Popular Woodworking 2005-11 № 151, страница 14

Out on a Limb

Changing Editors After 11 Years and 69 Issues

Come next issue you'll find a different, but familiar, name authoring this column as Christopher Schwarz takes the helm as editor of Popular Woodworking, a position I'm relinquishing after 11 years and 69 issues. Of course the letting go is a bittersweet event in my life as a woodworker.

But I leave with confidence that the magazine is in very capable hands and knowing my influence will not be altogether absent. While stepping down as editor, I'll remain publisher and become editorial director of this and several other magazines published by our parent company, F+W Publications.

Popular Woodworking has undergone many changes during my tenure as we've tried to publish a magazine to best satisfy your needs. Some of the changes were good; some were, looking back, a little embarrassing (ah, the "Stumpy the Reindeer" project). We published some articles that were controversial (woodworking on death row) that you didn't like at all. We've published some groundbreaking articles (the truth about horsepower ratings) and hope to do more of that in the future.

Today's Popular Woodworking isn't perfect, but it's far better than ever before. This isn't the boast of a proud editor, but the comments we regularly receive from you and read in the form of posted comments on internet woodworking message boards. Heck, some even say it's the best woodworking magazine published today.

If it is, and I think it just may be, it's largely due to the hard work of a loyal staff of woodworking editors and a tremendous group of

regular contributors. They all share an oversized zeal for the craft; all are woodworkers first, and editors or writers second. More important than their years of experience is their continuing passion for the craft and willingness to share their knowledge with you.

We're all just a bunch of woodworking geeks and proud of it! Hanging around this gang would be no fun at all if you weren't into woodworking. Just look at the short article from the October 2005 issue about the dovetails used on Pope John Paul II's elegantly simple coffin. I mean where else would a serious discussion occur about the joinery used in the papal coffin the day after the televised funeral?

The most amazing thing about these past 11 years is that the j ob was never boring - there's never a shortage of subjects and there continue to be subjects that have never been covered before, or at least with our generation of woodworkers.

There are many memories that stand out when looking back, but the one that is most apropos was made by Senior Editor David Thiel when we started working on the magazine. We were setting up our new shop when we caught each other's eye, then David said, "Can you believe they're paying us to do this?" All these years later, it's been that good.

So long, be safe and keep true to your

Steve Shanesy Editor & Publisher

CONTRIBUTORS

PAUL SELLERS

Forty years ago Paul Sellers apprenticed in woodworking and joinery near Manchester, England. In the mid-1970s he began building furniture and, in 1986, he moved to Texas and started his own furniture-making business. In 1995 he started the School of Woodworking at the Center for Essential Education in Texas — (cfeeschool.com). His foundational woodworking course and comprehensive curriculum in hand-tool woodworking has helped more than 2,000 students become better woodworkers. Paul says mastering hand-tool skills and techniques is essential to fine woodworking even in the modern shop. Paul discusses one of his favorite hand tools, awls, on page 44.

PETER SIELING

Peter Sieling owns and operates Garreson Lumber Co., specializing in domestic kiln-dried hardwoods, in Bath, New York. Also a woodworker, writer and beekeeper, Peter lives in Steuben County with his wife, children, a flock of peafowl and 500,000 honeybees. A regular contributor to several magazines, Peter has written four educational books for Mason Crest Publishers on folk music, folk medicine and farm life. Our "Out of the Woodwork" column often features his humorous lumberyard tales, such as this month's on his ability to divine moisture content from wood (page 104). He also amazes his customers by levitating boards and making perfectly square freehand crosscuts.

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Popular Woodworking November 2005