F&C Changes...

Recent developments in the woodworking publishing world, particularly in the GMC group have meant that Furniture & Cabinetmaking now have a new editor, Michael Huntley who took over the reins somewhat hastily from Colin Eaden-Edon a few months ago. I had the opportunity to have an extensive chat with him at the CHT Hand Tool event at West Dean, near Chichester in April and found him to be a very amenable individual. He's attempting to steer the mag in a different direction to his predecessor (with some success I might add) and make the content and layout more in keeping with the 'Murrican publication Fine Woodworking, so he's looking at altering the way articles are set out (more 'bite sized chunks' rather than one huge article) with a leaning towards hand tool evaluation and much less continuous (it seemed to me anyway) testing of expensive machinery. Granted that the mag is the only one in publication aimed at the professional cabinet maker so the inclusion of this sort of stuff is warranted, but it gets a bit daunting for the amateur maker like me to keep reading month on month about stuff costing thousands so I tended to skim read those bits and go on to other more interesting articles. The whole tone of the mag is changing for the better as well, it seems to be more 'user friendly', more of a 'hands on' approach and slightly less formal than under the old management.
In conversation with him though he mentioned that he goes within a mile of Wilton each day and wouldn't mind just nipping in for a brew and a look at my 'shop... so that's what's going to happen this Friday! Elm Cabinet II is the the final stage of completion so no doubt that will be given some close scrutiny. He won't be able to stay for long but it promises to be an interesting visit and who knows what will result from it?
Must do some sharpening and give the shop a good tidy up...