A Splintered History of Wood : Belt Sander Races, Blind Woodworkers, and Baseball Bats

In a world without wood, we might not be here at all. Without wood, we wouldn't have had the fire, heat, and shelter that allowed us to expand into the colder regions of the planet. If civilization somehow did develop, our daily lives still would be vastly different: there would be no violins, baseball bats, chopsticks, or wine corks. The book you are now holding wouldn't exist. At the same time, many of us are removed from the world where wood is shaped and celebrated every day. That world is inhabited by a unique assortment of eccentric craftsmen and passionate enthusiasts who have created some of the world's most beloved musical instruments, feared weapons, dazzling architecture, sacred relics, and bizarre forms of transportation. In A Splintered History of Wood, Spike Carlsen has uncovered the most outlandish characters and examples, from world-champion chainsaw carvers to blind woodworkers, the Miraculous Staircase to the Lindbergh kidnapping case, and many more, in a passionate and personal exploration of nature's greatest gift. Title Page 3 Dedication Page 4 Contents 5 Introduction 9 Chapter One: Extraordinary Woods 13 Fifty-Thousand-Year-Old Wood Lives and Breathes Again 14 In Quest of the World’s Most Expensive Board Foot 19 Oak: The Breakfast of Civilizations 24 The Wood Freak Show 28 Bamboo: The Grass That Thinks It’s a Wood 36 Rescuing Redwood the Hard Way 39 Logging the Industrial Forest 42 Wood: How It Got Here, How Trees Make It 46 Chapter Two: The Wacky World of Woodworkers 58 A Chainsaw Artist a Cut Above the Rest 59 My Seven Awkward Minutes with the Man Who Carves Ferraris 65 Woodworking Blind-Just Like Everyone Else 68 How Much Wood Would a Wood Collector Collect? 74 Nakashima: The Pavarotti of Woodworking Still Sings 83 My Almost-Perfect Interview with Woodworker Jimmy Carter 95 Chapter Three: The Tools That Work the Wood 103 As the Lathe Turns: Making Golf Tees with the Master 105 Tool Junky Heaven 112 The Table Saw That Couldn’t Cut a Hot Dog in Half 116 Belt Sander Racing: A Saga of True Grit, Speed, and Victory (sort of) 121 Chapter Four: Wood in the World of Music 128 Stradivarius Violins: The Sweetest Sound You’ve Never Heard 129 The Making of Sweet Baby James’s Guitar 136 Drums: And the Beat Goes On and On and On... 141 The Steinway D: Twelve Thousand Pieces of Indestructible Music 144 The National Music Museum: Six Hundred Zithers, B. B. King, and One-Ton Drums 155 Chapter Five: Wood in the World of Sports 165 Baseball Bats: A David-and-Goliath Affair 165 Golf: Persimmon Scores a Hole in One 172 Tossing Telephone Poles and Other Curious Sports 181 The Art of the Pool Cue 184 Tennis: The Racket about Wood Racquets 186 Lumber Jacks and Lumber Jills 190 Chapter Six: Wood as Shelter 197 Living in Trees: From Papua, New Guinea, to Washington State 197 The History of Housing from Log Cabin to, Well, Log Cabin 203 Everything You Never Wanted to Know about Construction Lumber 208 A Dirty Rotting Shame 212 Winchester House: The Thirty-Six-Year Remodeling Project 215 Chapter Seven: Wood in Day-to-Day Life 220 When Wood Was Everything and Everything Was Wood 220 The Lindbergh Kidnapping, the Ted Bundy Tree, and Forensic Wood 228 Pens and Pencils: Getting to the Point 236 A Barrelful of Coopers, Kegs, and Tradition 240 True Relics of the Cross 255 Fifty Billion Toothpicks Can’t Be Wrong 259 Chapter Eight: Wood, Weapons, and War 264 Ten Great Moments in Catapult History 264 A Tale of Two Warships: One Unsinkable, One Unsailable 274 The Twang of the Bow 280 White Pines and War 292 Pine Roots versus Atomic Bombs 295 Chapter Nine: Wood by Land, Air, and Sea 299 The Spruce Goose Made of Birch 300 Go Fly a Person: Kites for Work and Play 305 Trains: Riding the Wooden Rails 309 In Search of the Lost Ark 313 The Song of the Gondolier 317 Chapter Ten: Wood in Unusual Uses and Peculiar Places 325 Venice: The City Perched on Wood 326 Wood Pipe Takes a Bow 333 Building a Staircase to Heaven 338 Academy Award Nominees for Outstanding Performance by a Wooden Structure 347 Roller Coasters: Möbius Strips of Screaming Wood 353 Epilogue: Trees-Answers, Gifts, and Ducks in the Wind 361 Notes 371 Resources 385 Bibliography 395 Photography and Illustration Credits 403 Index 405 Acknowledgments 424 About the Author 426 Credits 427 Copyright Notice 428 About the Publisher 429

in A World Without Wood, We Might Not Be Here At All. We Wouldn't Have Had The Fire, Heat, And Shelter That Allowed Us To Expand Into The Planet's Colder Regions. If Civilization Somehow Did Develop, Our Daily Lives Would Be Vastly Different: There Would Be No Violins, Baseball Bats, Chopsticks, Or Wine Corks. The Book You Are Now Holding Wouldn't Exist.

spike Carlsen's a Splintered History Of Wood Is A Grand Celebration Of All Things Wooden And The Characters Who Lovingly Shape Them—eccentric Artisans And Passionate Enthusiasts Who Have Created Some Of The World's Most Beloved Musical Instruments, Feared Weapons, Dazzling Architecture, And Bizarre Forms Of Transportation. From Champion Chainsaw Carvers To Blind Woodworkers, From The Miraculous Staircase To The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case, Here Is A Passionate, Personal, Amazingly Entertaining Exploration Of Nature's Greatest Gift.

publishers Weekly

carlsen (readera's Digest Complete Do-it-yourself Manual) Gives A Solid History Of Wood As He Travels The World, Analyzing The Vast Number Of Uses Of A Mundane Natural Resource. In Doing So, Carlsen Also Uncovers The Wide Variety Of Personalities That Work With Wood Every Day, From The Chainsaw Artist Appropriately Named The Wild Mountain Man To The Blind Cabinetmaker Who Can See Things With [his] Fingers That You May Not See With Your Eyes. He Uncovers Places Where Wood Golf Clubs Are Still Manufactured Today; Explains Which Type Of Wood Is Best For A Baseball Bat; Takes Readers Through The Painstaking Process Used To Make The Beautiful Stradivarius Violins And Steinway Grand Pianos; He Also Demonstrates How The Gondola Is A Floating Work Of Efficiency And Ergonomic Art. At One Point, Carlsen Visits A Company In Maine That Produces 50 Billion Toothpicks And 12 Billion Wooden Matches Each Year. Carlsen Includes Photographs Throughout This Engaging And Exhaustively Researched Work. (sept.)

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When we think of wood—and few of us do—most of us picture the stacks of 2x4s in the aisles of our local home center or the stuff we throw into the fireplace on cold winter nights. Wood doesn’t rank much higher on our “things-that-amaze-us” list than water or air. We chop our onions on it, pick our teeth with it, pin our skivvies to the clothesline with it. Most people think of wood as just another “thing”—and they’re correct. But let’s look at life for a minute without this thing. For starters, the book you are now reading wouldn’t exist. If you needed to dab your eyes a bit over that fact, you wouldn’t find a Kleenex or Kleenex box in the house. In fact, you wouldn’t find the house—or the chair you are seated in or the floor it’s standing on—at least not in the form you are accustomed. You wouldn’t have the pencil in your pocket, the rubber heel on your shoe, or the cork you popped from the Pinot Noir last night. There would have been no violins at the concert you attended last week, no baseball bats at the ball game you watched last night, no telephone poles to carry your digital messages earlier today. We use wood for chopsticks, bridges and charcoal. From the cribs we sleep in as infants to the caskets in which we’ll be buried in old age, wood touches us in a real and personal way, everyday. How could we take wood for granted? And now I step off my soapbox—also made of wood. Many of us are removed from the world where wood is shaped and celebrated every day. That world is inhabited by a unique assortment of eccentric craftsmen and passionate enthusiasts who have created some of the world's most beloved musical instruments, feared weapons, dazzling architecture, sacred relics, and bizarre forms of transportation. In A Splintered History of Wood, Spike Carlsen has uncovered the most outlandish characters and examples, from world-champion chainsaw carvers to blind woodworkers, the Miraculous Staircase to the Lindbergh kidnapping case, and many more, in a passionate and personal exploration of nature's greatest gift. --from publisher description. A collection of 55 stories that revolve around the unusual or unexpected uses of wood throughout history. It includes segments on the extraordinary Stradivari violins, the ill-fated Spruce Goose, an interview with Jimmy Carter, 50,000 year old wood, Sarah Winchester’s 36 year long “spooky” remodeling project, the world’s greatest wood carver, blind woodworkers, modern day bowyers and barrel makers, the world’s most expensive woods and more. A Splintered History of Wood is a passionate and personal exploration of natures greatest gift: wood. In the successful tradition of books such as Salt and Cod, writer and carpenter Spike Carlsen explores the history, versatility, and special appeal of something we use everydaybut take for grantedin this comprehensive and dynamic history of woods global impact and its personal significance to people in all walks of life. 1) EXTRAORDINARY WOODS 2) THE WACKY WORLD OF WOODWORKERS 3) THE TOOLS THAT WORK THE WOOD 4) WOOD IN THE WORLD OF MUSIC 5) WOOD IN THE WORLD OF SPORTS 6) WOOD AS SHELTER 7) WOOD IN DAY TO DAY LIFE 8) WOOD, WEAPONS AND WAR 9) WOOD BY LAND, AIR AND SEA 10) WOOD IN UNUSUAL USES AND PECULIAR PLACES Epilogue Trees: Answers, gifts and ducks in the wind It is impossible to imagine a world without wood. From relics of the cross to the invention of toothpicks to the Stradivarius violin and medieval catapults, wood has played an essential role in different aspects of human existence. This book offers a history of wood's global impact and its personal significance to people in various walks of life. 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