Shopsmith Forums

Currently I'm only subscribing to Fine Homebuilding but want to add 1-2 woodworking magazines, so I thought I'd check what folks here like the best. Woodsmith? ShopNotes? Fine Woodworking? Wood? Others? Ideally magazines that are consistently interesting, informative, and include adequate details (i.e. don't just show off an item that's been made but include adequate designs or details to either reproduce it or at least fully understand the techniques utilized).

Anyway, I'd love to hear what folks do and don't like about the above magazines or any others I didn't list.

Shop Notes and Wood have to be my favorites. The other magazines present projects, practices, and finishes which are way beyond my skill set and create more frustration out of something which is supposed to be enjoyable.

So what's the difference between ShopNotes and Woodsmith in terms of content? I know they are put out by the same folks...

Hands down - WOOD!

But, I do wish I had kept up my subscription of Woodsmith.

I subscribe to Woodsmith, Wood Magazine and Fine Woodworking. From time to time I've also gotten ShopNotes and Woodworkers Journal (before it became part of Rocklers or Woodcraft or whoever runs it now).

While I enjoy and learn from them all I've personally gotten more from Woodsmith. They don't fill the pages with adds for tools I don't want or can't afford. Their plans a usually excellent and they often have side bars on specific tips or jigs for the projects.

I still page through my Hands On too.

I know this is off the topic of the thread but ...I suppose in the future they'll all disappear and we'll get digital versions. I'm not looking forward to that. I like the dead tree version that I can take with me and make notes on. I often write in my magazines, put in post-it markers, etc.

I've decided to let all of my subscriptions to woodworking magazines expire. Aside from some of the tool reviews, they just don't work for me anymore.

I recently picked up about four boxes of magazines from the '80s and '90s at an auction, and while they duplicate a lot of what I already have, looking through them I see a drastic contrast with recent issues. There were real, old-school woodworkers, who learned the trade as an apprentice and are able to convey proper techniques in those old magazines. And, the older magazines aren't full of half-page pictures, there simply as filler.

Some of the techniques offered these days simply don't make a lot of sense. As an example, the last issue of Wood Magazine has a pub table and chairs on the cover. If you ever want something to fail, follow the instructions in the article that have you assemble the chairs (and table) with screws. And, after it fails, and those chairs certainly will fail if they get used, try to put them back together.

dgale wrote:So what's the difference between ShopNotes and Woodsmith in terms of content? I know they are put out by the same folks...

Both pubs don't have ads and are published on higher quality paper. They come three hole punched for binder storage. I think they are both are on a bi-monthly (every other month) publishing schedule.

The difference? Last time I looked Woodsmith was furniture and household items and Shopnotes was jig and workshop items.

Shopnotes is neat if you like to tinker with shop related items, just wish my library carried them.

Check your local library, you may be able to check out a year or two worth and bring them home without paying for a subscription. My local library keeps 2 years and you can reserve them online.

I've got a digital subscription to Popular Woodworking (downloadable PDF files). I've subscribed to Pop Wood for about 6 years and get a lot of my furniture/cabinet ideas from them. I do not know if I will continue my subscription when it comes due. Pop Wood has gone through some major staff changes and I have not been overly impressed as of late.

The other subscription I keep renewing is Fine Woodworking. I get lots of ideas from it as well. It is also a bit pricy.

I've dropped Wood, American Woodworker, Wood Workers Journal, and Woodcraft. They got too repetitive for my taste. And the ones owned by Rockler and Woodcraft....were basically advertising for the stores.

Once in awhile, I will pick up a copy of Shop Notes from the local bookstore if they have jigs or fixtures that I'm interested in.

berry wrote: I know this is off the topic of the thread but ...I suppose in the future they'll all disappear and we'll get digital versions. I'm not looking forward to that. I like the dead tree version that I can take with me and make notes on. I often write in my magazines, put in post-it markers, etc.

I wholeheartedly agree - I love it when my new copy of Fine Homebuilding arrives...I'm like a kid who just got a new Iron Man comic book and sneaks off to find a corner to read it. I spend enough time online and prefer to read my magazines and newspapers the old fashioned way. Bottom line is if magazines I like go digital only, the % of them I'll be reading, if any, will decrease substantially. I may check out 102 articles that catch my eye but I won't read it cover to cover like I do now.

Several years ago, I stumbled across a bunch of copies of Fine Woodworking at a garage sale, and up to that point, I had not really been more than a re-modeler/occasional simple wood project kind of guy.

Reading those magazines really piqued me interest in more serious woodworking. At first, a lot of the articles on various techniques were well beyond me, but the more I read, the more it pushed me to dig deeper & try new things. While I don't consider myself anywhere near the level of some of their contributors, I am miles beyond where I was before. As a result, that magazine will probably be a favorite of mine.

Since that time, I've gotten tons of back issues of pretty much all the available woodworking mags by buying them in lots of 5-20 or so off ebay. They end up being about .50 to a buck apiece including shipping. Some of these go back to the 80's, and I've found that much of the info in them never goes out of date, save new developments in finishes & new tools.

Since I'm more of an old Shopsmith & hand tool guy, I really don't care much about the newest tool that purports to do this better or do that faster. I do care about developments in finishes, ways to improve techniques, and seeing projects to build or use as building blocks to developing my own idea. That said, and beyond having a personal favorite, I think they're all great.