Wood Working Magazines - Any recommendations?

[Mark A Smith]

Let me put in my vote for Fine Woodworking. They have a great group of contributing editors, and their larger format allows me to more or less see the pictures. PW's photos are sometimes too small to be helpful. In addition, FWW does actual tool tests, unlike PW which never compares one tool to another. 

I keep wanting to end my subscription to PW for some of the reasons already mentioned here. Then a good article comes along and I am ready to stay on board. I agree with the sad decline on the editorial side of PW. Their editor's blog is now something I rarely bother to check out. Sorry, Megan. I'm sure your hands are tied.

Both magazines have on-line resources. I subscribed to FWW for a year but found I didn't have time to make it worthwhile.

Bob Lang's suggestion about buying the archives is a good one. I have the FWW archive and there are some very good articles in those pages.

Books. The FWW books already mentioned are very good. There are many others, but those were helpful to me when I was getting back into woodworking seriously. Bob Lang has a very good book on cabinet-making if you need to build some cabinets.

[Hank Knight]

Woodwork is the one I miss.
To me, It was the best on the block.

Ref: https://goo.gl/images/NAhSYk

I agree, but it wasn't for everybody.

[Hank Knight]

Bass Player, check your messages.

[Handplanesandmore]

As a side note, Chris Schwarz leaving PW hurt, but his staying on as a contributing editor also hurts the magazine -- more, if you asked me. Why?

Anyone who opens the last 12 issues of PW can see a distinct thing: PW is almost like owned by him and his words dominate the magazine with his articles and contributions (answers to readers' questions). Many issues have his projects in the cover. If you are new to woodworking, you would think PW is part of LAP. (He has stopped doing tool reviews, because he is now in the tool-making business, otherwise, we would see more of him in every issue!)

I understand why this is happening, but PW needs to have its own style, own sources of contributors and zero dominance from one contributor regardless of who he or she is. Many praise FW and no magazines can compare to its resourcefulness in terms of contributors. Yes, it has four to five contributing editors who grace its issues often, but every issue has two to three fresher faces. (I have my own complaints about FW (great photos are not the same as great content!, for example, but that is another story).

So, Chris should let go of his "baby" and contribute sparingly, not choking its growth. Get rid of that contributing editor title and resist the temptation to "own" PW as if you were still the editor in the old days. You done your good already. Save your next great article for another magazine, even if PW wanted it.

That's where I see the future of PW should be. Less C.S. (and his friends), not more. (By the way, no one is indispensable.)

Simon

[Steve N]

Woodwork is the one I miss.
To me, It was the best on the block.

Ref: https://goo.gl/images/NAhSYk

For me it was Woodworking magazine, before it became Popular
 
 
 
 


I'll always say they dropped the jewel, and kept the turd. Plus they ruined it after dropping Woodworking which had good paper, and ink, no ads, and all woodworking. They kept poor paper, and the worst ink in printing, goofy ads for junk, you neither needed or wanted. After a fashion they booted their quality writers, and kept?????? Well not much IMHO. It was truly an American Distress story. Or how to totally fudge up the best woodworking mags in just a couple of moronic steps. Masters Lang, and Huey actually put stuff in there that wasn't regurgitated from 5, 10, 20, years before, incredibly new stuff






I haven't looked forward to the "next issue" of any mag since it's demise.

[Handplanesandmore]

Yes, Woodworking Magazine is good stuff, especially on the techniques side, better than Woodwork in that aspect. Woodwork does have furniture-maker stories some people like, not so much for me as I can find inspirations everywhere.

The "new" (current) PW is ok, depending on issues. I skipped the Aug issue as the foreplane and paper cord(?) articles are of no interest to me. Why the heck would I want to read about foreplanes when I can do any handwork without it? And paper cord? I have had so many backlog projects in my shop that weaving is the last thing I'd want to try.

I don't find anything bad about its paper or ink, though I have heard here (?) people complaining about those aspects. I pick it up at newsstand if a quick browsing of its contents convinces me so. Cheaper to get a sub? May be, but I don't want to be forced to read garbage (see below).

If I had to pick a collection, FW up till pre-2010, the last few years of issues contain as usual great photos but many superficial stories -- they put out a full article on tablesaw stop blocks or the like. Give me a break, that might earn a place in the Methods of Work, but as a full article in FW? Oh, yes. another full article on clamping (handscrews) with no new information there. And then a dovetail article that...couldn't find words to describe my disappointment since they have published the very good ones already before.

My subscription ends in 2019, but I could pull the plug this Christmas if I am seeing more rubbish like that (I can't remember if it was FW that someone said you would have a hard time trying to figure out how you could cancel your subscription with FW. I hope not.)

Simon

[Bentley]

"Woodwork" was my favorite, but it got put out of it's misery after F+W bought their parent company. In the end, Woodwork only came out once a year during Christmas. One magazine no one has mentioned yet is "Mortise and Tenon". They kind of took the place of Woodwork. I bought their first issue, but I felt it was a little too high brow for my taste. The second issue is better, but at $24 per issue, I'll buy a years worth of FW.  Pop Wood is okay. Sometimes I think they give Schwarz free reign on writing whatever he wants. The article a few issues ago about finishing with soap was about the strangest I've ever read.

My wife hates ALL woodworking magazines. She'll browse through them and asks me "who makes this $#@*?" She finds all the projects to be outdated and unappealing. I agree with her, which is why I miss Woodwork. It was primarily about technique and not about making a picnic basket (Woodworkers Journal, AUG 2017) or a Greene and Greene shelf (Pop Wood, AUG 2017). Plus, if I want to make a sofa table, I'll use Pinterest, or Google image search to find what I want and design it from a picture.

Bentley

[Handplanesandmore]

"Woodwork" was my favorite, but it got put out of it's misery after F+W bought their parent company. In the end, Woodwork only came out once a year during Christmas.

Bentley

If TTs (parent co. of Festool) acted like F+W after buying SawStop, imagine the loss to the world of safety!

Simon

[bhh]

Those 3 guys also happen to be the founders of "360 woodworking" mentioned by Steve N. in this thread....

Allan they lost big when they lost those guys, they were the woodworking behind Popular woodworking, give ya 2 guesses what La Schwarz was


IMHO Steve Shanesy was the force that made the "magazine" part do so well. Think like a coach, with the best bullpen in the market, his part was just keeping them on track.

And now 360 Woodworking is down to Glen Huey.

Being from Cinci, I know all the principles there.    I agree that Steve Shanesy was the leader in getting it from a small California  magazine to its glory. Chris  Schwarz took over when Steve retired and it was in good hands then, too.   Chris has gone toward hand tools (neither good nor bad, just a fact) and started his own publishing company (Lost Art Press), and pulled some of the people from F+W's back office with him, e.g., Kara.  PopWood now is mostly contributors, not staff.

[AHill]

Being from Cinci, I know all the principles there.    I agree that Steve Shanesy was the leader in getting it from a small California  magazine to it's glory. Chris  Schwarz took over when Steve retired and it was in good hands then, too.   Chris has gone toward hand tools (neither good nor bad, just a fact) and started his own publishing company (Lost Art Press), and pulled some of the people from F+W's back office with him, e.g., Kara.  PopWood now is mostly contributors, not staff.

Actually Schwarz left before Shanesy did.  Almost 2 years before.  Schwarz was Executive Editor when he left.  Shanesy was the Publisher and Editorial Group Director.  Lost Arts Press was started about 4 years before Schwarz left PWW.  Megan Fitzpatrick took over as Managing Editor in late 2012, after Schwarz left and just about a year before Shanesy retired.