A splintered history of wood : belt sander races, blind woodworkers, and baseball bats / Spike Carlsen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Carlsen, Spike, 1952-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Wood.

Physical Description:

xv, 411 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Collins, [2008]

Summary:

It's impossible to envision. This fundamental substance has played a role in nearly every aspect of human existence, in ways both ordinary and thrillingly unexpected: toothpicks, Derek Jeter's bat, true relics of the cross, the famed Stradivarius violin, medieval catapults, and the Spruce Goose are only a few examples.

In A Splintered History of Wood, Spike Carlsen has traveled thousands of miles and interviewed hundreds of craftsmen and wood lovers to care out wood's dynamic history and uncertain future. Along the way, he encountered incredible individuals and experiences, including an artisan that carves life-size wood Ferraris to drive through the canals of Venice; a 50,000-year-old wood mined from the bogs of New Zealand; a woodworking former President; the World Championship Belt Sander races; and a 400-year-old sunken ship. In the tradition of Cod and Salt, here is the enlightening and amazing account of an essential resource that we take for granted ... and that may just be the key to a sustainable future.

Contents:

1 Extraordinary Woods 1

Fifty-Thousand-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 46

A Chainsaw Artist a Cut Above the Rest

My Seven 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 91

As the Lathe Turns: Making Golf Tees with the Master

Tool Junky Heaven

The Table Saw That Couldn't Cut a Hot Dog in Half

Belt Sander Racing: A Saga of True

Grit, Speed, and Victory (sort of)

4 Wood in the World of Music 116

Stradivarius Violins: The Sweetest

Sound You've Never Heard

The Making of Sweet Baby James's Guitar

Drums: And the Beat Goes On and On and On ...

The Steinway D: Twelve Thousand

Pieces of Indestructible Music

The National Music Museum: Six Hundred Zithers

B. B. King, and One-Ton Drums

5 Wood in the World of Sports 153

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 185

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 Thirty-Six-Year

Remodeling Project

7 Wood in Day-to-Day Life 208

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

Fifty Billion Toothpicks Can't Be Wrong

8 Wood, Weapons, and War 252

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 287

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 313

Venice: The City Perched on 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

11 Epilogue: Trees-Answers, Gifts, and Ducks in the Wind 349.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [383]-390) and index.

ISBN:

9780061373565

0061373567

OCLC:

179806432