magazine recommendations?

[michelevit]

I have never subscribed to woodworking magazines and I was thinking of
addiing some. I need to balance out the wifes Martha Stewart and Baby magazine which have taken over the coffee table.

Are there any woodworking magazines that your guys recommend?

[radhak]

you could search here and find lots of prior discussions on magazines.

Fine Woodworking, American Woodworker, Wood, etc come to mind. My favorites are Woodsmith and Shopnotes, but ymmv.

Best is, get to homedepot/lowes and buy an issue each of these mags (not necessarily in a bunch ) to identify your tastes, then subscribe to whatever you like : as always, that saves a ton of money.

[thrytis]

You can get a free issue of ShopNotes and Woodsmith by signing up on their website, and they'll throw in a free book too. You do need to cancel if you decide you don't want it though.

I like Wood Magazine best of the ones i've looked at. ShopNotes and Woodsmith are good, but are fairly focused so you need to be interested in their topics. For example, ShopNotes is mostly jigs, fixtures, and shop organization, which wasn't very useful to me when my shop was a 2'x4' closet.

[LCHIEN]

You can get a free issue of ShopNotes and Woodsmith by signing up on their website, and they'll throw in a free book too. You do need to cancel if you decide you don't want it though.

I like Wood Magazine best of the ones i've looked at. ShopNotes and Woodsmith are good, but are fairly focused so you need to be interested in their topics. For example, ShopNotes is mostly jigs, fixtures, and shop organization, which wasn't very useful to me when my shop was a 2'x4' closet.

My thinking pretty much coincides with Erics. In some ways I like Shopnotes and Woodsmith (see www.augusthome.com) better than Wood.

[LarryG]

Fine Woodworking is wonderful, but spendy ($8/issue on the stands, $35 for a one-year subscription). Some think it appeals to a woodworker of an advanced-intermediate to expert skill level, but I find it fairly accessible to anyone.

WOOD is a nice balance of projects the average guy can build plus tool reviews, shop tips, etc. Highly recommended. (Currently this is the only WW title to which I subscribe. I buy some issues of FWW, ShopNotes, and Woodsmith, but so far not enough to warrant subscribing to any of them.)

I also buy an issue of Popular Woodworking now and then. In time it could become a habit. The same folks put out a twice-yearly, no-ads pub called Woodworking that is excellent.

The only one I'd not recommend is Woodworker's Journal. Way too many ads, way too little usable content.

Note that many if not most pubs are bimonthly; i.e., six issues per year.

[ChrisD]

This is my fourth year subscribing to Fine Woodworking and Popular Woodworking.

Although I probably will never be as good as the craftsmen and craftswomen who contribute their projects to FWW, it sure is a nice source of inspiration.

The thing I like about Popular Woodworking is the range of articles that they cover on skills, tools, and techniques. Last year, they started a column called Arts and Mysteries, in which the author explores antique tools and methods. They also do occasional non-mainstream stuff. One interesting piece that they did was a discussion of the dovetails on John Paul II's coffin. I also think that they are ahead of other magazines in tool reviews (in terms of promptness relative to a tool's release date).

I subscribed to WOOD for a while, but decided to drop it after realizing I was spending too much on magazines. Nothing against WOOD, but I just personally like the other two more.

I guess FWW will always be my favorite, so much so that I'm also currently subscribed to the Web content.

[Slik Geek]

What, nobody else subscribes to American Woodworker???!!

I'm getting American Woodworker and Wood right now. One thing to keep in mind is that if you only preview one issue, you may not get a representative "feel" for that magazine. Some months the articles and projects won't be as relevant for your interests. Other months, you get a few tips, or a feature article that becomes an often referenced treasure. I like these two magazines because their projects have been ones that I have actually built. (I have several years of Shop Notes still waiting for that to happen). I also have liked the tips and ideas in those magazines.

I'm often tempted to get Fine Woodworking, but the cost makes me hesitate. Sometimes I look through the magazine, and wonder why I would want to subscribe, because I'm not in the woodworking elite and will never use hardly anything I find in the issue. Other months (such as August 2006), I look at the magazine at the store and have to buy it. Then I wonder why I'm not subscribing to it.

Three tips:
1) IIRC, Menards has a good selection of woodworking magazines at a discounted price. (Check me on this folks).
2) See if your local library subscribes to several woodworking magazines. (I'm fortunate in having a couple libraries in the area that get most of them). Then you can review them in comfort and at no cost.
3) To really get to know the magazines, watch for times when libraries sell off their collections. At a local library during one of those sales, I spent less than $5 and got an incredible selection of several woodworking magazine past issues, including Fine Woodworking. Took me months to work through them. It was like a low cost trade school education.

[Knottscott]

I've tried just about all of them and have been tending to enjoy Am WWer and Pop WWing the most lately.

[Jeffrey Schronce]

A few of us here at BT3 got American Woodworker for free for a year when there was a special. It is pretty decent overall.

Wood is ok. Workbench sucks (IMHO). Now that I think about it maybe it was Workbench we got for free. I don't remember.

Some folks have luck with the magazine re-sellers, some have had problems. I bought a few years of a couple magazines from an ebay seller and have great results.

[TB Roye]

I subscribe to Wood and Woodcraft. I pick up Shop Notes if there are interesting articles. Pick up others from time to time also.

Tom

[SHADOWFOX]

I subscribe to the following and very happy with them:
WOOD
Fine Woodworking

I get the following for free although the one year free period is about to end and I don't think I am going to re-new as a paid subscription.
Workbench
Woodcraft

I will one of these days sign up for subscription to finewoodworking.com.

[LinuxRandal]

Workbench, (the freebie we got here about a year ago). Great for the price.
Shopnotes, I subscribe to. Dad subscribes to Wood. I'd like Fine Woodworking (outta my league). Only seen one issue of woodsmith, so I am not judging it.
I only occassionally look into both Popular woodworking, and American woodworker, at the library. That is a good resource to see a few months at once.