Furniture and cabinet maker mag

[Alf]

Steve,

Fair point. On the other hand, while they may miss out on me saying "great article" they also miss out on me saying "what the @£$%&*!?" too. :wink: I have given some feedback to Jeff Gorman on his design series in GWW, if that earns me any brownie points?

The whole business of there being only a certain amount you can say before you start repeating yourself puzzles me. It does seem to be true, despite the enormous range of woodworking skills and techniques, and yet why is it that yet another article on cutting dovetails comes freshly in, say, a copy of The Woodworker from the 20s or 30s, but seems so repetative these days? Was the writing better? Have we become so atuned to the same glossy photographs and so forth that every article looks the same even when it isn't? What? I don't know. Heck, if I did I'd set up the world's most popular woodworking mag. :wink:

Cheers, Alf

 

[Steve Maskery]

HI Alf
Was the writing better? Personally I don't think so, different perhaps, but not better. It was probably grammatically more correct (I have a perpetual argument with a certain deputy editor about mortise and mortice - he changes all mine to mortice even when it's a verb) but just looking through one at random from the late 80s it does seem rather staid.
Personally I try to make my writing, well, personal. But when space is tight the first things to get edited out are extraneous comments. I had what I thought was a fantastic line in the Mackintosh bed article, but it never saw the light of day.
I think we would probably get a wider variety of articles if we had a wider author base. GWW seems to put my stuff in waves - I'm in every issue for months, then nothing for ages. I think they must have a filing cabinet dedicated to Steve's Stuff We Might Use One Day. And other writers for all I know.
I'm well aware that I use the same techniques and similar styles in a lot of my work. Face-frames, loose tenons, vac-pressed curves. That is what you are going to get from me, because that is what I do. You will get Enco drawers cut on a bandsaw, not ones done by hand or with a Leigh. You will get cherry ash and oak. Occasionally a bit of maple or walnut. You won't get pine or exotics. You won't get carving. You will get precious little turning because I am a lousy turner. Other writers have their styles too, both in theur work and their writing. We all know what to expect from David S. Personally I love his work, but I know others think it's just wonky furniture and a rant. More contributors would lead to more variety, and, I would hope, at least the chance of better articles.
Steve
PS - I'm not actually inviting competition here, you understand!

 

[Newbie_Neil]

Hi Pete

I have a lot of sympathy for the mags - I've been a magazine journalist (in the IT market) for more than 20 years.

Ok, OK, so was "End-users tell of IFM compliance worries" one of yours?

Cheers
Neil

 

[Pete W]

Ok, OK, so was "End-users tell of IFM compliance worries" one of yours?

Um, no I don't think so. In fact, I'm not sure what it means (although that doesn't guarantee I didn't write it ).

Actually, you're not likely to read much of my stuff these days; I do mostly corporate magazines for the likes of Epson. Pays much better!

 

[Newbie_Neil]

Hi Pete

I happened to be reading Microscope and came across an article by Peter W(illiams).

Of course, I then put two and two together and made five. :roll:

Cheers
Neil