I've narrowed it down to one of these two magazines. Your choice?

[Jim O'Dell]

I thought getting a copy of each would make it easier....it didn't. Got a free copy of Wood in the mail a couple days ago from the routerbits dot com offer, and didn't think it had as much useful information as a previous copy I had purchased. Got a copy of Woodsmith today, and it's good, but not markedly better than Wood. I did notice that I can get Wood for under 21 dollars for 2 years from a discount online spot that I have used before. I might go with it for now, and get the Woodsmith at Christmas time, so I have them staggered slightly, or maybe the otherway around.
Thanks for the info.
Myk, one more question, does the online version of Wood give you access to older issues? Is it something that comes automatically with the paper version, or something you subscribe to separately? Jim.

[Ted Wong]

I use to work at August Home Publications (Woodsmith, Shopnotes) so this is a biased response.
The magazines are great and have no advertiser influence because there is no ad content. But that is not the only reason I think they are great publications.
The material in the magazines are truly quality content everything from the projects, photography, illustrations and editorial are designed and executed to make woodworking a pleasurable experience for the reader. In fact their publications have one numerous journal awards for their design and clarity of content.
While I personally feel the projects are kept to an intermediate level for broad market appeal the tips and techniques employed in the construction of those projects have far reaching potential for more advanced skill levels.
And for the money it is one of the best values out there in the woodworking publications.

[mike talbot]

I've subscribed to wood for years, Recently, I've started to read fine wood working. I was going to let my wood subscription run out but, I received the latest wood mag yesterday and found some stuff that was interesting. I think I'll keep them both for a while.

[Dick Brown]

I have one more issue of Wood coming and it had better be a hummdinger or that is it for them. Any mag with a cover price of $6.99 should have a lot more than a bunch of tweaky stuff as far as I'm concerned. Find reading the ads to see what new is offered takes longer than the articles.
Dick

[Keith Albertson]

Jim,

I'm a mediocre woodworker who has been getting both mags for years. I used to get FWW, American Woodworker, Wood, Woodsmith, Popular Woodworking, Woodworker's Journal, and just about everything else with "wood" in the titile. I loved looking through them all. But after a while I noticed they started to mimic each other. One mag would run a plan for a garden bench, and two months later two other mags would have garden bench plans. So I've cut way back.

If I was just starting out, I'd invest in a CD version of the FWW back issues. I'd buy one now, except I've got 95% of the issues cluttering up my basement. I know it's expensive, but for learning I don't think it can be beat.

I like Wood. I think it has a good mix of easy and more challenging projects, and is a great way to get ideas for Christmas presents and the like. I wouldn't discount the ads, sometimes they are invaluable to find materials and supplies.

My favorite is American Woodworker. Good projects, not too challenging for my limited skill set, and helpful tool reviews.

I'm lucky. As a physician I can get mags at "professional rates." I put them in my waiting room for a few days, then take them home. That's the only way I can afford more than one mag!!

[Larry Nall]

File this in your 'for what it's worth' category.

I subscribe to most of the WW magazines, WOOD, Fine WW, Popular, American, WWJournal, I often pick up Shopnotes and Woodsmith off the shelf at the building supply store.

For the Past year a small mountain has been growing by my bedside. SWMBO just put her foot down and said " clean this $%!# up", so today I've been sorting and putting them in the appropriate file box.

Over the past year as I read, I've been tearing out those annoying business reply postcards and using them as bookmarks for articles on some technique, tool review, jig, shop furniture or project I think I might want to come back to in the near future. I've just finished up the new shop so I'm probably biased toward the jigs and shop furniture.

So, to get to the point, I counted up the numbers of page markers and came up with the following:

Wood 1
FWW 2
PopWW 0
WW J 0
AmWW 1
SN 3
SSm 0

I can't say that this is definitive, but interestingly I had far more page markers in the special issues, Best Workshops, Tools & Shops, Jigs & Tips ...

So if anything, maybe the moral is don't subscribe to anything, just buy the special issues of interest when you see them on the news stand.

[Jeff Mackay]

David, I believe the reason you haven't seen Woodwork magazine is that it was acquired by Popular Woodworking. They "combined" the two magazines. When they did that, I decided to subscribe to Popular Woodworking. It feels more "woodworking as art and craft" than even the old Fine Woodworking did.

[Bryan Morgan]

Just get them both. What are they, like 10 bucks a year now? Most magazines are dirt cheap these days having to compete with the internet.

[Anthony Whitesell]

I originally subscribed to Wood then added Woodsmith and ShopNotes. I have dropped Woodsmith as it is too similar to ShopNotes, lots of jigs and how-to's that overlap between the two magazines. I find that Wood has a wide variety of projects from month to month. Sometimes they are all about the shop, sometimes outside, and other times indoor funiture, or kids stuff. Their reviews seem pretty worth while as well. I just wish they did them on a regular basis and redid some of the older ones as the models, features, and construction may have changed since the last review.