This week I give a rundown of the most prevalent forms of woodworking media available today and rank each on the Modern Woodshop Relevance Scale (TM).
As a footnote, I killed a really scary looking spider during the recording of this episode (only slightly smaller than Shelob from LOTR); see if you can pick out when that happens. I bet you can’t… that’s professionalism, baby!
Advertisement
Great episode Dave! So what are you saving your 5 for? Or is 5 a hypothetical level of perfection that no one will ever reach?
is that like warp 10?
Hey Marc,
It goes to eleven…
If Magazine go away will my complete collection of “Fine Woodworking” become priceless, realy I do love the printed page a lot more, I hope they don’t go away
Hey I finally listened to this one, and am all caught up!
Anyway, I mostly agree with your list. The only thing I’d take exception to is regarding podcasts. I’d separate audio and video podcasts. Audio podcasts would maybe get a 2 or 3, while video podcasts would get the 4.
In my opinion, audio podcasts are nice and all, but as far as relevance to the hobbyist woodworker, it’s hit and miss. I listen to some podcasts where the guy will go into great detail as to ways he’s doing a particular technique in a project, and it’s so difficult to visualize I just tune out. Audio podcasts lend towards rambling, unless you have a well-oiled machine with catchy sections like “What’s Up With That?”.
Just joking. Your podcast is one of the best, in my opinion.
Well I can’t say I agree with all of your rankings. So I thought I would pose my own.
Woodworking Magazines – 4, yes they are a good source of info for woodworking, they usually have details, photos and diagrams that allow the reader to take their time and understand at their own level.
Woodworking Clubs – 5, how is this not a 5! I would agree their accessability, it is kind of dependent upon where you live or what big town your near, but in terms of experience, there is nothing more useful for learning hands on from other woodworkers and being “appreticed”, they can show you proper technique, proper safety, hands on advice and a millions other tips that you never read about. Definately a 5.
Internet Forums – Most are a 1 or 2, but there are a few that I would rate as a 3-4. This really does depend, i found the forums where you can see peoples work and get a sense of their abilities than you can accurately use the advice. I won’t trust someone to give me joinery advice when they show me a coffee table made out of 2×4 construction lumber thats nailed together, but I will be more inclined to take thier advice if they show projects that exceed my own abilities.
Internet Blogs – 3, not bad, they can provide some good step by step instruction, but you are limited by the topics and you can run into the same problem as forums. Anybody can have a blog so you have to be weiry of their abilities before you start accepting thier advice on par.
Twitter – 0 , really whats the point of that! I way info is given is bad, there are limits on the post so people try and save words. Its good for keeping track of what your friends are up to, but pretty much useless to learn from.
Podcasts – Audio 2, Video 3-4. Both can be a good source of info if you trust the source, I would put video ahead simply because you can better demonstrate ideas through pictures or video.
Although I don’t agree entirely, I do want to thank you for posting the topic. Its useful to debate these kinds of things, particularly for people new to the woodworking game.
As humans we often like to over-engineer things or make things much more complicated in our minds.