Just got the latest issue of WOOD Magazine in the mail yesterday...
Took me about 5 minutes to read it cover to cover. Gheeez, is it me or this magazine has been pumping some pretty deceptive issues in the past 4-5 months? They keep showing off some old furniture made out of oak. Eurk! Arts & Crafts has been all over the magazines for decades. Thousands of versions have been made of the same damn coffee table, nightstand, bed, dresser, chest of drawers, etc. Can we see some other projects made with something else than oak?
I got mine yesterday as well, and for the most part thought it was a load of crud. Popular woodworking has become my favorite magazine, followed closely by FWW. The rest of them seem to be doing just what you say - rehashing the same old things. And this is coming from someone that's only been woodworking about 3.5 years!
SWMBO was nice enough to give me a 3 year subscription to WOOD. I guess we can only hope it will improve (as well as write nice letters to the editor encouraging them to do so).
I did see that Pat Warner will be contributing to the next issue, so that's something to look forward to.
I share your pain. I am about 1/2 way through a free 2 year subscription (airline miles promotion) and wish I had selected another box. I had picked WOOD up on the news stand years ago and enjoyed it, but they seem to be on a mission furniture and crafts binge. I do appreciate their tool reviews because they have provided timely coverage for my last two buys.
Other than that, kinda disappointed. Maybe I am moving boyond the crafts stage in my craft -- Naaawwww!
WOOD can be very hit or miss, the have a lot of projects that I'm never going to build, and it doesn't seam as well rounded. A fiend gave me a subscription to WoodShith I like it a lot better for the projects, and WWJ for basic woodworking knowledge, reviews, and such
just the thoughts of a addict j> Just got the latest issue of WOOD Magazine in the mail yesterday... >
Ditto the comment on Popular Woodworking. Also, I haven't been paying too close attention for a while but the other day while at the Leebrary I scanned a couple/few issues of Work Bench (Workbench?) and damn, that one really has turned out to be worth at least buying from time to time.
Next month's Wood is promising The Ultimate Router Fence. I'd be happy with An Ultimate Router Fence to go with An Ultimate Router Table.
Subscribed to Wood a number of years ago. I do think it has declined a little. I let it expire. Can't seem to give up on FWW, AW and WWJ. I picked up an issue of Woodwork at Borders. Couldn't help myself. Read it and entered a subscription through Amazon. Looks good. Wish me luck. (Confessions of a woodworking magazine junky). Anybody have opinions of Woodwork?
bob g.
R> I share your pain. I am about 1/2 way through a free 2 year subscription
I've been buying Woodwork off the news stand for the last few issues and love it. I'm eagerly waiting on my first subscription issue to arrive. The subscription process seems a little slow, but maybe I went about it the wrong way. I sent in a card out of the magazine. I wonder if ordering it through Amazon is any faster.
Unisaw A100 wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
I was disappointed when the "Dust Collections Solutions that Deliver", teased with the Oneida on the cover art, turned out to be so seriously lightweight.
The second issue of Woodworking Magazine, from the Popwood guys enticed $5 out of my pocket. That one shows promise.
And Woodwork remains one of my favorites. Prolly because I came at this from an arts background, rather than a mech/shop/industrial arts track. And the SF Bay Area is possibly over-represented in its pages, but then that's home for me.
This topic came up in another thread and a fellow wrecker and I have been sharing our admiration for Woodwork magazine. IOHO, we beleive it to be the best magazine out there, FWW included.
The problem with WOOD or Pop. Wood. or any of the others is that, as you noted, every few months they rehash the same old Mission style projects or herald plans for the Ultimate Router Table (Wait. I thought Ultimate was featured 6 months ago?! So is that one now the Penultimate?). And their tool reviews are basically worthless: "Of all the table saws we've ever tested, this is certainly one of them." Followed by a double page ad for the same.
Not worth the paper (and, hence, the trees to make the paper) they're printed on.
Something to remember, back issues of any magazine are incredible resources. Spend the lulling moment(s) between Christmas and New Years leafing through you old magazines and you'll more than likely find an article or three on a subject(s) that at the time of publication did not draw your interest but now comes in handy.
I often wonder this myself. Why magazine starts, address changes, cancellations take so long? I called one time and found out that the printing, administration, and journalists are all in different states (their excuse) but that makes no difference with today's technology. Six weeks notice to change an address--give me a break.
I recently spent a while going through about 3 years of Wood looking for a small project and found only one. Rest of them were cutsey dustcatchers, including the scroll-saw project I finally selected. Most of the mag is large projects that I don't have the skill or desire or need to build.
Magazines aren't mailed from the home office, but from the printer. Since their deadline schedule is often a couple of months in advance (the deadline for December is coming up) they need updated sub lists to get to the printer in time, usually weeks before the issue is even printed. So your December issue is mailed, let's say, in early November to get to you within 10 days or so. It's printed the previous week, and the subscription mailing list is due in late October. Before that, the magazine's fulfillment (subscription) department needs time to get the data entered, and the Postal Service needs time also, so mailing your sub in September means you get December as the first issue. Like most things, it turns out to be more complicated than it appears on the surface.
Unisaw A100 wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
About once or twice a year, I rummage through the stacks of accumulated wood magazines, bag up those from which I believe I've gleaned everything I'm likely to learn, and drag them down to the woodworker's club. So do many of the other members.
One way or the other, magazines will offer a wide variety of projects from small to large... there's nothing wrong with that and I'm happy with it too. Some projects make you go through your pile of offcuts and some others will take months to be completed.
The concern the original poster was more about the fact that the Arts & Crafts and the Mission styles are all over the place and there's tons of free plans you can get on the Internet. Despite this fact, magazines keep publishing those projects like they just invented it. Getting some new stuff and great designs is a lot harder... WOOD decided to go the Art's & Crafts route after they came out with some pretty good and modern stuff in the past.
Let WOOD concentrate on stupid glue tests and blade cleaner tests while I let my subscription lapse and look other magazines for nicer projects.
All true. A&C and Mission are dominant right now. IIRC, though, Wood posited its series of A&C style pieces some time ago, and has been slowly turning them out. It's not all that easy to turn out a bed plan that can be built by a majority of the actual woodworkers in a particular audience, should they desire to do so. Some at the very bottom end will be displeased with the difficulty, while those with topnotch skills will think the plan is old hat, not worth their time.
My prediction is that within a year or so, you'll see a return to another style, or maybe more of a mix of styles, in all the magazines. Sooner or later, they have to please a goodly number of their readers or go out of business. Wood has been around for a time. I'd expect it to remain around for a few more years regardless of losing a few subscribers from this NG.
And, no, I haven't done any project articles for any magazines that show that a change is coming. I'm about to build us a new bed to replace the new bed we bought a few years ago, but that has more to do with the lack of quality in mid-range furniture these days, and a growing waistline that makes sleeping in a bed rough on the bed, than it does any desire to build a bed. So, no article.
But check out your back issues of Wood. You'll see plenty of variation. And I'll be more is coming, there and with other magazines that have jumped back into the '90s...the 1890s, that is.
Charlie Self "A judge is a law student who marks his own examination papers." H. L. Mencken
Woodwork is my favorite, Fine Woodworking second. Decided not to renew subscription to Wood after the misleading article on glues a month or two ago. I would venture to say that the author has as much expierience with hot hide glue as I do with brain surgery.
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