Woodworking Magazines

[Dave Anderson NH]

Derek and Sean,

I will quote from what is the unofficial motto of our NH woodworking guild, "It has always been an article of faith among us that from the rankest beginner to the most accomplished professional, we all have something to both teach and learn from each other." In my experience the passion and enthusiasm of the skilled amateur who lacks the time and budget pressures of the professional allows for a level of quality the professional is hard pressed to match. I find the concept of pro vs amateur of less value than the level of skill and the ability to clearly expound it in writing.

At a personal level I stopped my subscriptions to all woodworking magazines several years ago because of the reasons stated by others in this thread. Given the costs traditional of magazine publication including the biggie of postage which everyone missed, I am not optimistic about the future of small special interest magazine publishing.

[Derek Cohen]

Dave, thank you ... for the reminder that we all teach, and that there will always be those waiting to learn.

For over a decade now I have offered my website as a resource for those that might benefit from my experience and knowledge. I am, however, mindful that I have much to learn. The articles also chronical my own development, which is a issue for me - do I remove those with superceded methods? I leave them as they illustrate that there are many ways to skin a cat.

The point I was attempting to make at the start of this thread is that magazines are no longer a medium of education for many of us. One alternative is to return to the good books. That is fine for construction, but not for inspiration and creativity.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[James Waldron]

Derek:

I've done time as a yacht joiner, later as a more general boat builder/repairer with a considerable dose of woodworking included, and today as a retired "week-end warrior" to use your term (although I have a lot more shop time than the "weekend" label would suggest).

In that context, I would urge you to leave your earliest posts alone for all to see and learn from. I've made a couple of realizations from comparing older and newer versions of your work, things I would likely have missed had I not had the comparison to consider. (And at least once, I've adapted one of your older posts in preference to a newer one.)

In my view, you should drop the "week-end warrior" bit. Your work compares very favorably with any we see around here, in the mags, on Google images, anywhere we look. There's no need to qualify your stature because you don't know everything: none of us do, pro or amateur. We all have things to learn and sometimes we can offer something in return around here. You offer far more than most and we all benefit from it.

[Dave Anderson NH]

Thanks Derek. To clarify a bit, I like the idea of a magazine or for that matter an e-zine. We all need inspiration no matter what the source. I just question the financial viability of such a venture. Previous attempts years ago when the internet was less pervasive had short lives. In today's net-centric environment financial viability and survivability would be even more difficult. My approach to find inspiration is to use the net, live exhibitions, and in my case since my interest is period furniture museums.

[lowell holmes]

I read Woodwork until they folded.

[Ted Reischl]

WE sound like a bunch of old codgers crying in our suds about the past and how much we would like to have it back. We want our good old magazines back, whaaaa! Isn't going to happen. The demographic has changed, we can either change with it or get used to being called dinosaurs. In my former life I would get up in the morning and read the newspaper while I slurped on a coffee.

What newspaper? They are garbage these days. So, I walk myself, the cup of coffee and my tablet out to the shop. Sit down, check the forums, hit a couple of favorite websites and thoroughly enjoy the time.

Now, if a younger dinosaur was smart, they would forget about magazines and put themselves on the internet. You are all complaining that you are not learning much or not getting inspired. Pays to look around. I am doing more carving these days. I found a site run by a nice lady (Mary May) that is like having a master carver right in the shop with you. Not some magazine with half the info missing.

Things are always changing, people are always going to want to share what they know with others. The trick is packaging it all up, and magazines are a thing of the past.

I have every last issue of WoodSmith and Shopnotes. Even built a nice bookcase for them. But I also have them both on USB. Want to guess which one I look at? Not the mags.

Oh yea, I get FWW on tablet. How ya betting that in another few years you won't be able to get it in print? These younger guys are not interested in filling up their space with a bunch of old magazines that need a special insert to help them find anything. They know how to search on a computer.

[Frederick Skelly]

I read Woodwork until they folded.

You can still find a disk of back issues. I think I paid $80 or $90 for mine.

[Jim Koepke]

Derek, I think you sell yourself a bit short. You may only be able to do woodworking outside of your professional field, but you have produced some fine pieces that many of us have been happy to see come together.

My only reason for having a current woodworking magazine subscription is because of the lowball offer one of them recently made for a two year subscription.

My excitement grew while walking back from the mail box over the cover banner "Cut Cleaner Dovetails." There was nothing on the contents page that led me quickly to the article. The first page of contents listed an article on making a dovetailed dustpan. A quote from its pages, "There are thousands of tutorials on cutting dovetails out there. So I am not going to waste precious ink and paper explaining fundamentals of you can find in almost any book. But I would like to point out what I consider to be the critical aspects of the joint - so read the captions in "The Finer Points of Dovetails" below."

The side article didn't offer any revelations to me for improving my dovetail cutting. It didn't explain about the difference of cutting to the line and cutting through the line. To me that was one of the most important aspects of cutting dovetails that improved my efforts. There was nothing in the article telling readers the line made by transference from the tails to the pin board, or from pins to tail board, is outside of the waste area. This was another important step to improving my dovetails. So many sources say "split the line." Do that with the transferred mark and even your best sawing will leave dovetails with gaps.

On the second page of contents there was "Sliding Dovetail Waste Removal" in the letters section. This piece also didn't contain any earth shattering revelations on making better dovetails.

A promise on the cover not being satisfied by something inside has left me disappointed all too often with more publications than woodworking magazines.

One of my favorite parts of woodworking magazines is the readers tips and techniques. In many issues these have been the most informative parts. They often provide an insight into different ways of thinking and doing things.

I submitted an article on how a Stanley #45 can be used to make stopped cuts. It was rejected with the reasoning being there wouldn't be much interest. Maybe there aren't a lot of folks out there who, like myself, want to learn how to get more functions out of their tools. When a magazine is starting to become thinner over the years one would think they would welcome some different content. Maybe it would have been better to look through some old issues and rewrite an old article for submission.

Occasionally I will still purchase a FWW. The main problem with them for me is everything seems to be about using power tools. The most recent issue was purchased solely because it had an article on shave horses, something I want to learn more about.

jtk

[Ted Reischl]

The whole print thing is dying a slow and grisly death. Not just woodworking magazines, all of it.

What I was trying to say above is that someone who is really smart and wants to "publish" these days needs to forget the old paper paradigm.

Lemme ask you guys a few things:

1. Would you like a magazine that actually had videos of an experienced woodworker working and explaining what he is doing and why, or would you prefer to read an article that an editor chopped up to fit it in a certain size for his magazine format?

2. Would you like to be able to find an article or all references to a certain subject, like "dovetails" with a few mouse clicks instead of looking around through all the mags or trying to find a reference sheet to the articles?

3. Would you like to have a means to respond to what you are reading other than having an editor pick who gets to be read and who does not? It is called a forum.

It seems to me the dinosaurs in the publishing business need to do a little evolving. It is ok that so many of the mags have put their back issues on USB, but the format is a magazine format. There is a reason that the internet took off like a horse with its tail on fire. It is because it offers content that cannot be had on the printed page.

These days, I head on over to YouTube to see who and what I can find that interests me in woodworking. Some of the guys are doing a great job, imagine what could be done if they had someone who knew how to organize, create additional content, pretty things up for them! Check out Rob Cosman's videos sometime.

[Patrick Chase]

I have written for magazines over the years. A few years ago I stopped deliberately and decided that I did not want to me part of a magazine that featured me as a writer. I do not know enough. I am a good woodworker. But I am a weekend warrior. I am happy to post my trials and tribulations on forums and on my website. I have no pretensions about my ability or qualifications. I expect that anyone reading my stuff knows that I am just a weekend warrior.

Ironically enough that self-awareness on your part means that you're probably better suited to write such articles than some of the other weekend warriors who blissfully continue to do so without similar hesitation. Dunning-Krueger blah blah.

When I was starting out I read all of your articles and reviews that I could find, and found them useful. Perhaps not appropriate for the sort of advanced-woodworker-oriented publication that you propose here, but useful all the same. On a related note, it is widely understood that the person who is most knowledgable about a given topic isn't always best suited to teach any but the most advanced classes about it. A weekend warrior who can write extremely well is probably more immediately useful to a starting/intermediate woodworker than is a bona fide master who cannot. Of course the student may eventually outgrow that teacher, but that's life.

Restating what I said above, I think that a self-aware weekend warrior (one who understands where they stand and what they should and shouldn't be teaching) can offer a lot to the community.

[Patrick Chase]

I somehow doubt that he would have attended any run by myself!

If he were starting out today he very well might IMO. Everybody starts in basically the same place after all, and the old ways of learning have more or less broken down.

[Patrick Chase]

Our own Brian Holcombe has an article in there! I enjoyed it Brian!

Another example of a very self-aware teacher IMO.

[Rich Colvin]

I have been a FWW reader since issue 1

I got the FWW web membership which gives me the magazine on my iPad, and access to all the plethora of information on their web site. I've found it useful.

Rich

[Rich Colvin]

I'm a woodturner, and I've found that the online magazine at www.woodturningonline.com is a new concept that I really like.

Rich

[Prashun Patel]

I had to edit out some feuding. Sorry if there are cryptic parts now. But that's how it goes in this part of the Creek.