Editor's note:
The first 3 issues of Wood News were published before Highland Hardware even came into existence. In 1974 Chris and Sharon Bagby, then recent Georgia Tech graduates, became managers of King Hardware Company's branch store on Piedmont Avenue in Atlanta. By coincidence this King Hardware store happened to be a dealer for the Shopsmith combination woodworking machine.

As the Bagbys found ways to increase Shopsmith sales, and after introducing the sale of hardwood lumber, the store began to attract a growing community of woodworkers. In 1977 the Bagbys and their staff published a 4-page newsletter they called Wood News. Response to it was enthusiastic. They published two more issues before deciding in 1978 to resign from King Hardware and start their own hardware store.