The Woodworking Shows is gone. I just checked – there are no shows scheduled for 2025, and the website no longer exists.
The Woodworking Show was a traveling expo. There were tool brands showing off their latest and most popular woodworking tools, and retailers with discounted supplies.
There were demos, short seminars, and everything you might expect from an event of this kind.
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You could buy hardwood boards and blanks, random overstock tools and accessories from a tool liquidator, and the latest Woodpeckers tools.
According to hearsay on the internet, the company wasn’t making enough money anymore.
From forum posts around the internet, a couple of shows were cancelled last year due to poor vendor and attendee turnout.
I went to my last Woodworking Show a few years ago – before the COVID pandemic. I guess too many other people stopped going too.
I haven’t found any announcements, just a void of where the Woodworking Shows used to exist.
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PETE
Would we say that social media has replaced these shows? Traveling to shows, paying freight, booth setup, flying people out with lodging & food to man the shows. When you could get a larger, more targeted reach with social media and spend way less money.
Bonnie
It’s probably not the sole cause of death, but the internet as a whole has definitely replaced a lot of the use for niche expos and conventions like this. The talks and classes can be held just as well online, and advertising is what the internet is best at. Without advertisers an expo probably can’t survive on just product sales and booth rentals.
Personally I’m not familiar with this one as I don’t think they ever came out to the west coast, and I’m not going to drive across states for a woodworking convention even as a hobby woodworker.
Jim Felt
We used to have annual “tool” shows in the Pacific Northwest though I’m pretty sure they ended their multi decade run many years ago. I’m sure the “internet” is the logical cause.
Brian. KIDD
I live in the Portland area and loved going to the Woodworking Shows. But they stopped having them here a few years back but still had them back east. I mean Oregon used to have a big lumber industry and I would have thought we would have been the last State that they stopped having the shows at. I really miss seeing all the tools and demos.
Stuart
Most were in large metropolitan areas. I feel the shows used to be worth a 30 to 60 minute drive.
They didn’t really advertise the shows. There really aren’t any woodworking magazines anymore. People don’t go to expos they don’t know about.
The last time I considered attending, I looked at the vendor list and it didn’t seem worth the time.
As an attendee, social media isn’t a replacement. Maybe vendors feel social media and influencer marketing is a better use of their marketing funds. But even then, the audience at these shows tended to skew older.
I remember being annoyed that some of the machinery reps couldn’t answer questions because they were fawning over the older guys that seemingly had greater amounts of disposable income.
Robert
There are some wood working paper magazine still in operation.
Woodsmith (Woodsmith.com) and Popular Wood Working (popularwoodworking.com). Though it is true it’s a dying breed. Wood Workers Journal, the magazine supported by Rockler closed about a year or so ago.
Joe
There was an indie magazine out of the UK, Quercus, but they haven’t published in ages.
Mortise & Tenon Magazine still publishes but that’s hardly a magazine (it’s almost a research journal at this point).
I feel like the internet, but especially social media, strangles anything that isn’t niche enough to have a hardcore devoted following (in this case, hand tool purists?).
Tim C
I agree with you, mortise and tenon is not quite a magazine. 22.50 an issue, twice a year makes it more of a biannual journal for a pretty specific audience.
I had high hopes that it might fill the gap, but it seems like kind of a pet project.
Saulac
Reduced interest in the trade/hobby? Not familiar with the show and actually the trade/hobby, I assume that “woodworking “ typically means making furniture and the like and not construction. It become harder to make a case to build furniture vs buying considered the tools/materials/space involved. Not counting people references. Most refer, or at least don’t mind, the modern look which difficult to replicate in custom built.
Jim Felt
My recall is mostly tool makers/brands and tool resellers being the main displays. New products being on display was the reason for many of us visiting. While others might have enjoyed the continuous demonstrations.
Otherwise our options were local industrial tool suppliers and the Taunton Press magazines. The national growth of Home Depot was likely a mitigating factor too. I kinda miss what we’ve lost though.
David Z.
I grew up in the hometown of Taunton press. They had an office campus and some more industrial buildings in other places. I was sad when they downsized from the campus, and more so when I recently discovered they no longer exist. A few of their publications live on, transferred to other publishers.
Paul
YouTube. It all went to YouTube. Hundreds of channels, demos, tool evals, you name it. Learn anything you want in this hobby or just about any other. We’re living in the Age of Information. Bring a critical eye but enjoy the abundance of options.
Martin S.
Who bought FWW?
Stuart
Active Interest Media. It looks like they now own every woodworking magazine, including:
Fine Homebuilding
Fine Woodworking
Popular Woodworking
ShopNotes
Woodshop News
Woodsmith
Dotdash Meredith owns Wood magazine, but they shed a lot of talent with layoffs last year.
Bonnie
I think overall interest is actually up. But youtube and social media replaced a lot of the interest in these kind of shows. Tool companies can just advertise directly, and it’s never been easier to buy equipment and supplies even if you’re out in the boonies.
JH
I feel most tool advertisement now is through sponsors, some great, some not so great, but so long as you can use a critical eye in watching the reviews (to make sure they’re showing you how YOU would use it and what it can do), it’s a net positive I think. There’s def a few woodworkers on Youtube I follow, both big and VERY small (the japanese hand-cut joinery channels are just incredible…
Nathan
Shame. It was interesting to see pieces and tools first hand. 2019 show was the first time I put hands on a triton router
Charles
Stuart you put them out of business!
Nathan
Yes but internet advertising and reviews aren’t a replacement for putting hands on something or getting to try it out.
Bonnie
Yeah, but I think for most of us it is still easier to find a Rockler or Woodcraft than a once or twice a year expo somewhere in the state.
Norse
Unless you live in my area. I am at least 150 miles from the nearest woodworking store. We used to have 2 local and a really good one 100 miles away, but they all gave it up. I would love to attend a woodworkers show at the fairgrounds expo building. It would be fun to talk to real people and touch real things. Maybe I am just turning into an old codger at 44 years old.
ChipBoundary
Yes, but with the advent of Amazon and online shopping you can buy something, have it shipped to you or a store nearby in sometimes less than a day, and if you don’t like it immediately return it for a full refund and no risk.
Nathan
They might not have everything and it’s not as fun
Robert
Some of the wood working conferences seemed determined to shoot themselves in the foot. The biggest, the AWF at Atlanta last year only allowed people in the trades to attend, and the fees were $600 to $800 to just attend, not display. Not a way to cultivate grass root new enthusiasts. I miss seeing new products in person, or getting guidance on past purchases. YouTube can help, but it’s not interactive. Maybe the price of a downtown convention center dictates this ticket policy and pricing, but is the cache of that location really needed for wood working? I’m sure there are facilities in outlying areas dying to host these events at much lower cost.
Bonnie
Outlying areas become more difficult to reach and board everyone who might be attending. Conference centers are where they are for good reason.
Stuart
I’m not sure what you’re talking about. IWF in Atlanta is not an expo for “new enthusiasts,” it’s largely if not entirely aimed at businesses. From their website, the “standard registration fee” is $50. There’s also AWFS in Vegas, with a maximum registration fee of $35.
Robert
All I can say is when was doing my research to go, I drilled through the links, it only wanted you to resister if you were a company, and tickets were $600 to $800 (I forget exactly which). I called the contact number to ask if there were provisions for ordinary folks to attend and the lady said no and that was the ticket cost. I had really wanted to go because I was traveling to the Atlanta area to see friends anyway, one would have been interested in the convention also, so I wanted to combine the trip.
Boz
as a attendee of these shows all I can say is that there is no substitute for a live show, social media and YouTube videos are not in person sorry. Even with fewer vendors it was still a great show. The last show had Chuck Bender, Tommy Mac and many other experienced woodworkers. Ok if your sole purpose was to buy tools I could see that as being a negative but talking with these guys and live demos and seeing it in person is on a different level, I would would literally come home high on woodworking and pumped up to start a project…really sad that its over
Jim Williams
You are 100%spot on
Thank you for saying what the rest of us feel…
Donald Judd
There is the AWFS show in Las Vegas from July 22nd to the 25. It has about 700 vendors and is worth the trip.
blocky
From where I am on the east coast, my company works multiple trade expos a year for interior design, fine art, coffee, etc. I am observing an increase, not a decrease, in the number and frequency of niche fairs/ expos.
I’ve also seen some fairs come and go while new ones serving the same market take their place.
I’m certain a wood-working expo is viable, but possibly not in the exact format the woodworking shows was executing.
Then again, it’s remarkable how much the continuation of a thing can hinge on the health, will, and good relationships of only a handful of people or even one person.
Jason
The Woodworking Shows was not managed well the last few years by the company that bought them (who was also a major vendor at the shows). COVID was the proverbial nail in the coffin, but they had been going downhill for years. The venues started getting smaller and sketchier (ie cheaper) year after year and getting to them wasn’t great. Many presentations were no longer free, but came with additional high ticket prices. The hawkers and their microphones ran over each other making it impossible to hear – not to mention the walkway congestion since the entire space was smaller. I stopped going when the gutter sellers, window companies and supplement sellers came in. It was ownership being greedy and trying to bulk out the show.
The last time I was at one in NJ my wife and I walked the entire show and left in about 20 minutes. There just wasn’t enough to be interested in. 10 years ago we spent about half a day wandering, looking and buying.
Others are correct – it’s expensive to vend at those shows. Booth fees are the tip of the iceberg – travel costs, inventory, shipping, lodging, meals, etc. It all adds up real fast. The writing was on the wall when Rockler stopped doing the shows in the cities they had stores in; Woodcraft pulled out long ago; then Lie-Nielsen and Lee Valley stopped going.
CA in NJ
I’ve been going to the NJ show for about 10 years or so – first in Somerset, then in the Meadowlands for a year or two and then in Edison the last couple pathetic years. The shows in Somerset were great! Lots of people and vendors – including all the vendors you mentioned. I dropped about $2K at each show on different stuff. The Meadowlands was JUSSSST before COVID (like the week of) and was OK, but not as good (plenty of people, fewer vendors) and it went downhill from there. The last two or three years have been a complete waste of time. You’re right, 10-15 minutes to run the two aisles. More bathfitter and gutterguard and life insurance booths than woodworking. I just went cause it was free admission for firefighters. I hope they bring back something similar. I’d pay $50 to walk around a GOOD show. Not $600 though, c’mon…
G G
Sorry to see them go. I used to attend the one in Springfield, Mass, which was about an hour’s drive for me. I skipped the last one because at the one prior, vendor participation had really fallen off. I bought a lot of tools at the shows over the years, Woodpecker, Dubby cut-off sleds, etc. Always fun to see the live demos, too. In Springfield there were also local WW associations and clubs displaying, an old tool flea market, etc. Another sad change in the world.
Kris
I went to nj show years ago. I was able to see Graham Blackburn fine tune a jack plane and have translucent shavings on some birdseye maple. Needless to say I went down the hand tools rabbit hole. This is something that would never have happened from browsing on social media. The in person demos affect the hobby in a way no YouTube video could ever do. What a shame if this goes away and nobody fills the void.
Franco
My friends and I used to always go to The Woodworking Shows in the northeast. It felt like the quality dipped off long before the pandemic. There were fewer and fewer vendors and the show ‘deals’ just weren’t there anymore. One year, three of us left with two pickups full of Jet machines at great discounted prices and I remember getting an unbeatable price on Bessey clamps. Those deals weren’t there in subsequent shows.
CMF
Some say woodworking is waning and others say it is popular and even growling.
I think woodworking falls into the “tribal knowledge” category. Like sewing for women, most often it is the mom that passes it down to the daughter, fathers pass down woodworking to their sons. Or even under the hood fixing, tuning, and maintenance; for various reasons, they will over time become a lost art (cars, under the hood has become hard to even see anything)
Our grand kids and great grand kids, very few will know any of these skills. Woodworking will go that way eventually for the general public. Only a the very few diehards will remain. Not enough to support shows.
ElectroAtletico
YouTube, and Amazon listings, are smarter ways to reach your audience.
JH
I also miss the shows, and it helps that I have a Woodcraft and Rockler both within an hour drive from me, and I love going there, but they don’t often have the bleeding new edge tools, alot of what they carry on the floor are the tried and true workhouse tools, and that makes sense as that will sell t othe average woodworker. But on occasion they will have a vendor showcase with some of the newer bleeding edge tools (think of when the Origin Shaper was launched).
But if you have the time and desire, you can cultivate a pretty solid group of Youtube channels and woodworkers on social media, and once you have a foundation in woodworking (can take your own rough boards to finish, can do basic joinery, have built some furniture, etc), you can often (I find) watch these youtube demos from users you’ve watched work with wood for years, to see if you think it would be a good fit. For example, I didn’t need to put hands on the Harvey BigEye fence i have now, I saw a Youtuber I like showing it off, how THEY used it, and knew right then and that’s why I got it. No regerts 🙂
But I DO NOT think woodworking for hobbiests are going away. I work in a big corp (around 40k employees) and we have a hobbiest woodworking Slack group and it’s growing I think by 5-10 members a month, we have over 100 now, with no advertising or anthing. Just word of mouth and it keeps growing.
I truly do thing in this day and age, woodworking tool vendors run on pretty thin margins, more so now than the past (esp now with tariffs incoming). As such, they have limited budget to ‘advertise’, and if you have to spend $30-50k to get your gear and people in to Dallas or Atlanta, pay the fees, freight, time, etc, they likely see far far better bang for the buck with sponsorships and referrals (esp as many tool vendors are now selling or are selling direct even, online).
It’s why I still try to order, even if I can save a tiny bit, through my local Woodcraft or Rockler first (like my Nova drill press). And I buy as much materials I can, even when shipped and even when it takes longer, because Woodcraft and Rockler are pretty much our last bastions of woodworking freedom (THD and Lowes don’t count). I don’t get everything there, but if they sell it, and they are even close in price, it’s Woodcraft. At least to keep the local stores around!
But I miss the shows, just like I miss the Sears catalog when I was a kid….HOURS and HOURS of imagination
Adam Fisher
That’s strange, When I check the AWFS fair website, I am seeing that it is scheduled at the Las Vegas Convention center July 22-25, 2025. It is pretty surprising to think that there will not be any vendors there to capitalize on people that love working wood.
Stuart
We’re talking about “The Woodworking Shows.” The AWFS Fair is completely different.
Adam
That’s a bummer. I never had the opportunity to go to a single one of those shows. Didn’t realize that “The Woodworking Shows” was an entity. I thought it was a broad category of a type of event.
ShopmanDave
As a professional carpenter/remodeling contractor and avid woodturner/woodworker, I have attended several “conventions” and “shows” since the late 1970’s. I live in the Midwest, and most of the major events I was interested in rotated, or were always held, within a day’s drive. In the last couple decades, The Woodworking Shows were my main interest. My wife is also a woodturner, so we made the trips together. The Woodworking Show at that time came to the Detroit area, which was only an hour away. We spent several hours and several hundred dollars at those shows and came home with new tools, wood, books and magazines, and supplies. We sat in on demos, presentations, some “paid” classes. Talked to vendors, played with tools, collected literature. We even stopped at a nearby Woodcraft or Rockler on the way home and spent more at each. Often, vendors had “Show Only” discounts or items for sale that hadn’t hit the store shelves yet. In later years, the Detroit show stopped, so we rotated between Columbus, Ohio and Indianapolis, Indiana, each a couple hour’s drive, but still worth it for us. In the earlier years, the events were packed with vendors and attendees, making it hard to get around, but added to the thrill of our hobby. Yes, things went downhill recently, with cancelled shows, fewer vendors, and empty aisles. No more discounts, lame demos, fewer products available to buy in-person. It’s a Catch-22. Fewer vendors mean fewer attendees; Fewer attendees mean fewer vendors. Regardless of the cause, I hope we can find a way forward to bring new people into the craft (whatever that is for each of us), and still keep the “thrill” once there. Woodworking has long been a solitary hobby. Before the Industrial Revolution, everything was produced locally. Cabinet shops, carpenters, joiners, wheelwrights, etc. were professionals working wood into products for sale. Over the decades, people looked to wood (or yarn, cloth, paint, etc.) as a medium to escape their “jobs” as accountants, machine operators, secretaries, delivery drivers, computer programmers, what have you. Many find solace being alone in their home spaces creating. The satisfaction we feel when we actually MAKE something is immediate, unlike our 9-to-5 jobs where we make one more delivery, one more balance sheet, one more widget. Personally, I miss the “shows.” Yes, I watch YouTube, buy off Amazon (AND directly from private companies), and shop locally. Ironically, and unfortunately, the two Woodcraft stores that are within an hour’s drive from me are going out of business! Both my wife and I are active members in our local woodturning club, so we network, learn, teach, and outreach to the community through that. It is becoming a niche world! Blame YouTube, Amazon, kids, parents, schools, government, me, you, them, whatever! But maybe we can be part of the solution instead of the problem. One of my favorite movie quotes is from “Heartbreak Ridge.” Loosly, Clint Eastwood’s character quotes his platoons motto as “Overcome, improvise, adapt!” The large shows have gone away, so make it a point to attend the smaller local shows! Shop locally, even if you have to drive an hour to get there. Buy online from an individual company website. Join or start a local club. Contact a school to see if you can contribute time to teach a skill. If you’re young, won’t dismiss old people as being stubborn and grumpy. If you’re old, don’t think of young people as being stupid and selfish. We can all learn from each other, we can get out of our shops and meet face-to-face, and grow the world of woodworking. If there is a demand/need for the shows to return, they will. In the meantime, we need to overcome, improvise, and adapt.
Richard
As an X Industrial Arts teacher and Department Head overseeing 5 different shops and hosting adult Woodworking classes I can attest to all that has been shared about the lack of participation. Overcoming. Improvising, and adapting is at the heart of the woodworking agenda. This means to run counter to the current to modern and conventional thinking. This hold true for the management of shows as well as the art itself of woodworking. What better way to build self worth and value education than working with one our most renewable resources. It also means developing the RIGHT MINDSET.
Brian Steg
Hickory NC is home to excellent yearly Klingspor woodworking show. Known as the Annual Klingspor Woodworking Extavaganza each Fall. Well worth the trip. No , I do not work for them but have attended for the last 24 years.
Julius Rosen
You can put a lot of blame on companies that buy other companies and create make mega conglomerates
Stuart
Care to explain how “mega conglomerates” are responsible for this?
lee Hopkins
The last one in the Houston area, I was speaking to a lot of the Vendors. I received a lot of feed back on how they had to jump through hoops for State and Local taxing and how much time and money they spent on accountants to process the taxes for every City and State and sometimes counties.
Jerome
Bummer, I’ve gone when The Woodworking Shows came to town every year, even though it was inconveniently always around the time of my wife’s birthday, instead of mine. They lasted longer than the big show for her primary hobby (beads and jewelry), which was last held in 2020.
There’s something about a live demo where you can interactively ask questions. You could also feel the weight of a tool, and how it fits your hands.
Even though there’s more stuff than you could ever watch on YouTube, that’s part of the problem; you have to pan a lot of sand to find the few flakes of gold.
Duane McGee
As a vendor that did the shows for 3 years before the pandemic hit, the cost kept getting higher and higher. Attendance at many shows just wasn’t there to make it worth our cost. Also, with the internet attendees would say…”I can get this cheaper online” then walk. It is unfortunate that the shows went away. AKA the soygel man
Jim
I have been watching some YouTubers lately and they have tossed around the idea of getting together with local woodworkers for a meet-n-greet. They can do demos, ask and answer sessions where anyone in attendance can answer questions asked by the attendees. Real crowd participation. I think local crafters can get together to share ideas, tips and tricks, tool ideas. Think about it.
John
I am in the Syracuse, NY area. We haven’t had a woodworking show here in well over 20 years. Finally, one was scheduled for the 2019/2020 timeframe, but was cancelled due to covid! I inquired with the woodworking shows, and was advised a show was being scheduled in 2021. That came and went with no show. All my subsequent inquiries were ignored. I don’t know how everyone else feels, but I like to look, touch, feel, handle, speak with vendors, and watch demonstrations in person. While the internet and ordering online are certainly convenient, I feel it has ruined all local consumer choice, regardless or the product. So many stores have closed. Options are practically non existant. The one and only show I’d ever attended, that was here, was great, and will probably never get to see another.
Jim
I agree, the woodworking shows of the past were a great place to experience new tools as well as new techniques and new ideas. It was at a woodworking show in Novi, MI where I saw my first laser engraver/cutter in action. I now own the biggest one I could buy at the time of my purchase without going to an industrial class machine. I miss the shows as well as a lot of other folks. Wish they would come back.
Scott
They used to have a primary vendor that is/was a family run business. One year, when one of the family members became ill, that vendor decided that they were not going to come to the show – family was more important. (Good for them having the proper priorities.) The show promoters never got another vendor of the same variety/quality, and that vendor never returned.
The show offerings, in terms of product, really declined that year and never recovered. I think this was a case of poor show planning/promotion. Some people would come for the demonstrations, but I think a majority came for good prices on a variety of products. Without that, the show died.