Do you subscribe to wood magazines?

[Bob Oswin]

Over the years, I have had subscriptions to many and various magazines.
Most recently, it seems the cost has gone up and the content seems to be getting less.

I am considering just paying the bit extra at the newstand and getting a wider choice of topics each month.

What do you folks do?

bob

[Ken Salisbury]

What do you folks do?
bob

I subscribe to Wood and Woodsmith -- have every issue of both ever published -- a great resource.

[Don Farr]

I subscribe to Wood, Fine woodworking, Popular woodworking and Woodworking Journal. Of course I am fairly new and trying to absorb as much info. as possible.
Also, it's more than a little bit extra at the news stand. I would say almost double.
I will probably trim these down to a couple as soon as I become more knowledgeable of the wwing trade.

[Steve Clardy]

I'm down to Cabinet Maker and Woodshop News.
I've probably had all of them over the years, but have weeded them out due to cost and also a lot of them had so much craft items and articles, I gave them up. Not into crafts anymore. Fine woodworking is a great publication, but costly and I usually do not do the exotic stuff.
I finally gave up on Wood Magazine as there was not enough projects in it that interested me anymore. I probably had that one for 15 years or so.
There are a lot of good tips and articles in all of them, but after adding up the cost of them each year, had to cut most of them out. Steve

[Bob Oswin]

I
Also, it's more than a little bit extra at the news stand. I would say almost double.
.

Hi Don:
You've hit the "nail" right on the head! I just got my renewal notice from a magizine today. The newstand price is $7.95.
The subscription price is $5.86.
They issue 7 issues per year. If two of them are redundant or of no immediate use to me, I have lost the value of the subscription over the newstand price.
I also note that my subscription trails the newstands by a good 3 weeks
In addition, I have not had the opportunity to select which of the several magazines I will purchase each month without creating additional expense.
So my question should have been about which method yields better value.
I note that most major outlets offer a 15% discount on the cover price as well. That narrows the gap even further.

regards
Bob

[Bob Oswin]

I subscribe to Wood and Woodsmith -- have every issue of both ever published -- a great resource.

Hi Ken:
I had heard that Wood at least was out on a CD.
Have you ever had a chance to see one?
It seems like a really good method to at least search for stuff.

I know that a book just feels better :D

Bob

[Dan Bussiere]

Originally, I got several mags because I was learning. I am certainly still learning but I have at least figured out that I don't need 10 mags to get smart. I still get Wood because it is interesting more so than informative. I get mine usually 3 to 5 days before it hits the newstand here.
Dan

[Ken Frantz]

I get both WOODSMITH and SHOP NOTES only. I use to shop E-BAY for the back issues for those mags. I think if one was to try to get all of the back copies, he wouldn't need any other mags.

I have looked at others, but have to do so much wastefull looking to find the inportant stuff!!!! HI HI

KEN

[Mark Patoka]

I've subscribed to WOOD for the last 10 years since most of their projects seem to be what my wife wants me to build (shop time justification), I like their projects and the multi-year subscription prices seemed reasonable. Otherwise I just buy the others if I see a particular project.

When I lived in Rapid City, SD, my hardwood supplier used to sell back issues of Woodsmith and ShopNotes for $1.50 each so I couldn't pass those up. That made it easy to not subscribe to those.

[Mark Hulette]

I subscribe to Woodsmith and have been amazed at how their projects almost always line up with what I'm interested in at any given time- kinda spooky, actually. These are also a great reference to hold onto when your skills and interests expand you can go back and check out the projects that seemed intimidating earlier.

One other observation regarding subscribing to multiple wwing magazines- seemed when I was getting Wood and Popular Woodworking that they had duplicate or very similar articles within a couple of months of publication. I thought it wasn't very smart to be paying twice for the same information.

FWIW I also like Shop Notes

[Ken Salisbury]

Hi Ken:
I had heard that Wood at least was out on a CD.
Have you ever had a chance to see one?
It seems like a really good method to at least search for stuff.

I know that a book just feels better :D

Bob

I have not seen any CD's of Wood Magazine - but what would I do with them since I already have every issue -- Unless a "search" feature is available to find a project -- some times it is tough going through 100's of magazines looking for something.

[Dennis Peacock]

I have subscribed to Wood Magazine since the mid-80's and still subscribe today. I used to get ShopNotes and liked it as well. I have stuck with Wood since it puts out "stuff" that LOML is always wanting or has an eye for to put in the house. I have tried several other magazines in the past but have always stuck with Wood Magazine.

[Jim Becker]

I subscribe to WOOD Magazine, Fine Woodworking, ShopNotes, Woodwork and the AAW magazine, American Woodturner. They are all enjoyable to read. I used to get American Woodworker but once the RD folks bought it from Rodale, it just wasn't the same.

[Bob Oswin]

I have not seen any CD's of Wood Magazine - but what would I do with them since I already have every issue -- Unless a "search" feature is available to find a project -- some times it is tough going through 100's of magazines looking for something.
That's more or less what I said. ;)
Bob

[Kevin Gerstenecker]

At one time or another, I got the ALL! Now, I just stick with Wood Mag., Popular Woodworking, Woodsmith, and Shop Notes. I can usually find something in every issue of each of these that is of interest. I pick up Fine Woodworking occasionally, when something catches my eye. I mostly like Books, and I am building a pretty good library of Woodworking Books. I plan on handing the books down to my Son, who is finally showing some interest in something other than Cars! He is starting to hang out with me in the shop, and he knows his way around equipment. Nothing beats good resources to keep your interest, and from which to acquire more skills and ideas.

[Charles McKinley]

I subscribe to Wood and plan on Subscribing to Fine Homebuilding. Like Kevin above I have been getting several books. I have spent alot of time and money at Half Price Books.

[Jason Roehl]

I subscribe to Wood and plan on Subscribing to Fine Homebuilding. Like Kevin above I have been getting several books. I have spent alot of time and money at Half Price Books.

Chuck, FHB is ok, but I much prefer The Journal of Light Construction. I think that it offers more "down-to-earth" approaches to building, whereas FHB is often laden with artsy, out-of-everyone's-price-range-except-Bill-Gates' stuff. And FHB will often lag JLC on similar subjects by a few months only they don't necessarily do as good of a job at explaining the same. So, if you haven't taken the plunge already, at least look into it.

[John Wadsworth]

I guess I'm the one who spends too much time with the mags and not enough in the shop!

Seriously, back when I was a woodworking wannabe living in the Big Apple and working sixty hours a week, coming home to the latest FWW (or Wood, or WWJ, or AWW, or ....) was the closest I ever got to putting sharp things next to lignin.

Now that I'm retired to the country with my own shop, the habit has persisted--I still get a bunch of WW mags and keep the back issues neatly files in magazine file cases.

This is made worthwhile by the Woodworker's Guide, a program that has indexed all the articles, tool reviews, etc., in all the issues of a couple of dozen woodworking magazines. Want to make a butler's tray? Just enter the search term "butler" and presto! cites to four articles from four different mags pop up (from the mags and issues I've told the Guide I have saved--you might have more hits or fewer).

You can order it from http://www.woodworkersindexing.com

No affiliation, yadda yadda yadda...

[Mike Schwing]

I subscribe to Fine Woodworking because it inspires me. I subscribe to Popular Woodworking and American Woodworker because they have things I can actually build. I subscribe to WOOD because they have things I can build that help me to build things. Case in point - the wonderful band saw table from a recent WOOD issue - I'm nearly done that - and when done I'll have a great circle cutting method for some Shaker pedestal tables that have been requested of me.

[Lee Schierer]

I get Wood, Workbench and American Woodworker.

[Scott Neblung]

Here they are....In my fav order too


Shopnotes....love the tips section

Fine Woodworking....simply awesome

Woodsmith....more tips....someday I hope to build more of these projects.