What's your favourite Woodworking Mag?

[silentC]

I'm thinking of subscribing to one or two woodworking mags and I'm interested to know what the general concensus is on the pick/s of the bunch.

[craigb]

Darren,

I cast my vote for Fine Woodworking.

Aus Wood Review is also good but as I only get one vote FWW is it.

Besides, you'll save more money if you subscribe to FWW.

Cheers
Craig

[silentC]

Fine Woodworking had the edge but Wood Review is catching up.

But what I'd like to know is why so many people have viewed the thread but only 9 have bothered voting? There's 60+ views and even allowing for returning to check the results, there must have been at least 20 individuals who viewed it. I thought I'd covered all the options and why would you bother to look at a poll if you weren't going to vote? :confused:

Maybe I should have made Penthouse one of the options

[craigb]

Can you vote if your not a member of the board?

Maybe it's got to do with the high lurker to member ratio.

[silentC]

Ah, you might have a point there. Well, come on you lurkers, sign up and let us know what you think. The more the merrier.

Call me paranoid but I feel a bit like I'm sitting around a camp fire with a few mates and there's all these eyes watching our every move from the trees

Sorry Doctor, forgot the medication again...

[JackoH]

You forgot the English Mag "Woodturning". For those of us whose main hobby is turning.:mad:

[Ben from Vic.]

I've not Voted yet, I thought I'd explain my vote before I place it.
My answer is..... it depends what you want.
Fine Woodworking is fantastic, beautiful colour pictures, profesional articles, written by highly skilled people. But....
The adds are practicly useless, the articles can be to profesional for the (often) low bugget enthusiest. And the articles can tend to be way to narrow minded, rarly encouraging you to think of new or different ways to solve your problem (other than throwing money at it), like using something other than a table saw to cut your finger joints.
(if your going to get this one, the cheapest way is to subscribe direct to Taunton, or else you'll pay through the nose)

Australian Wood Review is practicly the opposite.
There pictures are almost up to the same standard, the adds are interesting and helpful, the articles often demonstrate and encourage thinking outside the box, they have somewhat usefull tool reviews, the timbers are familar and obtainable, and it's so much cheaper. But...
The articles could do with just a little more profesionalism, as they don't really cater to the enthusiest with a bit more cash.
It somtimes comes accross as a magazine run by a couple of older woodies, but that can be a good thing.

Ideally, I'd subscribe to them both, as they complement each other pretty well.

I guess one is pretty American and the other is pretty Australian.

Totally my own views of course.

Ben.

Ps. I've not seen any other magazines worth buying.

[Sturdee]

Darren,

I'll join you around the campfire and ignore those eyes watching us, after all they are only lurkers and not willing to join in the fun.

I am fortunate that I live near 3 major library services so I can borrow the first five magazines you listed easily as well as the British magazine the Woodworker. The American and British mags all use imperial measurements so although they have good ideas the projects are too difficult to follow for a dedicated metric man.

I find that some of the Aussie mags cater for a very narrow type of readers so I opted for Australian Woodsmith.

Peter.

[Geoff Allen]

Lurking! Make me sound like a crocodile!

I call it looking.

Darren,

Like John Hambly I was looking for the English mag Woodturning.

Actually lurking is probably right whenever either Woodturning or Australian Wood Review should arrive in the letterbox. Both are excellent mags and worth the wait, I also subsribe to The Australian Woodworker (must be my turn to win the subscription prize).

I tried the library but feared that I would be skeletonized by the time by turn to read it came around.

rgds

Geoff

[Rocker]

I subscribe to the three most popular magazines in the poll so far (FW, AW, & AWR). I don't know if that makes me a fanatic.

I would not agree that the ads in FW are useless. It is often cheaper to buy hand tools and accessories from American or Canadian suppliers, most of which have websites from which you can order online.

I would agree that the Aussie magazines could do with a bit more professionalism; I have found that the editing is not as careful as it should be - nearly always, if I decide to build one of their projects, I find that there are mistakes in dimensions. I was very surprised to be told by the editor of AWR that they do not possess any CAD software.

[Gumby]

Could be that lots of people are like me. I'm keeping a look out here to see what the general consensus is when it comes to a magazine. I haven't been around that long (in woodworking that is) and as yet haven't subscibed or even thought about purchasing any mags yet. So, I haven't got anything worthwhile to add but I'm 'lurking with intent'.

[Tonyz]

The libraries are great our local is part of TAFE so plenty of the most popular mags there, I spend my money on the photo copier with 3 ring binders at home 1 furniture plans
2 Jigs for workshop and tools
3 other bits and sods
Fww gets my vote Tony

[GeoffS]

This is one where you really need to be able to number your choices.
My favorite is Fine Woodworking - BUT - at the price it wears I limit my enjoyment to the local library with the occasional borrowing so that I can take some notes from it, (I would never let it get near the photocopier of course!)
I frequently buy Aust Woodsmith which I find has many useful little bits on techniques using modern tools etc.
I occasionaly buy Aust Woodworker for a specific project.
They each have their place, I would buy most of them but then there would be no money left for the important things like wood and tools.
A difficult vote ---
Cheers

[gatiep]

Woodturning, the Brittish mag gets my vote. AWR I'm afraid is a bit bland. I find the reviews of tools or machines a bit shallow.....almost like they don't want to upset the advertisers.
But I stll buy it just in case something of interest comes up, as I never seem to have time in the shop to browse through it.
The 'imperial books' don't bother me as I grew up with feet and toes, damn, I mean inches.
I would really like to see the Australian magazines give us more on our Australian timbers, not only the exotic, but all the timbers. The Australian population is so diverse in origin, I am sure there are heaps of us that really know very little about our local timbers. Some nice pics of the grain and as true to the real colour as possible.

My 1/2 c's worth
Cya
Joe

[Wood Borer]

If there is room on the log where the smoke and sparks aren't blowing, I'll have a cold one with you silentC.

Australian Wood Review is my preference for reasons already stated but also many of the authors are professional woodworkers.

I haven't noticed any un-professional articles but then I am not a wordsmith. If an article is written by a good woodworker then I'll understand the ideas, that is why I subscribe to this excellent magazine.


- Wood Borer