tage Frid series.


I totally agree with the above post. I subscribed to FWW many years ago, "back in the day" when it was just black and white. It was a really cool magazine. I am presently a subscriber, and it's an ok magazine. Lots of nice pictures. But in...uh...well...over 30 years anyway of woodworking, I don't think I've ever made anything from "plans". I look at something and figure it out. I have used plans to make jigs and so forth, and some were from (early) FWW mags. Unless a magazine expressly promising something more for the cover price, I expect what I see inside the pages of the magazine, and nothing more.

[John Piwaron]

I really haven't paid all that much attention to Fine Woodworking's projects until lately when I have been wanting to build several of them

What should I be getting out of these projects other than than they look cool

I'd be curious about any constructive thoughts that you might have.


Well, at the start of my interest in making things, FWW was a magazine filled with pictures of beautiful projects I couldn't hope to make. I subscribed anyway. The things in their pages were inspiration. I wanted to build them for myself, but needed to learn.

That said, a lot of my learning came from some FWW articles, but mostly from making things in the pages of - Woodsmith! There was no Shopnotes publication at that time.

But time passes, I learned. I learned a lot simply by doing things, following the Woodsmith plans and discovering alternate ways to accomplish the goal set forth in Woodsmith. And I began to see the brilliance in FWW articles. Many or most of them are really highlighting a particular method or technique, not step by step "do this then that" roadmap to a completed Sleigh Bed or Bombe chest.

I don't want FWW to be a magazine catering solely to basics. In fact, the current issue is dangerously close to being beginner stuff from cover to cover. Seth's table is an exception. I looked at it and immediately see how to go about replicating it without much hand holding. In fact, I went to his website and see pictures of other beautiful things he's made. Some of which give me ideas for future projects.

As time passes and your skill grows, you'll see that very often, the basics of joining things together, of shaping them, are actually very similar from one style to the next. When you know how to do mortise and tenon, make dovetails 2 or 3 differnt ways, when carving a sinuous surface onto something is in your trick bag, a lot of these things won't look like the woodworking equivalent of climbing Mt. Everest.

Yeah, it can be frustrating. FWW could help with better customer service if only to point out (in possibly more diplomatic language) what I've tried to. But keep building things. Time passes, skill grows, and soon you'll be looking at photographs and see enough to make one of your own without needing specific step by step instructions.

One other source of inspiration has been a little like your FWW experience to me. The things on David Marks show "Woodworks". When he did the elliptical mirror, I knew I had to have one. But, Mr. Marks omitted a lot of things needed to make it. I didn't let that get in my way. I knew how to do some but not all of the things he did to make the mirror. I ended up learning to make a theoretically perfect ellipse with my router instead of drawing one and cutting it out by eye with a bandsaw. I'm sure David has the eye and hand coordination to do that, I preferred the sure thing of a jig to guide a router in an ellipse. I also learned that what he said to do for rounding the edges over was misleading. So I varied a little from his round over and ended up with a complete look alike albeit done slightly differently. I also learned about what happens when you're assembling a frame from what are basically 8 keystones. That the overall size of the frame can vary a little just by how they slip past each other.

Woodworking is about learning and trying things. Not necessarily slavishly adhereing to one one method of doing.

[Van Huskey]

John, I agree with most everything you say and often the joy is looking at a piece getting inspiration and working out the details to replicate a piece or incorporate a detail into one of your own pieces. However, FWW 213 (the issue in question) spends 8 pages on the mudroom cabinet which is basic carcass construction and molding and spent one page on the demilune. I understand that they have to appeal to a broad range of skill and it may be true that those with more skill actually venture away from magazines, but the demilune build has several skills that could go in most anyones warchest. I would have been fine if they had just shown the picture, then I would have either just admired it or gotten the bug that caused me to deconstruct it and work out the "puzzle". In this case they showed the picture and then just whetted my appetite with some good clues. If you are going to leave a mystery leave it all, if you are going to show some of the construction go ahead and give a brief but complete presentation of the skills, one more page with some drawings and some further explanation would have made this much more exciting to a great many people I would imagine, one less page on the mudroom storage probably wouldn't have hurt many peoples feelings.

As it is the sunburst demilune is on my list of things to try, but it will probably be later rather than sooner just because as presented I will probably have to take a couple of runs as some of the basic skills needed and I have more pressing projects. Had the build been more complete it would have jumped to the top of my list and I would have been hunting for wood this weekend.

[Will Overton]

Van,

Now you have more time to think about it. I'll bet ($1) that by the time you build it, it will be decisively yours, not theirs. That's not a bad thing.;)

[John Piwaron]

FWW 213 (the issue in question) spends 8 pages on the mudroom cabinet which is basic carcass construction and molding and spent one page on the demilune. I understand that they have to appeal to a broad range of skill, but the demilune build has several skills that could go in most anyones warchest. if you are going to show some of the construction go ahead and give a brief but complete presentation of the skills, one more page with some drawings and some further explanation would have made this much more exciting to a great many people



Not only the mudroom piece (more fitting to Fine Homebuilding) but the article about stock preparation.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with the basics. I read those, maybe there's something to learn, maybe I've been doing something wrong and that'll correct me.

For me, since issue 69, FWW has been about advanced and difficult. They should stick to that. Yeah, my advanced and difficult has gotten farther out than it used to be, but surely there's lot's of "advanced" they can find to put in the pages of FWW. Not everything has to be Jeff Greef's Bombe Vitrine, but put more from Chris Becksvoort. Maybe something from Darrel Peart.

More turning things. And even some carving! I'd love to see some stuff on making a bas relief sculpture. So I can build an entry door with that.

[Richard Dragin]

There are plenty of magazines with build along plans. I'm glad FWW doesn't dumb everything down to the average woodworker, there are lots of mags that fill that niche. It's not called "Average Wood Working" after all.

[Ted Wong]

"The articles in WS are written by the guy doing the build and often include a Shop Tips" and "Builder's Notes" sections describing the required techniques in detail and show jigs and such that help assure success. . . "

Interesting observation Glenn. Although WS may appear to be written in the format you describe nothing could be further from what you describe. Woodsmith magazine is a complete team effort with a set of designers, builders, editors, illustrators, art directors, photographers etc. Most but not all of the staff have an interest in woodworking and those that do not are familiar with the subject.

[Van Huskey]

There are plenty of magazines with build along plans. I'm glad FWW doesn't dumb everything down to the average woodworker, there are lots of mags that fill that niche. It's not called "Average Wood Working" after all.

I could see your point IF they didn't spend 8 pages on building a simple molded cabinet carcass...

[Larry Edgerton]

The OP's premise is very interesting...that woodworking magazines have some inherent promise...that they should enable us to do great work.

I spent my young adult years training as a chef. I not only had years of formal training, but also worked in lots of fine restaurants. I read everything I could get my hands on. The amazing thing is that as my skills progressed, my eye and palate more attuned, my experiences broadened...the same article communicated totally different things to me at different stages on my career. Even a published recipe never comes out the same from different cooks.

I once actually worked on FWW's sister publication FC...and (15 years ago) it was certainly their publishing philosophy to offer a range of material and information to nurture and inform a wide range of artisans.

So while you look at those projects and wonder where is the recipe. Other woodworkers are no doubt reading the same article and thinking about different methods to manage the internal tension other than gluing discs into the dados. Generally, on the more advanced the material less detail is revealed.

I have read probably a dozen posts on SMC that decry the exact opposite...that after the first 100 issues the magazine went soft and has reverted to real beginner's stuff. And in fact if you look at the first several years of FWW there are few pictures, fewer measured drawings and a lot of very, very complex topics covered by masters from the past generation...many of whom, it seams from the writing, would not suffer beginners lightly. THere is plenty of philosophical writing about the craft too. These articles gave rise to the early books, e.g. Tage Frid series.

I agree. I subscribed to FWW when it was still black and white, and it was a magazine that would make you think of possibilities beyond your own ability. Then it turned into something else, aimed at pleasing beginners I suppose. I sent them a letter after a particularly uninspiring issue some years ago suggesting that they start a new magazine called "Truely Fine Woodworking". I recieved no response, and I let my subscription lapse.

The same thing happened to Fine Homebuilding, it became less than inspirational, just another homeowner magazine, so I let that lapse as well.

[John Piwaron]

I agree. I subscribed to FWW when it was still black and white, and it was a magazine that would make you think of possibilities beyond your own ability. Then it turned into something else, aimed at pleasing beginners. I sent them a letter after a particularly uninspiring issue some years ago suggesting that they start a new magazine called "Truely Fine Woodworking". I recieved no response, and I let my subscription lapse.

The same thing happened to Fine Homebuilding, it became less than inspirational, just another homeowner magazine, so I let that lapse as well.


FWW (and FHB) has in the past drifted in that direction, the easy beginner type stuff. When they do that, it's time to send some letters to the editor protesting that. They should be nudged in the direction of the fine end of woodworking.

With the closing of "Woodwork" and FWW ceasing publication of their own magazine filled with pictures of great work (I don't remember it's name anymore), there really is a void for a magazine of good work. Of inspirational things.