Benchmarks Newsletter - FineWoodworking

Fine Woodworking

Benchmarks: Freddy Roman — My first true educator was a magazine

July 2, 2021

In the fall of 2001, I was on the precipice of my next life steps, and Fine Woodworking played a role in determining that the woodworking world was for me. I was…
Benchmarks: Where Ben Strano got his curves

June 4, 2021

Woodworking is a curious pursuit. Sometimes it feels like a perfectly natural and organic thing—the smell of pine shavings filling the air or the feel of your hand on the…
Benchmarks: Mike Farrington — Changing the meaning of “fine” woodworking

May 7, 2021

Back in the late 1990s, still in my teens, I stumbled into a job working for a small-time cabinet and millwork shop. With just one or two employees, we did…
Benchmarks: Wendy Maruyama — Finding her rockstars in FW, before becoming a rockstar in FW

April 2, 2021

My first issue of Fine Woodworking magazine was literally the very first issue, and back in those days it was in black and white. I was studying with Alphonse Mattia at Virginia…
Benchmarks: Ellen Kaspern — From cat cutouts to bretstuhls, a furniture maker’s story

March 5, 2021

When I was growing up, my father had a small woodshop in the basement of our house. Some of my earliest memories are from his shop. I would stand on…
Benchmarks: Christopher Schwarz — From competitor to contributor, but always a reader

February 5, 2021

My relationship with Fine Woodworking is probably unlike yours. I once awaited every issue with complete dread. When it would arrive, I would pore over every page and moan in agony when…
Benchmarks: Jennifer Anderson — A magazine, a mentor, a career

January 1, 2021

It was the summer of 1997, and I was living in San Francisco, Calif. I had recently completed my undergraduate degree in Environmental Design at UC Davis, where I was…
Benchmarks: Kevin Rodel—Growing a career with Fine Woodworking

December 4, 2020

My earliest interest in furniture making happened to coincide, fortunately, with the initial publication of Fine Woodworking in 1975. I had graduated from LaSalle College (now LaSalle University) a few years earlier…
Benchmarks: Barry Dima digs deep and finds a better woodworker

November 6, 2020

Truth be told, I kept Fine Woodworking at a distance for a few years after starting woodworking. The magazine was just too hifalutin, I assumed. But every time I searched…
Benchmarks: Steve Latta — Great artisans, great inspiration

October 2, 2020

When I started working in a furniture shop in Athens, Ohio, issues of Fine Woodworking were scattered about the place. We’d all flip through the pages and ooh and aah at the…

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