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Introduction xiii
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
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
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)
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
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 aboutWood Racquets
Lumber Jacks and Lumber Jills
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
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
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
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
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
Epilogue: Trees-Answers, Gifts, and Ducks in the Wind 349
Notes 359
Resources 373
Bibliography 383
Photography and Illustration Credits 391
Index 393
About the Author 413
| Price | Condition | Delivery | Seller | Action |
| $99.99 | Digital |
| WonderClub |
Steve Kemp
reviewed A Splintered History of Wood: Belt-Sander Races, Blind Woodworkers, and Baseball Bats on July 20, 2009
A Splintered History of Wood: Belt-Sander Races, Blind Woodworkers, and Baseball Bats
My original intent in reading A Splintered History of Wood was to pick up some trivia and increase my knowledge of the subject generally. In this, the book was more than satisfying; it presents a diverse survey on the history of wood(working), complete with colorful histories, curious etymologies, and unique biographies. However, the presentation of the material is unbalanced. Despite Spike Carlsen's preface warning readers that the book is a splintered (incomplete) history of wood, it's obvious that certain topics have been more thoroughly researched than others, as both the number of pages dedicated to a particular subject as well and the quantity of reliable facts pertaining to a particular section attest. Carlsen also puts the credibility of his book at risk by trying to define wood within scientific fields; in attempting scientific proofs, his analogies are weak and his definitions often too general. For example, Carlsen stretches the definition of wood to include grasses (namely bamboo) at the end of the first chapter - a license that deflates confidence in the authority of the rest of the work. And then, having raised it, he fails to discuss bamboo as a wood elsewhere (though it is briefly mentioned on two separate accounts as an inefficient material). The problems with definitions, however, go beyond specific instances of accuracy. Lumber, for example, has a predictably significant role in Carlsen's book. But Carlsen mistakenly presumes his reader's familiarity with lumber vocabulary. Helpful definitions are few, and when provided - at least on one account - are introduced too late. Carlsen's book would have profited enormously from decent editorial help. Because wood is a very interesting subject, the book would have been more pleasurable to read if it it's definitions were more balanced - perhaps with a supporting glossary. However, content aside, Carlsen's editor failed to monitor even basic writing errors, typos, and factual inconsistencies. Carlsen draws in his reader with his casual "e-mail-esque" writing, which delivers an eye-roll-worthy pun or witty remark on nearly every other page. And while the information about wood is ultimately translated to the reader, the patience required to appreciate Spike Carlsen's big picture is tiresome.
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