UK woodworking mags

[Derek Cohen (Perth Oz)]

Well I am back in Perth .. warm again! Gad you guys are a hardy lot! London was chilly, Yorkshire was cold but bearable, Edinburgh was freezing!! And Cornwall finished me off. And even though the sun was shining everywhere ...

I am sorry that I did not get to catch up with anyone on the forum but my wife had organised something for every day. We had a GREAT time. We visit every several years, so next time hopefully.

Every now-and-then I popped into a newsagent to try and find a copy of Furniture and Cabinetmaking. It simply does not appear to exist in the UK!!! Where does one buy a copy. It is available in most Perth newsagents.

Regards from Perth

Derek

 

[Mr_P]

Larger W H Smiths, my town centre one has dropped it but on the rare occasions I'm in Manchester City Centre they stock it.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

Same. Seems mostly subscription and mailed here now

 

[Harbo]

Next time come in summer - it might be warmer?

Rod

 

[custard]

I appreciate F&CM is put together on a shoestring, and I'm happy to support them with a subscription, but the quality does seem to bob up and down depending on who they can get for tuppence to write an article. I think it was the edition before last that was absolutely crackerjack, great writing, good photography, loads of solid content. But the edition before that was a bit disappointing

By comparison Fine Woodworking is so professional; something for all skill levels and interests in each edition, great photography, equally great drawings/diagrams, and the content is thoroughly edited so there's a real "house style" and consistency. I guess FW budgets and resources are just in a different league, but I wish F&CM could tempt back writers like David Charlesworth to tackle some really meaty technical issues.

 

[AndyT]

I don't know the dates in question but for a specialist mag like F&C many shops will just get half a dozen or so as it's published. If they sell out quickly there will be no sign of it until the next issue comes out - so for most of the month it will be invisible.

 

[Derek Cohen (Perth Oz)]

I don't know the dates in question but for a specialist mag like F&C many shops will just get half a dozen or so as it's published. If they sell out quickly there will be no sign of it until the next issue comes out - so for most of the month it will be invisible.

Hi Andy

It was not just F&C, but any woodworking mag. Zip.

Now if it would have been another story with Horse and Hound (had I been interested ) ....

Regards from Perth

Derek

 

[Cheshirechappie]

The magazines seem to be in a sort if 'in between' situation, wondering whether and when to go from print to digital. It's been said that print sales have been falling across the newspaper and magazine sectors, but book sales are holding up. I don't think anybody really knows what the future will be; mainly digital in the longer term as the current generation of youngsters reared on digital devices, probably, but there is still a residual market for print at the moment as many in the 'hobby' market are of more mature years, and with some time and money to devote to leisure pastimes. I think that reflects in what the newsagents stock, though for most of them, newspapers and magazines are something of an incidental and diminishing part of their business. The world moves on....

(By the way, Derek - it's been one of the warmest winters we've had for years. It's also been one of the wettest, so you did well to dodge that! Next time you visit the UK, try for late spring - late April, May and early June - or summer proper July, August and September. We actually have some warm days then - some years!)

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I suspect most of the problem now is that magazine sales are mainly to occasional impulse buyers, they are so expensive in general that regular readers subscribe. Private Eye (not that it's expensive) for example is £1.80 and the subscription deal atm works out at under £1. The agents don't have the return arrangements they used to have either.

 

[David C]

Derek,

You must have been close!

22% pay reduction is not very conducive.

David Charlesworth

 

[G S Haydon]

WH Smith in our nearest largest town stocks it and a few other woodworking mags. I tend to use the internet as a way to access information or pick up old books. I think "magazines" will survive, they'll just be an online format.

 

[Droogs]

It is infuriating to have to travel for about half an hour on the bus to the only WH Smith store in Edinburgh (there are 4) that occasionally has any woodworking magazines only to find that it's very hit and miss as to which ones they will have in stock. Although they seem to have a huge demand for "Chicken"s (16 copies) and "Cow management" (9 copies). but strangely only 3 "Good woodworking" and 1 "Fine Woodworking" and very glad to see the revamped "Woodworking Crafts" 6 copies on the shelf. I've lived in and around Edinburgh for 30 years and met a total of 2 people who keeps chickens and 1 who has a cow, well 350. So who the heck is buying these and there must be more people interested in wood then just the 4 people i know live around here.

 

[lurker]

https://issuu.com/

 

[yetloh]

I appreciate F&CM is put together on a shoestring, and I'm happy to support them with a subscription, but the quality does seem to bob up and down depending on who they can get for tuppence to write an article. I think it was the edition before last that was absolutely crackerjack, great writing, good photography, loads of solid content. But the edition before that was a bit disappointing

By comparison Fine Woodworking is so professional; something for all skill levels and interests in each edition, great photography, equally great drawings/diagrams, and the content is thoroughly edited so there's a real "house style" and consistency. I guess FW budgets and resources are just in a different league, but I wish F&CM could tempt back writers like David Charlesworth to tackle some really meaty technical issues.

I agree with you that F&C is variable and I am sure that the pay rate is an issue in attracting good quality regular contributors. As an occasional contributor for many years (I go back to Colin Eden Eadon's days as editor) I can only say that I don't really do it for the money, although I wouldn't do it for nothing, but having spent all my working life working with words I still enjoy doing it. One of the problems is, I think that many writers who are first and foremost woodworkers don't consciously read their work through to make sure that it actually conveys what they are trying to say i.e the I know what I mean but will anyone else test.

As for Fine Woodworking, again I agree that thits production values are very high and no doubt they can pay well because they have a much bigger circulation. I had a subscription for a number of years but dropped it fo two reasons. First, their cavalier attitude to the safety of their readers. They include a small a paragraph in each issue headed "About your safety" and then proceed to show ridiculously dangerous procedures, presumably on the basis that the disclaimer absolves them from any responsibilty. Men famously don't read instruction manuals but they do read magazines, so in my viiew that places a very real responsibility on their editors. The second reason for not renewing my sub was that they simply don't publish furniture that interests or inspires me. Pesumably FWW reflects the interests of its readership and from a design point of view that seems to be unremittingly backward looking - there is a plethora of hideous Pennsylvanian highboys and arts and crafts and Shaker stuff (both of which I like but have no desire to make) but almost nothing remotely forward looking. I often look at FWW in Smiths free library but am never tempted to buy it.

Jim

 

[custard]

One of the problems is, I think that many writers who are first and foremost woodworkers don't consciously read their work through to make sure that it actually conveys what they are trying to say i.e the I know what I mean but will anyone else test.

As for Fine Woodworking, again I agree that thits production values are very high and no doubt they can pay well because they have a much bigger circulation. I had a subscription for a number of years but dropped it fo two reasons. First, their cavalier attitude to the safety of their readers. They include a small a paragraph in each issue headed "About your safety" and then proceed to show ridiculously dangerous procedures, presumably on the basis that the disclaimer absolves them from any responsibilty. Men famously don't read instruction manuals but they do read magazines, so in my viiew that places a very real responsibility on their editors. The second reason for not renewing my sub was that they simply don't publish furniture that interests or inspires me. Pesumably FWW reflects the interests of its readership and from a design point of view that seems to be unremittingly backward looking - there is a plethora of hideous Pennsylvanian highboys and arts and crafts and Shaker stuff (both of which I like but have no desire to make) but almost nothing remotely forward looking. I often look at FWW in Smiths free library but am never tempted to buy it.

Jim

Oops!

 

[Bedrock]

In and around mid Hampshire, F&C is usually to be found in most Smiths. Curiously, in the large Smiths in Southampton General Hospital, no woodworking magazines at all, although a very glossy production on espionage. I was talking recently to the owner of a small village shop who told me that his supplier works on a sale on return basis, so it is no cost to the shop if the magazine does not get sold. If this is generally the case, it must be down to the magazine trying harder to get shelf space.

I have the F&C from day one. Yes it does vary in quality, and some of the articles are simplistic, but it does now cover hand tools regularly and much less of the machinery reviews of large table saws I am never likely to buy. Be interesting to know where they see their target audience.

I am with Yetloh on FW, in that the majority of the furniture is American restoration, and seemed, last time I looked in Smiths, to still be power tool orientated. I have bought occasionally, but at over £5 for what might be one article, is not of interest.

 

[yetloh]

I may have spent my life writing but I've never claimed to be a good typist! Dearly beloved is happy to proof read articles but I don't fancy my chances of persuading her to do it for forum posts

Jim

 

[custard]

I may have spent my life writing but I've never claimed to be a good typist! Dearly beloved is happy to proof read articles but I don't fancy my chances of persuading her to do it for forum posts

Jim

We've all been there Jim, me more than most!

Given your long association with F&C maybe you can answer a couple of questions. I've got a dim recollection, say back in the late 70's, that F&C was primarily a trade magazine. Do you know if that's correct, and if so when did it transition to becoming a hobbyist title?

 

[Cheshirechappie]

Issue number 1 of Furniture and Cabinetmaking was published in November 1996, with the late Paul Richardson (a professional cabinetmaker and former editor of 'The Woodworker') as editor. In his first editorial, he wrote that he'd always felt that furnituremaking should have it's own title; "No longer will this noble and useful pursuit jostle for space with bird-tables and besom brooms!" he wrote - and the rest is history.

I've never seen a copy, or even heard much about it, but from the dim recesses of memory there was a periodical called 'The Cabinetmaker'. I've no idea when it ceased publication, but the 1970s seems a fair bet.

 

[D_W]

I was a subscriber to Fine Woodworking for a few years 10 years ago or so. I never liked the tone of taunton's communications to their customers, and the price of the magazine is, let's say, in their favor. They often send you offers to sign someone else up for discount, but never a break for the subscriber and the content quality doesn't match quality of the production (it is an attractively made magazine, I'll give it that - crisp and well done, it's just that nagging content issue. I don't need to see more articles of chisels hacked into the side of a board with a sledge and a declaration of "Best" determined doing something a cabinetmaker wouldn't do in the first place, followed up by yet another review of random orbit sanders or 14 inch bandsaws).

Their communications after my subscription ceased were doubly annoying. One of them said something like "your skills are now in decline". I suppose I was less able to judge what the best random orbit sander on the hobbyist market might be after letting the sub lapse. I can live with that.

Pop wood was next, but as with magazines now, the content seems to be aimed at the new subscriber and once you see on revolution of the pattern, that's enough and it, too, can lapse.

I have an English friend over here in the states who still raves over F&C, though, so it must not be that bad!! I don't know the type of content in it, but he is also a FWW subscriber and is the target of their tool reviews, I guess (most of the tools he had came out of recommendations in those tool reviews).