What magazines do you guys subscribe to?

[Justin Pfenning]

I'm new to wood working, and am wanting to subsrcibe to a magazine or 2, to learn some techniqes and get ideas for projects. What are you reading, and what do you like about it? Thanks for the info.

Justin

[George Bokros]

I subscribe to Wood Magazine, Woodsmith, Woodcraft Magazine, Wood Workers Journal.

[Pat Barry]

None. Cancelled all of them years ago. From time to time I will buy a copy of Fine Woodworking if it catches my eye near the HD checkout line

[Randy Red Bemont]

I get wood magazine and woodsmith. Thinking about woodworker's journal. I'll admit that I look through them and usually never touch them again.

Red

[Rod Sheridan]

I'm new to wood working, and am wanting to subsrcibe to a magazine or 2, to learn some techniqes and get ideas for projects. What are you reading, and what do you like about it? Thanks for the info.

Justin

Hi Justin, the only magazine I subscribe to is Fine Woodworking.

It's the best of a bad lot, it will teach you the basics and hopefully inspire you to improve your skills and craft................Regards, Rod.

[Joseph Montroy]

I like Wood Magazine for some of the plans and their shop tips. Sometimes I'll pick up Fine Woodworking if the projects catch my eye.

[Ole Anderson]

I had subscriptions to several and finally settled on Wood.

[Mike Heidrick]

Wood. Few times a year it is $5 a year or so. I am prob paid up way past when the magazine will shut down.

[Prashun Patel]

I loved Wood for the first couple years. But the plans tended to repeat. Also, some of the plans like clocks tended to feel 'crafty' to me after a while. Not bad, just not my cuppa.

I continue to subscribe to Fine Woodworking Online. The searchable archives are wonderful. There are online extras to the paper mags, which are available in their entirety online with the subscription. I find FWW's tool reviews really good. They focus on furniture, which is my bag. Their plans are not as thorough as those in Wood, but their designs tend to be more sophisticated than those in Wood, so it can help those wishing to elevate their own design skills.

I like Popular Woodworking too, and find it very similar to FWW. So I'd pick one or the other.

You should also check out FWW's Shoptalk podcast. It's free like many podcasts. IMHO, it's the best of the three major ones out there. The others tend to have guys going on about projects they're working on. Shoptalk keeps it relevant to tools and techniques that you as a user can use.

[roger wiegand]

Fine Woodworking since issue#1. Thinking about stopping, as they are covering the same topics over and over and over, and running excruciatingly long articles on how to build from specific plans. I wish they'd devote much more of their space to design, as there's a near infinite amount to be productively said on that subject whereas the 83rd article on how to cut a mortise and tenon or set up your bandsaw adds very little to what they've already published on the subject.

[Mike Ontko]

Fine Woodworking - going on three or four years now, after having been a past subscriber to Fine Home Building and Fine Gardening. As a technical writer myself, I like the way Taunton Press presents its content and makes use of both Web and paper based media.

Wood - a subscriber for almost 2 years now, I like that their audience is targeted more towards regular garage shop types like myself, though I imagine that as my knowledge and abilities progress I may be looking elsewhere for more advanced information on specific topics.

[Paul Wunder]

Justin,

We all have our magazine preferences, but for a newbie I would recommend Woodsmith and Wood Magazine.

Woodsmith contains extremely detailed and step by step plans and ideas for beginner to intermediate woodworkers with an emphasis on building skills. Each new technique that is covered in a plan is explained in a separate article. Woodsmith also maintains a an extensive "extras" library of tips and videos. They recently merged Shop Notes magazine into Woodsmith so now Woodsmith will also include wood shop ideas, jigs, and projects.

Wood Magazine is a woodworking magazine for the masses with monthly projects for beginners to intermediate woodworkers. many of their projects are style challenged" (personal opinion) but there are good projects to practice with and an emphasis on skill building.. .

Welcome to woodworking. Have patience with yourself.

[Jerry Thompson]

None. Most of what I need is on the Web.

[Justin Pfenning]

Thanks for all the comments everyone. I'll be checking these out on line, and at the book store.

Justin

[Brian Henderson]

I dropped them all, after subscribing to most of them at one time or another over the past 20+ years. The problem is that after a while, they just repeat. There are canned articles that you see over and over and over again. It doesn't take long until you've seen most of what they have to offer and you're just buying a magazine to be buying a magazine. I might look through them when I'm at the book store but rarely do I ever buy one. I think the day of physical magazines is gone.

[Rich Riddle]

Wood in the magazine form and Fine Woodworking online edition. I do agree that most repeat the same information.

[dennis thompson]

I subscribe to Wood Magazine, Woodsmith, Woodcraft Magazine, Wood Workers Journal.I subscribe to the same ones, I like Wood & Woodsmith best

[Stan Calow]

In order, Fine Woodworking, Popular Woodworking, Woodsmith, Wood. End up picking up WWJ, Woodcraft and Family Handyman at the store when need something to read. I actually prefer some of the British WWing mags that you find at Barnes & Noble.

[Kent A Bathurst]

When I started down this rabbit hole, I had no knowledge, and access to no face-to-face-experts, and nothing like SMC existed.

I subscribed to FWW for 12 - 15 years.

I learned a lot. And - the articles that were beyond my skill level only inspired me to keep pushing: If it could be done, then it was "knowable". If it was knowable, then it was "learnable". I charged ahead, over-confident in my abilities, but undaunted by the stumbles as I mistaked my way up the learning curve. And, FWW was a guiding light.

I cancelled my subscription about 6 - 7 years ago. I had evolved to a level where they weren't providing me with much, plus they were in what I consider to be a phase where they consciously decided to go "down-market" to try to expand their customer base. The infamous edition where the cover article !! was dowelled drawers was the last straw.

Bu - still and all - I always give them credit for what they taught me, and the examples they showed that were stretch goals for me, over 8 - 10 years. I could not have gotten where I am - as limited as it sometimes seems - without FWW. I simply outgrew them. Which means, in all honesty, they did their job well.

[Brian Henderson]

In order, Fine Woodworking, Popular Woodworking, Woodsmith, Wood. End up picking up WWJ, Woodcraft and Family Handyman at the store when need something to read. I actually prefer some of the British WWing mags that you find at Barnes & Noble.

I used to absolutely love Popular Woodworking, right up until they combined that and Woodworking and took all the things I liked about PW out and put all the things I hated about WW in. I also had one of those cheap multi-year subscriptions to Wood, the ones where they give you 2 years for cheap, and I think I forgot I was even getting it by the end. It just stopped interesting me at all.

[Brian Henderson]

When I started down this rabbit hole, I had no knowledge, and access to no face-to-face-experts, and nothing like SMC existed.

I subscribed to FWW for 12 - 15 years.

I learned a lot. And - the articles that were beyond my skill level only inspired me to keep pushing: If it could be done, then it was "knowable". If it was knowable, then it was "learnable". I charged ahead, over-confident in my abilities, but undaunted by the stumbles as I mistaked my way up the learning curve. And, FWW was a guiding light.

I cancelled my subscription about 6 - 7 years ago. I had evolved to a level where they weren't providing me with much, plus they were in what I consider to be a phase where they consciously decided to go "down-market" to try to expand their customer base. The infamous edition where the cover article !! was dowelled drawers was the last straw.

Bu - still and all - I always give them credit for what they taught me, and the examples they showed that were stretch goals for me, over 8 - 10 years. I could not have gotten where I am - as limited as it sometimes seems - without FWW. I simply outgrew them. Which means, in all honesty, they did their job well.

Same here, I always had a subscription to FWW as the "ideal" and to another magazine, be it Popular Woodworking or something else, as the "actual". Reading FWW every month was like looking at an architectural magazine, the quality of work was phenomenal and the projects were high end. Then all that changed and it became one of the pack and that made it not worth bothering with anymore. I didn't outgrow them, they lowered their standards.

[Clay Crocker]

I started with American Woodworker, Wood, and Fine Woodworking around '97/'98. Several years later I added Woodsmith/Shopsmith. AW and Wood were definitely the mags I learned a lot from early on. FWW had a lot of "Holy Grail" projects from my perspective as a neophyte. Nevertheless, that provided me with a lot of determination to improve my skills to one day be able to execute those types of projects. I dropped all my WW magazine subscriptions except for FWW in 2010. I found a lot of repetition within and between magazines as time went on. I still enjoy every issue of FWW.

[Paul Murphy]

As was said by another poster, I think Fine Woodworking is currently the "best of a bad lot". FWW used to be better, but they now seem to split projects between print and web so as to induce you to subscribe to both venues for "the rest of the story". I'm not fond of the "bait & switch", so I no longer subscribe to FWW (or any other woodworking magazine). I still have the back issues from when the magazine was the only focus, which remain an excellent resource.

One additional area FWW drops the ball is competitive power tool tests. An example would be the recent router test, where they gave high marks to a PC machine I know has issues with fine adjustment and repeatability...but an advertiser, so aparrantly they get a pass.

You might be better off with the FWW back issue dvd, and a magazine with good tool tests (if one currently exists).

[Erik Loza]

Minimax was an advertiser with FWW for many years but discontinued that relationship in 2008. Funny: I still get it every month in my mailbox. I enjoy the "reader's projects" section in the back the most.

Erik

[Doug Ladendorf]

For me it's Fine Woodworking and American Woodturner (the mag you get when you join the American Association of Woodturners). Those interest me the most. I was subscribed to Shop Notes until they went under. My Wood subscription just ran out. Not sure if I will renew as it's getting harder to find time to read them.


You should also check out FWW's Shoptalk podcast. It's free like many podcasts. IMHO, it's the best of the three major ones out there. The others tend to have guys going on about projects they're working on. Shoptalk keeps it relevant to tools and techniques that you as a user can use.

I agree on FWW's Shoptalk. For my money Mike P. alone makes it worth listening. I also listen to Shop Talk live, which is fun but sometimes remarkable what they don't know. What is the third "major" you mean? MWA? I do listen some times but don't expect to learn anything unless they have a good guest.

[Prashun Patel]

I agree about Mike Pekovich. He's the best. So humble and so much knowledge. Even when he tries to be sarcastic like Matt, it just comes off cute and innocent. Matt K, though! He needs to chill a tad. Last week Ed Pirnik was all excited about a depth gauge he got for a song and cleaned up. Matt K had to one up him yet again by saying he got his Starrett for even cheaper, rust free. And then he kicks him by saying he never uses his, and Ed will never use his either. He should be on Framework!

Anyway, the 3 are (in my order of pref) Shoptalk, Woodtalk, and MWA. MWA just rambles IMHO. Woodtalk takes on heavy debates like, 'Is it right to spend a lot of time on your shop furniture" or "should you take a class?" I mean these are philosophical debates that just don't matter to me. They inevitably end in 'make what makes you happy', and 'take what makes you happy'. Shoptalk focuses on user questions, favorite off-beat tools of the hosts, and mistakes they made that you might want to avoid yourself. Ed P takes a back seat to the other guys in terms of experience, but his organization of the show is top notch.