The President's Corner - January 2013

Steve's Shavings

It’s cold outside and I hope each of you are woodworking in the warmth of your shop or at least, working on plans for your next project.

The Triangle Woodworkers Association certainly did itself proud with a very successful Toys for Tots year. TWA created over 3000 hand crafted wooden toys to help make a better Christmas for many kids. Thanks to all who gave of their time, skills, and abilities, especially our Committee Chair, Fred Ford. Plans are already under¬way for 2013.

Speaking of plans and Fred, the TWA Board of Directors and many Committee Chairmen met at Fred’s home to start making 2013 the best year yet. There are special programs and events in the works. Some examples include; Chris Schwarz, on February 22, with our regular meeting on Friday followed by 2 workshops on Saturday and Sunday; Chuck Bender is coming in June and will be conducting a weekend workshop, and Fred Ford is planning a special Pig Pickin’ for our July meeting to kick off the 28th Annual TWA Toys for Tots project. Of course, there are some special woodworking artisans scheduled for each of our regular meetings.

Following our December TWA meeting, I began working on my column for the TWA Newsletter but two recent events altered my plans. I decided to write about Fine Woodworking, an iconic woodworking magazine currently published seven times a year. The first event occurred on December 14, 2012 with the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School and the second event was a Fine Woodworking Magazine Archive 1975-2012 DVD Christmas gift from my wife. What do these two events have in common? Newtown, Connecticut...home of Sandy Hook Elementary & The Taunton Press, (publisher of Fine Woodworking). If you were interested in buying a woodworking magazine published in the USA before the winter of 1975, you were out of luck. To fill this vacuum, Paul Roman decided to publish a quarterly magazine written by skilled and passionate woodworkers who have a talent for writing. This philosophy of hiring woodworkers who can write continues to this day.

Fine Woodworking was first published in the winter of 1975. Approximately 25,000 copies of FW, Issue #1 were distributed and contained 18 brief articles and 4 advertisements on 50 pages of heavy stock paper and cost $2.50 each or $8.00 for an annual subscription. Of note, the original four advertisers were Leichtung, Woodcraft, Constantine, and Garrett Wade. By comparison, the most recent FW, Issue #231 (Feb. 2013), contains 8 feature articles, 8 regular columns, 65 ads, on 90 pages and cost $8.00 each or $35.00 annu¬ally.

Recently a Collector’s Edition of the first issue of Fine Woodworking, was published at a cost of $19.95. The original FW cover was a black and white Polaroid picture taken by Paul Roman of a turned segmented (checkered) bowl by Irving Fischman. Issue #1 included articles on turning, carving, hand planing, marquetry, finishing, power tools, materials (birch plywood), bench stones, and books.

Paul Roman and his wife produced the magazine out of the attic in their home in Newtown, Ct. for the first few years and now have a large publishing house on Main St. in Newtown. Paul used Scientific American as the model for FW with it’s archival quality. Some of the early publishing decisions continue today and include the requirement that all ads must be directly related to woodworking, and no advertisement on the back cover, a much prized location. Seems that Paul thought the ad (Garrett Wade Co.) planned for the back cover of FW, Issue #1 was unattractive and he moved it to the inside cover.

Circulation grew from 25,000 in 1975 to 100,000 three years later. In 1985 FW had over a quarter million readers and the current circulation (2012) is approximately 300,000. FW was published quarterly from 1975 until 1979 when bimonthly publishing began. In the winter of 2000/01, FW published a special 25th Anniversary Issue (#146) and continues to publish FW bimonthly with a special FW Tools & Shops Annual Issue each winter. The first 40 issues of FW were black and white until a few articles contained color pictures beginning August, 1983 (Issue #41) and the first totally color issue began in October, 1984 (Issue #48).

Much of the FW success can be attributed to the passionate woodworkers who willingly shared their skills with a surprisingly large group of solitary woodworkers. Early contributors included: Tage Frid, Sam Malof, Bruce Hoadley, and James Krenov to name a few who would certainly be in a Woodworkers Hall of Fame. The Triangle Woodworkers Association has been fortunate to have several renowned and frequent FW contributors lead workshops including: Garrett Hack, Chris Gochnour, and Will Neptune.

While Fine Woodworking (1975) is certainly the granddaddy of woodworking magazines, today they are joined by WoodSmith (1979), Wood (1984), American Woodworker (1985), Woodworkers Journal (1989), ShopNotes (1992), Popular Woodworking (1995), and Woodcraft (2005).

My interest in woodworking can be linked to Fine Woodworking as an early subscriber. Many an evening was spent reading the feature articles, building a few weekend projects, and coveting some of the woodworking tools that were beyond my means or space. It is hard to believe 37 years have passed since the first issue of Fine Wood¬working was published. It is stunning to think that 230 issues occupy several feet of shelf space, with over 26,000 pages, and now, thanks for a Christmas gift from my wife, I have FW Issues #1 through #230 on a single DVD.

Thank you Newtown, Ct. for giving us Fine Woodworking and our thoughts are with you in this time of need.

Our next TWA regular meeting is January 15, 2013. Please bring a friend who shares our passion for cutting, shaping, and finishing wood. Hope to see you soon.

Happy New Year,

President: Steve Steinbeck