Dick,
Apologies if my vigorous discussion style is a touch offensive - it isn't meant to be; but a discussion wherein everyone agrees with each other and only says nice things isn't really a discussion, is it?
If you can want and expect a magazine to cater to your particular WW ambitions why can't I express the same wish, even if my ideal content is rather different from yours? You want to make simple things in a weekend. I prefer something a lot more challenging.
I don't say that's a better ambition; but I do say that your kind of WW is already catered to by any number of magazines whereas I have to buy Fine Woodworking to get my fix. I would prefer to have a British equivalent, with a lot more of the British cabinet making tradition and writers like Robert Ingham, David Charlesworth and David Savage allowed full rein.
There is, alas, no such magazine. F&CM comes the closest but is also full of pretend tool tests (often of the £8,000 monster machine tools variety that would crush the floor of my shed as well as my bank balance) and far too much sculpti-furniture made of burr elm for people with £10,000 to spend on a "statement". Every now and then there is a bit of light from Mr Charlesworth or someone else of his calibre, with useful information to impart in a clear and concise manner.
Perhaps by now you are feeling my frustration at the lack of a British WW magazine for little moi.
Perhaps I am just an awkward little sod?
My shed, incidentally, is 10 foot X 17 foot, recently expanded from one that was identical in size to yours. It isn't the shed that dictates the furniture made in it so much as the woodworker's ambition and intent.
As to that writing style; well, I was admittedly harsh - the stuff can be read. Perhaps I'm allowing my frustration at the bland content to make me hyper-critical. Nevertheless, for a model of what I see as the ideal WW article style, read Fine Woodworking. The pictures tell a story and aren't just dressing. The words are frugal, to-the-point and unambiguous, without imposing the personality of the writer. The subject matter ranges from first principles to fantastique! Compare this to the "I did this then I did that" plodding of most British magazine articles.
