FWW comment

[Roy G]

As many of you know, Klingspor's has a box of free magazines by their entrance. I recently picked up a FWW from 2019 and read through it. Different from when I subscribed in the past. On a further visit I picked up some FWW from 2010. I was surprised to find an article on getting a board out of raw stock in issues both from 2010 and 2019. I guess FWW has cycles like sun spots where certain topics are brought up on certain time intervals. I dropped the subscription after finding repetitive articles. Maybe the magazine should be taken for ten years so you don't get the same stuff too often. Anyway, Klingspor's deserves credit for providing a place for surplus magazines.

Roy G

 

[tri4sale]

As many of you know, Klingspor's has a box of free magazines by their entrance. I recently picked up a FWW from 2019 and read through it. Different from when I subscribed in the past. On a further visit I picked up some FWW from 2010. I was surprised to find an article on getting a board out of raw stock in issues both from 2010 and 2019. I guess FWW has cycles like sun spots where certain topics are brought up on certain time intervals. I dropped the subscription after finding repetitive articles. Maybe the magazine should be taken for ten years so you don't get the same stuff too often. Anyway, Klingspor's deserves credit for providing a place for surplus magazines.

Roy G

was it the exact same article or did they make any changes to it in 2019?

 

[Martin Roper]

As many of you know, Klingspor's has a box of free magazines by their entrance. I recently picked up a FWW from 2019 and read through it. Different from when I subscribed in the past. On a further visit I picked up some FWW from 2010. I was surprised to find an article on getting a board out of raw stock in issues both from 2010 and 2019. I guess FWW has cycles like sun spots where certain topics are brought up on certain time intervals. I dropped the subscription after finding repetitive articles. Maybe the magazine should be taken for ten years so you don't get the same stuff too often.

I had subscriptions to Shop Notes and Popular Woodworking years ago. I dropped both after I noticed that same effect.

 

[bob vaughan]

There's only so many topics that can be covered for the recreational woodworker. Repetition is their only option for content.
I've got the first 130 issues. As soon as I have those subjects down pat, I'll subscribe again.

 

[Martin Roper]

For me, YT has completely taken over from WW magazines. When I was a beginner with only WW magazines (and today I'm not too much further along from there), there were things I didn't know about until they got around to publishing an article on it. Now I can look up a particular jig, project, or tool and find 5, 10, even 20 videos on that topic.

 

[mdbuntyn]

There's only so many topics that can be covered for the recreational woodworker. Repetition is their only option for content.

This

 

[smallboat]

This

Let’s not lose sight of new comers who didn’t see that article 10 years ago. They might be left wondering why FWW never covers the topic.

 

[bob vaughan]

There's also staff turnover. Young editors are also seeing age old processes for the first time.
What I remember seeing a while back is that the old processes were being accomplished with the latest retail store offerings. That's about the only play they've got.
Magazines exist on income from advertising, not content.

 

[Martin Roper]

I was actually put off by FWW when I first saw it ages ago. I was a complete beginner and the vast majority of the articles seemed to be about bow-front dressers or tuning a dovetail saw. I started "woodworking" because I want to make some built-ins for a walk-in closet and a bed for my dog.

 

[WriterJFP]

I am at Martin's beginning stage. I look through the magazine and think, "Maybe someday." However, I did learn to make box joints just for dog beds. Those joints are apparently delicious.

 

[Graywolf]

This is not new, it has been going on for decades. The simple fact is other than major technology advancement there really isn‘t much new under the sun, especially in woodworking. You change and update how you go from point A to point B, but it’s still pretty much the same. That makes it difficult for publications to create new content. Manufacturers are always coming up with new items to sell us but if you look close most of it is minor changes to existing products. Change and real improvements come slow. So here is to change, that will give us something new to read about.

 

[danmart77]

I let my subscription expire when I wrote to the magazine editor and asked to submit an article on building longrifles and the builder I wanted to submit was Wallace Gusler. He answered me with this dismissive comment about finding a magazine with that as their theme subject. Well that was the wrong answer for me.

 

[Martin Roper]

Some of the best woodworking I've ever seen was done on rifle stocks.

 

[Douglas Robinson]

Years ago I subscribed to Woodsmith, Shop Notes and FWW. First to go was Shop Notes as they kept publishing article about building machines that are better made from cast iron and are impossible to keep in proper running order.

Next was woodsmith as it kept recycling projects. I mean how many "ultimate cross-cut sleds" are there?

Last to go was FWW. Due t staff turnover it seemed to me that it did not know what it wanted to be. Finally the TOOLS & SHOPS issue stopped have much about shops, so I did not renew.

 

[bob vaughan]

I let my subscription expire when I wrote to the magazine editor and asked to submit an article on building longrifles and the builder I wanted to submit was Wallace Gusler. He answered me with this dismissive comment about finding a magazine with that as their theme subject. Well that was the wrong answer for me.

Knowing what I do about those guys, particularly the higher up ones, that response was 100% predictable. They aren't our kind of people. I'll let it go at that.

 

[Oka]

My Mom was a cartoonist. I grew up attending many meetings with my mom at probably 50-75 different magazine publishers.

Here are some memories

They are a business, and regurgitate stories they like usually every 2-4 years. Usually will change names or settings but basically the same story. They were open about this and it is a common practice.

They do not often listen to outside voices, they generally feel they got the best handle how to sell their product.

Over confident or arrogant attitude ? ........ those are understated words to describe the people my mom talked to.

 

[Martin Roper]

They do not often listen to outside voices, they generally feel they got the best handle how to sell their product.

Over confident or arrogant attitude ? ........ those are understated words to describe the people my mom talked to.

And so many are out of business because they either didn't or couldn't adapt to the new reality that is the internet.

 

[Berta]

I built many of my first “real woodworking” projects from Wood magazine, Popular Woodworking and Woodworkers Journal. Before internet, this is what I had available. New woodworkers are born everyday, and they are happy when they can learn from these publications.

 

[Rwe2156]

I subscribed to FWW for many years. I remember in the 80’s how much less advertising there was. But the magazine eventually wore out my interest. I had a digital membership to access the videos. I learned a heck of a lot watching the different project videos. I mean where else are you going to see Phil Lowe build something?

Active Interest Media bought Taunton Press. I don’t know what that’s going to mean for FWW, hopefully it will improve. I expect it will be totally digital.

Access to the library of videos is worth every penny of the subscription price. There are tons of articles for various projects available on a thumb drive. I used to use it a lot to get ideas or see how something was built. But today I wouldn’t subscribe to the magazine on for the magazine.

 

[danmart77]

My first reading inspiration was from the 3 books written by James Krenov. The guy was so gneuine that you couldn't keep from reading all his little tecnniques and how they developed. My take away was his fascination with planing a surface with a hand plane and not using sandpaper. At the same time this was going on, out comes Tage Frid (another woodworker from northern European background). Both very good at how they approached the process of building objects. If you find old FWW magazines you can find artcles by Frid and Krenov. They were the kingpins for many years.

Regards
Dan