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We’ve just sent our latest Popular Woodworking Magazine DVD collection to the replicator. On it, you’ll find 11 years of the magazine, plus a PDF of “Exercises in Wood-Working,” an 1889 book with 39 exercises to help you make the most of traditional tools in the modern shop. The retail price of the new DVD is $119.95, but at ShopWoodworking.com, you’ll pay just $89.95. You can search by keyword through the entire DVD, or browse issue by issue.
While working on the master for this DVD, I went back and checked that all the coverlines and table-of-content entries were linked correctly to the stories in each issue, and that the PDFs of every page were correct. While it was time-consuming (it is, after all, 76 issues!), it was also kind of fun – even poignant at times). I’d forgotten, for example, that in one story, our publisher (who was at the time the editor), Steve Shanesy, has a teeny tiny ponytail. By the next issue, it was gone.
A former illustrator, John Hutchinson, had a thing for animal projects that I’d forgotten about, such as his “Sea-D Otter” (a cute, otter-shaped CD holder), his “Secret Toad” (a candy dish in the shape of a toad) and his “Box Turtle” (with an impressive multi-faceted carapace).
You can, by going issue by issue, trace our editor’s (who started out as managing editor and became executive editor before his current gig) burgeoning fascination with hand tools, as well as the germs of his workbench “problem.” And both he and current Executive Editor (formerly Senior Editor) Bob Lang have varying hairstyles (both chin and head) throughout the years. In my earliest articles, my hair was still naturally red. Now? Not so much….But Senior Editor Glen Huey (who was a contributor for a number of years
before he joined the staff) still looks the same, I don’t know how he
does it.
There’s also the sad reminder that a few of the people who wrote for us years ago are no longer alive, including R. J. DeCristoforo and the inimitable Danny Proulx. But when you read their words, they come alive again. And there’s some contributors we’ve not heard from in a while, including Walt Akers – one of the funniest writers ever to grace our pages. I don’t know if he’s still woodworking and writing, or if he’s still with us at all. I sure hope so.
Here are some supplies and tools we find essential in our everyday work around the shop. We may receive a commission from sales referred by our links; however, we have carefully selected these products for their usefulness and quality.
