Magazines

[Larry Blanchard]

Not if I can help it! I plan on voting early and often :-).

[Dick Durbin]

Woodwork is an artists' magazine disguised as a woodworkers' magazine. It showcases a lot of wasted talent.

Can you tell that I am a function over form kinda guy? Take a look at the items at

I'm sure it took skill to build them, but it takes a lot more skill to build a piece of furniture that is both artistic and functional.

Dick Durbin

[Andrew Barss]

: Woodwork is an artists' magazine disguised as a woodworkers' magazine. : It showcases a lot of wasted talent.

Well, there are some items and articles that are artsy furniture, but most of the magazine -- and i've been a subscriber for years -- has functional, gorgeous stuff. I view the artsy stuff as a necessary evil, like the every-three-years articles on how to tune a plane, align a tablesaw, build a cutting board, etc. in other mags.

Another magazine well worth reading is Furniture and Cabinet Making, from England.

-- Andy Barss

[David Hall]

If we have any sense - YES.

Dave Hall

[Larry Jaques]

On Fri, 9 Jan 2004 09:17:13 -0800, Larry Blanchard brought forth from the murky depths:

Ditto here, and never again for a Republican or Democrat.

-------------------------------------------- Proud (occasional) maker of Hungarian Paper Towels.

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[Mark & Juanita]

Andy,

I've been considering subscribing to Woodwork but have been somewhat reluctant because of the way-out stuff I've seen in some of the copies I've bought. So, from what you've been seeing, that is not really the norm?

[Scott Post]

Good synopsis. I'll intersperse my personal opinion.

I've been a subscriber for years and it seems to run hot and cold these days. One issue will show a top notch veneering job and the next will have a guy building a basic bookcase with biscuits. They seem to have lost their focus.

This was my favorite for years as I climbed up the learning curve. Completely project oriented and generally using proper joinery - not biscuits and pocket screws.

I subscribed for a year then dropped it. There are a few basic jigs that every shop needs (resaw fence, tablesaw sled, etc) but beyond that it's building jigs for the sake of building jigs. You can get all the jig making advice you really need from any of the mainstream "generalized" magazines.

The last time I really read Wood was about 10 years ago and it was pretty basic stuff. Pukey ducks cut on a scrollsaw and screwed together children's furniture. I've skimmed it at the newstand occasionally since and it looks like it has improved.

This is my new favorite. For me it's the proper mix of hand and power tool usage. The project articles are in the middle ground - not low end Walmart quality screwed together stuff but not Philadelphia highboys either. The three or four issues I've read so far have had some original content - unlike most these days.

This used to be a great magazine until a few years ago when Reader's Digest took them over and dumbed it down. It used to occupy the niche that Popular Woodworking now has. After the takeover they changed their focus to building the kind of junk you can get at Walmart and their tool reviews got incredibly shallow.

Right now I subscribe to Fine Woodworking and Popular Woodworking. If I had to drop one it would be FWW. I have most of the FWW back issues, which are a great reference but I'm not seeing much original content anymore.

I just recently let Woodsmith lapse because I feel I've progressed enough to design my own furniture and have gotten competent at all the basic joinery. It's still the magazine I would recommend first to someone with only a few years of woodworking under their belt.

[Glen]

If only he would drop that absurd amnesty bill he is pushing. When Bush was talking I had Clintonesque flashbacks. I remember Bill saying, "It all depends on what your definition of 'is' is." Bush basically did the same thing with the definition of amnesty. I wish there was a "real Republican" running, but he's it. He's better than any of the dwarfs from the Democratic side. What I have to do is contact as many of my friends as I can to contact representatives and senators and ask them to fight and defeat this bill.

Glen

[Larry Blanchard]

I tried that too, but reluctantly came to the conclusion, often stated, that I was throwing away my vote. Now I just try to determine the lesser evil.

[Top Spin]

It really is not throwing away your vote. If you feel that both candidates are unfit, then voting for a third party candidate does "send a message". If only a few do that, the message will not matter much, but that is also true if you vote for one of the major parties.

A vote is a vote. If everyone who is dissatisfied with the major parties voted for a third party, the major parties would respond. Giving up and voting for a major party candidate is what they want you to do and THAT is throwing away your vote, because it's not a vote for what YOU want.

[David Hall]

Yeah, I thought that way in 1992. I was one of the 16 percent or so that gave us all Slick Willie by voting for Ross. I bet those Naderites are happy they voted for Ralph instead of Al (I sure am anyway 'cause if they hadn't we would have had to see what Al would have done after 9-11).

Dave Hall

[Larry Jaques]

On Sat, 10 Jan 2004 09:31:32 -0800, Larry Blanchard brought forth from the murky depths:

Sure, both the Reps and Dems want you to believe that. As soon as you fail to believe it, they're all jobless and out on their sorry don't-know-how-to-earn-a-living arses.

A vote is a vote and is never thrown away unless you FAIL to vote it. As soon as you pantywaists grow enough balls to toss out the idiots in power now, you (and we) will all get the same crap they've been giving us. I mean that for you ladies out there, too. (Tough love & equality.)

The 25% of us who voted for Perot in 1992 proved that these

*ssh*les really -can- be shaken up. Why do you suppose they threatened him and made him look crazy(-ier than he really was)?

Only when you get up the nerve to vote independent with us will the United States of America have a chance to regain its integrity. I pray (non-religiously) that happens in November of this year!

- They who know the truth are not equal to those who love it. -Confucius ---

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[Mark & Juanita]

Yeah, assuring Clinton's victory was a really clear message.

[Larry Blanchard]

And Nader gave those of the opposite leaning the opportunity of putting up with Bush :-).

BTW, what I actually did in the last election was to participate in one of those vote-swapping groups. That way the "message" is sent in those states where it can't affect the outcome.

[Gary Greenberg]

[e-mail] (Dick Durbin) wrote: ...

Dick, I have almost every issue of Woodwork and while they have a fair amount of artsy stuff, it also showcases some of the best work from all over with good writing. They do a fair number of step-by-step articles where the pictures demonstrate the production and that's real nice. Doug Stowe is a frequent contributor too. ;p

That "artsy" stuff does cause a lot of consternation among Woodworks' readers. It's definitely NOT my favorite content but it is my favorite WW mag.

Cheers, Gary

[Bob G]

===================================== I started subscribing to both Woodsmith and Shopnotes from Issue number ONE of each... I have every single issure of both "On File" in my shop. I rate Woodsmith a 9.5 and Shopnotes a 3.5 on a scale of 10 for USEFULLNESS in my shop....

I am retired and with all those issues of Woodsmith in the shop I will never be without a project...However I very very rarely build a project the way they do...I find some of their construction methods rather complicated and only marginally (if at all ) better then other methods...It is fun to play around with some of their methods, you learn a lot, but the shear number of projects I have "plans" ..lol... for just from this one source is more then enouth to carry me thru my retirement... Which I started 5 years ago...my HUGE supply of lumber that I stored for my retirement is almost gone and I have had to putrchase more BUT I am not at a loss for a project to build...

Bob Giffiths

[gego]

When George say it's there, it's there! You can't blame him if the inspectors and soldiers can't find them.

[Woodpecker]

I agree on American Router. Very poorly written magazine. Very little depth. One project called for some special hardware and they don't mention where to get it.

Woodpecker

[B a r r y B u r k e J r .]

There's an excellent article in the current "Atlantic Monthly", which is not exactly a conservative mouthpiece, that explains why Saddam was thought to have so much WMD capability.

It's a very well written article, worth the cover price of the magazine by itself.

Barry

[B a r r y B u r k e J r .]

But al lot of their stuff is so, _ugly_.

Barry