The Practical Woodworking is the third of the Nexus Family of Magazines I have reviewed and I'm not quite sure where it fits in with The Woodworker which I struggled with in last months review.

For an explanation as to how the Table / Bar Chart works see the Review for "Woodturning". Blank areas in the above Table represent some common features not covered by this Magazine.

Review of November 2000 Issue of The Practical Woodworking

Practical Woodworking as already stated is the third Magazine on Wood from the Publisher (Nexus) and covers all aspects of Woodworking as can be seen from the the articles within this particular Issue, Carving, Woodturning, Musical Instrument making and Furniture.

All the above are covered as Projects whilst in the Features section we have Finishing, Joinery and Hollowing Tools & Techniques, so we, Woodturners that is, have two distinct Articles of interest and therefore is well worth a Preview Look by any Woodturner before Purchasing.

At 84 pages it is generally a Leaner Magazine than its Sister Magazine mentioned above but on par with The Woodturner, where many of the Product Reviews would have been also included, is this a case of too many Magazines from the one source I wonder?

I have purchased this Magazine on numerous occasions not necessarily for its Woodturning Content but because it had some other Wood related Article I fancied having ago at, and this Issue was no exception, the Project with the title "Stripped Bare" caught my eye, as it would, but Lars Dalsgaard's article on how to construct various items of use from Stripped Branches.

As he say's the Materials are often freely available, you require very few Tools, he lists just three, Hammer, Saw and Drill and as I have all of these it was an ideal Project for that period after Christmas when I take a short break from the Lathe.

The Woodturning Project was for a Mortal & Pestle that I found a bit bland, possibly dated, and therefore not an article I personally would save as a reference should I ever need to make such an item. The second Article, under Techniques in the index but Turning on the page, covered the selection of Tools for producing Hollow Forms.

This article I found to be informative and covered not only the various Turning Tools available but, Calipers v's Light for gauging thickness, Depth Measurement, Swarf Clearance, Chucking and Finishing with a follow up article promised on putting all this advice into practice. A all-round un-biased and informative article with a useful list of suppliers given.

There were various other articles that were not unique, but may well have been missed by by new Woodturners, of importance, such as the Wood Dust Toxicity Table printed in answer to a readers question. 

Practical Woodworking
Published by Nexus Special Interests Ltd. - Monthly

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