Testimonials

Why Join?

Tom McLaughlin, Epic Woodworking

I attended my first guild meeting in the spring of 1998, shortly after moving to Canterbury, New Hampshire after eight years living and apprenticing in North Carolina. Although significantly smaller in members back then, my first impression, and the identity of the guild, has never wavered. It has always been a warm and inspired gathering, marked by open and generous sharing of creative woodworking skills and experiences.

My favorite rewards of being involved with the Guild these past twenty-one years have been probably no different than most members—the countless wonderful friends I’ve made who have brought so much added enjoyment and meaning to my life through our shared common and creative pursuits.

The Journal

Tom McKenna, Editorial Director, Fine Woodworking (2019)

Fine Woodworking has been receiving The Journal since its launch back in 2009. We get a lot of woodworking magazines and we display them on a table for the staff to read. Most folks take a quick stroll through the pages of those publications, but The Journal often would walk away for long periods. The content is so good that you can’t just glance through it. You need to sit and digest it all.

What sets The Journal apart from many other woodworking publications is its intimacy with the content. Many of the articles are written by the Masters, but not necessarily for the Masters—it’s like an apprenticeship in print. And you can’t beat the sources, especially when the names include legends of the craft like Garrett Hack, David Lamb and Al Breed.

Charlie Leto

The Guild is such a wonderful organization! Its magazine might be the best woodworking magazine I get, and I get a few. I took a class from Alan Mitchell six or seven years ago, built a few things, just loved it and then somehow drifted away from woodworking. 

I want to get back into it, and cannot imagine that such talent as that I missed this morning can be accessed just for the asking. Those of you who make the Guild work are doing a wonderful thing, and I very much hope to see myself much more involved in your activities in the future. 

Meantime, let me just say, thank you all so much for what you do. It is very deeply appreciated by a great many people.

David Foote, Guild President (2019)

The Guild has provided me with many opportunities to learn, share and to gather with other woodworkers. I left the first general meeting I attended amazed and wanting to be a part of this wonderful organization. I had just met Bob Couch, Bob LaCivita and Al Hansen, what better way to get introduced to the Guild. Wanting more I went home and jumped onto the website to discover The Journal that they talked about at the meeting. My reaction was WOW…this is as good as Fine Woodworking. I couldn’t wait for my hardcopy to arrive. And I have never been disappointed.

The Journal

David Heim, Editor, Fine Woodworking (2009)

It was especially refreshing to see a new magazine arrive in our offices. It’s the premier issue of The Journal, published by one of the best woodworking associations in the country.

The new magazine represents a huge step in the evolution of the Guild’s publishing efforts. Just a few years ago, the Guild published only The Old Saw, a black-and-white newsletter. Then the staff added color photos and fancier, more professional page layouts, and interspersed guild news with substantial articles about woodworking.

What a group those locals are: Garrett Hack, a longtime FWW contributing editor; Mike Dunbar, who has written extensively for FWW over the years; Jon Siegel, a prolific woodturner and FWW author; and nearly a dozen more. The cover article by David Lamb, a well-known period furniture maker, describes his collaboration with artist James Aponovich to create a Federal-style secretary with painted trompe l’oeil panels and custom-made brass hardware. Judging from the premier issue, the Journal can certainly hold its own with any of the other full-fledged woodworking magazines out there. Here’s wishing the Guild success with its new publishing venture.