Wood Working Magazines - Any recommendations?

[Bass Player]

I have subscribed to magazines in the past, but I wouldn't bother if your goal is to learn then books are a much better value.

Taunton Press' books on The Complete Illustrated Guide's like Furniture Construction are excellent references. Far better than magazines, IMO.

I would agree.  That's also why I kept all my books during my moves in the last 10 years during which I was forced to down-size my collections & sacrifice the book case full of magazines.  But I still learned quite a bit from those magazines & have a few plans from them in my list of possible future projects ==> I might eventually be looking into some of those digital collections I've seen for Shop Notes, Work Bench, AWW, & Wood.

My 2 publications are Wood Magazine and Woodsmith.  They're geared to my level of (un)expertise and easy to read.  

I love your term "(un)expertise".  It fits me perfectly! (HA!)

You're going to be disappointed to hear that Shop Notes ceased publication.  You can still buy a thumb drive with every issue ever printed but they closed down about 2 years ago or so.  It may have happened when August Home Publications (publisher of Shop Notes and Woodsmith) was bought out by another publisher.

That's what I found out when doing a little web searching today.  But the whole collection is available on a thumb drive/ DVD if I really want it.  So that's something.  It's the same with "Work Bench".  (Those seemed to be 'sister' publications, if I remember.  And I think the collections are published by the same company.... maybe....)

I'm not fond of Popular Woodworking.  As you said, it seems geared to the casual reader. As is Family Handyman.

I wasn't as fond of PWW, but I liked AWW (maybe I'll try to get that collection eventually as well.)  But I did like the Family Handyman.  I think mostly because it offered general home improvement info dumbed down to the casual reader.  (I got to where I could read a WW article without having to look up the definition of every other term, technique, or tool. But I'm still no plumber, electrician, landscape architect, or home construction engineer.  So when info pertaining to those types of projects cam up in FH, I was thankful for the "layman's language/ writing".)

I've never subscribed to Fine Woodworking but that would be the next magazine I would subscribe to.

I had a few issues of FWW, but never subscribed.  I felt like I was still learning & didn't have enough skill or knowledge to really get the most out of their articles.  That's probably even more true now after such a long lay-off. 

I also subscribe to Woodworkers Guild of America https://www.wwgoa.com.  George Vondriska does a great job of providing videos on almost every aspect of woodworking.  I also follow Thomas MacDonald on Facebook.  I don't get a chance to see everything he does, but sure enjoy his expertise and presentations.

I'll have to keep those in mind.

Thanks for the info!

All the magazines tend to recycle content.  They all need to straddle this fine line between attracting people new to the craft vs. experienced folks looking for more of a challenge.  Then they spice it up a bit with new tool reviews and tests.

I get it & understand.  I remember that being the case when I was actively WWing.  But they all had their own "personalities" (one responder mentioned the different editors that influenced each mag.)  It's why I thought I'd ask for some opinions.

One magazine you did not list is Fine Woodworking.  Of all the magazines out there, FWW is probably the most oriented toward experienced woodworkers.  It's more about technique and skills than step-by-step instructions.  You generally will need to have some basic or intermediate skills to execute the projects cited in FWW.

As I replied above to dg152.... I had a few issues of FWW, but never subscribed.  I felt like I was still learning & didn't have enough skill or knowledge to really get the most out of their articles.  That's probably even more true now after such a long lay-off. 

.....

Shop Notes no longer exists.  It was scrapped a couple of years ago, and now the content is combined with Woodsmith.  BTW, it's published by the WoodNet sponsors.  Woodsmith is probably one of the few magazines that combines skills with a project.

I found that today as well.  And thanks for the words!

[Bass Player]

Schwarz leaving did hurt, but the dagger was the departure of Lang, Huey, and Bender.  Those guys were all genuine woodworkers, and not just journalists.  They brought a lot of talent and diversity to PWW.  ....

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

[Hank Knight]

Schwarz leaving did hurt, but the dagger was the departure of Lang, Huey, and Bender.  Those guys were all genuine woodworkers, and not just journalists.  They brought a lot of talent and diversity to PWW.  Megan Fitzpatrick is a fine editor, but I think the magazine has lost a lot of the creative juices that used to reside in-house.

I agree completely with Alan. Huey, Bender and Lang leaving PWW was a crushing blow. I should have mentioned them, but I still think Schwartz was the spark that made the magazine shine. I certainly didn't mean to knock Megan, and I hope my post didn't imply that. She is doing a great job with what she has to work with. I still subscribe to PWW and look forward to every issue.

Hank

[Hank Knight]

Bass Player, I tried to send you a Private Message, but your messenger is disabled. enable it please and I"ll contact you with an offer you won't refuse.

[Bass Player]

Bass Player, I tried to send you a Private Message, but your messenger is disabled. enable it please and I"ll contact you with an offer you won't refuse.

Done.

[Cooler]

1. Drive to your local Barnes & Noble.  
   
2. Pick out the magazines you find interesting. 
   
3. Buy a cup of coffee and a bagel at their in-store bistro.
   
4. Read the magazines over breakfast.
   

Either buy or subscribe to the magazines that you like best.  Enjoy the coffee & bagel.

[Bob Lang]

If you like magazine type content and are looking for the best bang for your buck, get the back issue discs in pdf format of Fine Woodworking, American Woodworker and Popular Woodworking. Each of these had periods where most of the articles were written by folks with relevant experience in the real world of woodworking. Those were the high water marks of quality content and sadly, those days are behind us and not likely to return in anything that we would recognize as a magazine.

The growth of Amazon and the internet dramatically changed the world of publishing in general and magazines in particular. Over the course of a couple of years print content became less relevant and less of a value to readers. The reaction of the industry, especially the magazines was to do everything possible to become even less relevant and less of a value. Pages were cut to save on printing costs and a formulaic corporate mentality chased away the people who actually knew about the subject.

For me, the value of a publication is the knowledge within the pages. Hardly anyone in the publishing industry shares that opinion. Good content takes experience, creativity and a willingness to take risks. That doesn't happen in a world where content producers don't really know or appreciate the craft and spend their time pleasing the suits upstairs and racing their competitors to the bottom to grab the low hanging fruit.

[Steve N]

Schwarz leaving did hurt, but the dagger was the departure of Lang, Huey, and Bender.  Those guys were all genuine woodworkers, and not just journalists.  They brought a lot of talent and diversity to PWW.  

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.

[Handplanesandmore]

If you like magazine type content and are looking for the best bang for your buck, get the back issue discs in pdf format of Fine Woodworking, American Woodworker and Popular Woodworking. Each of these had periods where most of the articles were written by folks with relevant experience in the real world of woodworking. Those were the high water marks of quality content and sadly, those days are behind us and not likely to return in anything that we would recognize as a magazine.

I agree to what Bob said with one qualification: Older issues may not cover the use of new tools, the Domino Joiner, for instance, and if you are looking for techniques or projects relating to those new products, you may have to check out the more recent articles.

The internet certainly has killed a lot of print magazines (the same way Amazon has done to small malls and department stores). However, the quality of content as well as presentation on the internet is not monitored, meaning anyone can present themselves as skilled or experienced. Many bloggers or Instagramers fall into this category (and my furniture maker friends like to call these bloggers or the like socialite woodworkers, who have an interest to showoff their fancy boutique tools or purchases to strangers).

Simon

[Gary G™]

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

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