A Splintered History of Wood

[rickc]

I have an opportunity to read/review a book titled: A Splintered History of Wood. It sounds pretty interesting, but wanted to share a little bit about it here in case the LOYL is looking for gift ideas!

Website is here Splintered History of Wood.

Just the teasers seemed interesting - 55 short stories about various topics involving wood - belt sander races, wooden clothes, largest slab of wood, sports involving wood, etc.


Anyone else heard of it? Here is the TOC...

1 EXTRAORDINARY WOODS

- 50,000 year old wood lives and breathes again
- In quest of the world’s most expensive board foot
- Oak: The Breakfast of Civilizations
- The wood freak show
- Bamboo: The grass that thinks it’s a wood
- Rescuing redwood the hard way
- Logging the industrial forest
- Wood: How it got here, how trees make it
​

2 THE WACKY WORLD OF WOODWORKERS

- A Chainsaw artist a cut above the rest
- My 7 awkward minutes with the man who carves Ferraris
- Woodworking blind: Just like everyone else
- How much wood would a wood collector collect?
- Nakashima: The Pavarotti of Woodworking still sings
- My almost-perfect interview with woodworker, Jimmy Carter
​

3 THE TOOLS THAT WORK THE WOOD

- As the lathe turns: Making golf tees with the master
- Tool junky heaven
- The tablesaw that couldn’t cut a hot dog in half
- Belt sander racing: A saga of true grit, speed and victory (sorta)
​

4 WOOD IN THE WORLD OF MUSIC

- Stradivarius violins: The sweetest sound you’ve never heard
- The Making of Sweet Baby James’ guitar
- Drums: And the beat goes on and on and on
- A Steinway: 12,000 pieces of indestructible music
- The National Music Museum: 600 Zithers, B. B. King and one-ton drums
​

5 WOOD IN THE WORLD OF SPORTS

- Baseball bats: A David and Goliath affair
- Golf: Persimmon scores a hole-in-one
- Tossing telephone poles and other curious sports
- The art of the pool cue
- Tennis: The racket about wood racquets
- Lumber Jacks and Lumber Jills
​

6 WOOD AS SHELTER

- Living in trees: From Papua, New Guinea to Washington State
- The history of housing from log cabin to, well, log cabin
- Everything you never wanted to know about construction lumber
- A dirty rotting shame
- Winchester house—the 36 year remodeling project
​

7 WOOD IN DAY TO DAY LIFE

- When wood was everything and everything was wood
- The Lindbergh kidnapping, the Ted Bundy tree and forensic wood
- Pens and pencils: Getting to the point
- A barrelful of coopers, kegs and tradition
- True relics of the cross
- 50 billion toothpicks can’t be wrong
​

8 WOOD, WEAPONS AND WAR

- Ten great moments in catapult history
- A tale of two warships: One unsinkable, one unsailable
- The twang of the bow
- White pines and war
- Pine roots versus atomic bombs
​

9 WOOD BY LAND, AIR AND SEA

- The Spruce Goose made of birch
- Go fly a person: Kites for work and play
- Trains: Riding the wooden rails
- In search of the lost ark
- The song of the gondolier
​

10 WOOD IN UNUSUAL USES AND PECULIAR PLACES

- Venice: The city perched upon wood
- Wood pipe takes a bow
- Building a staircase to heaven
- Academy Award nominees for outstanding
performance by a wooden structure
- Roller Coasters: Mobius strips of screaming wood
​

 

[Bigdog72]

Rick,

Let me borrow it when you are done.:icon_thum