 August 2000 cover, 25th anniversary year | |
| Frequency | Monthly |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Taunton Press |
| Founded | 1975 |
| Country | United States |
| Based in | Newtown, Connecticut |
| Language | English |
| Website | http://www.finewoodworking.com/ |
Fine Woodworking is a woodworking magazine published by Taunton Press in Newtown, Connecticut, USA.
The magazine began publication in 1975, with simple monochrome printing and stapled monochrome covers.
The magazine focuses on the very best of woodworking techniques at the highest level of skill. Articles include practical tutorials on technique, the theory of timber, finishes or tools, as well as showcases for high-quality finished work. The magazine emphasizes high-quality work regardless of the difficulty of execution.
There are many "project" articles.
Since the first issues, subscribers have collected back issues. Taunton encourages this, with sales of back issues and the publication of indexes.
Collected volumes have also been produced in book form. These began as collections of the best general articles in a numbered series '"Fine Woodworking" Techniques' (8 volumes from 1985 to 1986). [1] Later there were more strongly-themed "Best of Fine Woodworking" collections on particular topics such as: "Joinery", [2] "Making and Modifying Machines", "Bending Wood", "Woodshop Specialities" and many others.
Taunton also operates a website for Fine Woodworking. [3]
Woodworking is the skill of making items from wood, and includes cabinetry, furniture making, wood carving, joinery, carpentry, and woodturning.
Joinery is a part of woodworking that involves joining pieces of wood, engineered lumber, or synthetic substitutes, to produce more complex items. Some woodworking joints employ mechanical fasteners, bindings, or adhesives, while others use only wood elements.
A workbench is a sturdy table at which manual work is done. They range from simple flat surfaces to very complex designs that may be considered tools in themselves. Workbenches vary in size from tiny jewellers benches to the huge benches used by staircase makers. Almost all workbenches are rectangular in shape, often using the surface, corners and edges as flat/square and dimension standards. Design is as varied as the type of work for which the benches are used but most share these attributes:
Gustav Stickley was an American furniture manufacturer, design leader, publisher, and a leading voice in the American Arts and Crafts movement. Stickley's design philosophy was a major influence on American Craftsman architecture.
Creative Computing was one of the earliest magazines covering the microcomputer revolution. Published from October 1974 until December 1985, the magazine covered the spectrum of hobbyist/home/personal computing in a more accessible format than the rather technically oriented Byte.
Tage Frid was a Danish-born woodworker, educator and author who influenced the development of the studio furniture movement in the United States. His design work was often in the Danish-modern style, best known for his three legged stool and his publications.
André Jacob Roubo (1739–1791) was a French carpenter, cabinetmaker and author. Roubo was born and died in Paris, and was the son and grandson of master cabinetmakers. Roubo wrote several highly influential books on woodworking, an achievement which was especially notable given his relatively poor background and self-taught methods.
Michael Thonet was a German-Austrian cabinet maker, known for the invention of bentwood furniture.
Taunton Press is a publisher of periodicals, books, and websites for the hobbyist and building trades based in Newtown, Connecticut. It was established in 1975 by Paul Roman and his wife Jan.
A workbench is a specialized workbench table used by woodworkers. Features include a flat, solid work surface and one or more means of holding the material being worked on.
A surform tool features perforated sheet metal and resembles a food grater. A surform tool consists of a steel strip with holes punched out and the rim of each hole sharpened to form a cutting edge. The strip is mounted in a carriage or handle. Surform tools were called "cheese graters" decades before they entered the market as kitchen utensils used to grate cheese. Surform planes have been described as a cross between a rasp and a plane.
Mark Lindquist is an American sculptor in wood, artist, author, and photographer. Lindquist is a major figure in the redirection and resurgence of woodturning in the United States beginning in the early 1970s. His communication of his ideas through teaching, writing, and exhibiting, has resulted in many of his pioneering aesthetics and techniques becoming common practice. In the exhibition catalog for a 1995 retrospective of Lindquist's works at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, his contributions to woodturning and wood sculpture are described as "so profound and far-reaching that they have reconstituted the field". He has often been credited with being the first turner to synthesize the disparate and diverse influences of the craft field with that of the fine arts world.
Thomas J. Duffy is a designer/craftsman whose present work is the conceptualization and creation of curved doors using lasers. Duffy has also crafted one-of-a-kind cabinets, chairs, and other furniture. For many years, Duffy also made St. Lawrence River rowing skiffs. One of his furniture works is in the permanent collection of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. He has exhibited at numerous galleries and other venues. The New York Times described him as “One of this country’s leading cabinet and chair makers..."
Steam bending is a woodworking technique where wood is exposed to steam to make it pliable. Heat and moisture from steam can soften wood fibres enough so they can be bent and stretched, and when cooled down they will hold their new shape.
Richard Raffan is a British-born Australian woodturner, author, and instructor. He has helped popularize the craft of woodturning since the 1970s.
Sal Maccarone is an American author, sculptor, designer and kinetic artist. He is best known as a master craftsman, and for his internationally distributed woodworking books such as Tune Up Your Tools, and How to Make $40,000 a Year Woodworking, both published by F & W publications, Betterway Books, in Cincinnati, Ohio. He is also known for his woodworking technique articles published both online since 1994, Article. and by the national magazine Popular Woodworking. Article. Articles such as his "Evolution of an Entryway" have also been published in industry specific journals.
Rosanne Somerson is an American-born woodworker, furniture designer/maker, educator, and former President of Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). An artist connected with the early years of the Studio Furniture, her work and career have been influential to the field.
Tom Raffield is a British lighting and homeware designer.
David R. Russell was a builder who for many years collected antique woodworking tools.
Jennie Alexander was an American woodworker considered a pioneer in the woodworking world, "Instrumental in designing the now iconic two-slat post-and-rung shaving chair." She also coined the term "greenwoodworking" as a single word in her book, Make a Chair from a Tree: An Introduction to Working Green Wood.