Best Woodworking Magazine ?

[Ben Abate]

To be honest I haven't been crazy about FWW for awhile. I still get it but I'm thinking of not renewing my subscription. Popular Woodworking is pretty ok.... I have to say and I don't think anyone mentioned it or if they did I missed it.... Woodshop News. I think that is a great monthly mag....It is a bit more to the one man professional shop but it has some good info about some many things....It is pretty well rounded to teaching, training, new equipment, up and coming things. I just said that the other day when it arrived in the mail, that I thought it was a good rag....

Ben

[Scott Vigder]

Woodsmith has no advertising, and many of the other magazines seem to be so over saturates with ads they really turn me off.

I have built several project using Woodsmith plans, and have been able to easily accomodate my own design and construction concepts into their designs for some great results.

I would vote WorkBench s the absolute worst magazine I subscribed to.

[John Schreiber]

I don't subscribe to any woodworking magazines. Except for being able to read them in bed, they don't do much for me that I can't get from Sawmill Creek.

[Chris Schumann]

Get a laptop, John. Then you can read the Creek in bed too.

[Dewey Torres]

Woodshop News gets my vote in "other". Woodwork is #2. I received FWW(and FHB) for the first 15 years. Enough is enough! I now read it at the public library a couple of times a year.

Tom if you come across a try before you buy it opportunity for Woodshop News place let me know. Send me a PM.

[David Keller NC]

"Are Woodwork and Woodworking one and the same?"

No. Woodworking Magazine is the no-advertising publication that comes out 4 times a year from the editors of Popular Woodworking (there are no "contributor" articles other than the "tips" section - it's completely written by the Pop woodworking editors). This is a superb magazine, in my opinion, even though they do include tool reviews. I think I like it mainly because it isn't repetitive (birdhouse plans), and the articles are sometimes iconoclastic to woodworkign dogma, which I appreciate.

Woodwork is a much older publication, and is the more typical format with color pictures, contributor galleries, and advertising. I personally like it, though it focuses on the "art" side of woodworking - the kidn of thing where most of us are scratching their heads and thinking "what is it?". But that's OK with me, because the magazine's content still makes me think, and doesn't include worthless tool reviews, bandsaw tune-ups and the like. It mainly focuses on the craft, so you'll always get an interview and profile of a professional woodworker, plus out-of-the-way techniques, design articles, etc...

Unfortunately, the current publisher of Woodwork has dropped it, and as I understand it, it will only be published 4 times a year from now on.

[Steve Bagi]

Wood Work and Woodshop News for me. FWW has really gone down in quality.

[Dan Bertenthal]

Woodworking Magazine is a real gem. They have a sample issue for download on their website which is pretty typical of the quality of the magazine in general.

I've subscribed to FWW for years but it seems pretty stagnant lately and I don't plan on renewing.

d

[tom coleman]

shop notes is my first choice, woodsmith 2nd

[Scott Coffelt]

FWW for me.

I have Wood, which I just received my last issue. No renew for me on this one. I have had if for several years, but I find it to be just OK.

I had Shop Notes, from the day they came out, held it for 10-12 years or so I guess. Then it was let go. I got a request for $6/yr. Tempting as it be for that price, not going to get it again. I picked one up at Lowe's and browsed through it. Not real impressed.

I also have the Woodcraft magazine, I still like it, have it for awhile longer... I guess I'll decide on that one when it comes up.

FWW, I'll continue to keep. I have all issues and even the special issues. Storage is a pain, but like having that one.

[Don Bullock]

This question comes up fairly often, but it is interesting to read the opinions that others have about the various publications. Since I'm getting back into woodworking after being away from it for a long time I subscribe to most of the woodworking publications. At this point I selected Popular Woodworking in the poll, but I do find that I enjoy most of them and am learning a lot from almost all. My least favorite to date are the ones that seem to zero in on specific projects and go on at length giving all the details of that particular project. I find that most of the selected projects aren't ones I'm interested in building. Some, however, do give me ideas and techniques that I can incorporate into projects I'm interested in making so I haven't dropped them from my subscription list yet. I'm sure that once my shop is set up, and I'm able to work in it, that I will be dropping many of the magazines because I'll have less time to look at them. Between now and then I'm starting to be more critical about the magazine content of each publication so that I can decide which subscriptions to keep.