British woodworking

[dicktimber]

Have to say it's an excellent issue this month.
Mikee

 

[Aled Dafis]

Always is :wink:

Cheers

Aled

 

[houtslager]

be alright if was in Holland, still waiting for last issue to turn up.

hs

 

[L Harding]

i bought the first ever issue and then never have again since, is it a good read? how does it compare to F&C?

 

[dicktimber]

This months does some basic stuff which if you don't do it all the time you forget about...like fitting hinges by hand. This one article has so much detail you can't help but fit better hinge.
It reviews a jet drum sander which has had a lot of discussion on the forum..........etc etc etc.....
mikee

 

[Escudo]

Have to agree, this months mag is excellent.

 

[Routermonster]

+1

Les

 

[frugal]

i bought the first ever issue and then never have again since, is it a good read? how does it compare to F&C?

I feel that they target completely different audiences. F&C targets professionals and serious amatures. They have articles for beginners, but also reviews of £3,000 table saws. F&C also has a greater focus on the design of furniture, it always has a section in the front about the latest shows and some really inspirational pieces.

BWW is a lot more down to earth. It is all about making people interested in woodworking. Their beginners articles include how to do things on the cheap and how to get into the hobby with a minimal outlay. The style of the magazine is much friendlier and you really get the feeling that it is the passion of one man, whereas F&C is more obviously from a publishing house.

I have both on subscription and I read both from cover to cover a couple of times. I get completely different things out of both of them. One thing I have noticed is that the articles in BWW are either better written, or better proofed. The past couple of months there have been articles in F&C that have had the entire first page missing for instance, and I always need to reread the project articles in F&C several times as they are uniformly more difficulty to read than their equivalents in BWW.

 

[L Harding]

thanks, maybe ill give it another go. I think F&C has been going down hill a bit recently. this could be because of the constantly changing editor.

Is BWW still by monthly?

 

[paulm]

I have exited a number of mag subs in the last couple of years, not due to cost, just boredom really!

My F&C renewal form came through today and I confess I put in the recycling box without much agonising :shock:

Have found less and less to be of real interest, including sadly Michael Huntley's "noddy" guide to joints and the like for example, lovely guy though he is.

BW and Nick's sister mag are the only ones I'm keeping for the moment as they tend to be a bit more interesting for me, but horses for courses and all that, and no guarantee I'll not tire of them eventually......

Cheers, Paul

 

[OPJ]

Is BWW still by monthly?

Yep, and I wouldn't expect it to become a monthly magazine any time soon (if ever!). Nick runs two other magazines around BW; there's Living Woods (another bi-monthly magazine, which fits in between BW) and Small Woods, which I think is released quarterly, exclusively for members of the Smallwoods Association...

Anyway, there really isn't time for one man to push two magazines out in one month. Even if that was possible, there's a good chance that BW wouldn't be half as good as it is proving to be now with each issue. You should be able to find it in WH Smiths and Borders, generally speaking. If you're still having trouble finding it then, do get in contact.

 

[Ironballs]

You'll not find it in Borders for much longer Olly

 

[woodbloke]

Have found less and less to be of real interest, including sadly Michael Huntley's "noddy" guide to joints and the like for example, lovely guy though he is.

Cheers, Paul

I have to agree about that joints series, which is frankly, not the sort of thing I'd expect to see in F&C. Apparently though, the joints will get very complex later on (aka Chinese and Jap jointing) - Rob

 

[Green]

Is BWW still by monthly?

Yes, it comes out a few days before the bi-monthly thread about how good it is :lol:

 

[Nick Gibbs]

Thanks for all your comments. I've been away for the last week and missed the comments.

As Olly comments, British Woodworking is very unlikely to go monthly in the near future, though subs are doing really well and it's very tempting. For the moment I love the balance of producing BW one month and Living Woods the next. I'd only be able to produce either mag monthly if I employed editors, and I can't help thinking that quite quickly I'd not be doing what I love doing!

And thanks to everyone who contributed to the Tools of the Decade feature.

Cheers

Nick

 

[flounder]

I bought the December edition of tha mag and liked it so much I subscribed for a year. I then received my first copy of my subscription, being the December edition I already had. I emailed Nick and within a few minutes I had a reply saying that my subscription would start from the next edition. I have to take my hat off for the excellent customer service and speedy reply I had. Certainly much better than the response times I had from a certain other publication! Well done Nick and keep up the good work!

Lee

 

[Nick Gibbs]

Thanks, Lee, both for subscribing and for telling the world about our customer service (which I'm sure isn't always that good!). There is an issue with our online subscriptions because it's not always clear which new subscribers want to start with. We are now assuming people want to start with the next rather than the current issue.

By the way, thanks Frugal for your comments earlier in the thread about our articles being easier to follow than other magazines. Others have commented about our editing in the past, so it's a relief to read positive response in that quarter.

I don't like to pigeon-hole British Woodworking on the basis of ability; I prefer to see it as a magazine that inspires people to have a go and/or offers you a good read with a good balance of information and entertainment (all good BBC stuff!).

Cheers

Nick

 

[lurker]

I made a cock up with continueation of my Living Woods subs and missed the last issue.

An e-mail to Nick and a few days later a FOC copy plopped through the letterbox \/
Thanks Nick!!
The chap truely knows the meaning of customer service & how to encourage further subscribers.

Living Woods is an interesting read if you have not seen it.

 

[bigjoe]

Im still seriously considering a sub to BW i bought the latest issue in the local smiths but its hit and miss but i always read it several times as well as GWW and WPP,im very much an improving amateur so i find alot of new (to me) ideas in them as well as here of course

Joe

 

[Nick Gibbs]

Im still seriously considering a sub to BW i bought the latest issue in the local smiths but its hit and miss

Joe

Just out of interest, and so that we know what people are thinking, what do you find 'hit and miss', Joe? It's always (usually) good to hear feedback (however painful!).

Thanks

Nick