I'm kind of a tree nerd having gained an interest in them after years of use because of turning. When I got a lathe, I was too cheap to practice on stI'm kind of a tree nerd having gained an interest in them after years of use because of turning. When I got a lathe, I was too cheap to practice on store bought wood, so I raided the firewood pile & found a treasure trove of gorgeous wood. That led me to stopping at houses with a downed tree to beg for wood to turn & raiding other firewood piles. I found that I didn't know what the wood was half the time, so I tried to cure my ignorance which led into studying trees for the past couple of decades.
This book seemed right up my alley & she really got my attention in the second chapter when she declared that all the wood in a tree is dead save for the cambium layer just inside the bark which other sources dispute. Most agree that the heartwood is dead even though a tree in good shape has a solid heart. There is a good deal of debate on the transition from sapwood to heartwood & some think the sapwood isn't really dead, but more in a state of very slow growth, almost dormancy. They say that if it wasn't alive, it would decay & couldn't turn into heartwood, much of which is distinctly different in color from sapwood due to collecting minerals since the sapwood is the area through which the majority of the sap rises in the tree. It makes me wonder if we have a good definition of 'dead'.
Using trees to figure out climate history is fascinating & she describes both its upsides & limitations. It's not straight forward & there are some big gaps, but also some surprisingly detailed records that are used to calibrate other methods such as carbon dating. She briefly touches on ice & stalagmite sampling, both of which are similar to tree ring samples. This gets her into wood microscopy a little & the book has some pictures. It's a fascinating field & she discusses it to the correct depth for this book. (R. Bruce Hoadley is tops in the field & I've worked through 2 of his books with my cheap microscope.) Towards the end of the book her theme really embraces our current climate change & she has a lot of interesting facts to support it, but she also gets rather strident & repetitive, both a real turn off to me.
Throughout the book, she describes field trips briefly. Most sound pretty horrific. Humping core samples is tough, but wedges to study fires is awful especially in the numbers required. Just getting to many of the sites could make an entire adventure book since the sites need to be far from civilization in order to find the oldest trees. Just how many hours these scientists have spent collecting samples to stitch together fantastically long & accurate climate data is incredible.
Comparisons of climate in various areas to historical events was really interesting. Most history books I've read completely missed just how much influence climate has had on politics. Genghis Khan's expansion took place during a series of wet years when there was plenty of fodder for the horses & many countries failed due to droughts that resulted in their people rebelling. Fascinating stuff that I don't recall reading about in most histories. Perhaps they didn't know. More secrets revealed by trees.
Well narrated & full of interesting facts, I feel as if I should have enjoyed this more than I did. The last quarter of the book really brought its score down for me. It was just too much. Still, it's definitely a worthwhile read....more
Written originally as an ebook, after several years of steady sales, many requests, & dropping paperback printing costs, I've now published it as an 8Written originally as an ebook, after several years of steady sales, many requests, & dropping paperback printing costs, I've now published it as an 8-1/2" x 11" paperback. This should be easier to make notes in & use in the shop....more
He starts by pointing out that there is a Stone Age, Bronze Age, & Iron Age, but no Wood Age which is ridiculous. I really enjoyed the tour of the impHe starts by pointing out that there is a Stone Age, Bronze Age, & Iron Age, but no Wood Age which is ridiculous. I really enjoyed the tour of the importance of wood to our cousins (orangutans making nests & primitive tools) & he ends the book with how important it is today complete with some interesting data on forest use & climate change. That wasn't as obvious as I'd thought. There's a lot of misinformation in the common narrative today both historically & current.
I also really liked his points about how much even a little bit of woodworking can teach us, something I've long been a proponent for. I taught a 14 year old woodworking last summer & it was an amazing experience. Even though I've been a woodworker for 50 years, I had no idea just how many disciplines & sciences simple projects encompassed until I had to break it down for him. The old saw about the teacher learning with the student is true.
He recommends taking kids to outdoor museums which I also encourage. I always get a lot more out of them & so have my kids. He's never been to Colonial Williamsburg, but says he's been told it is great. It is. My wife & I spent a long weekend there & it was amazing. There is the Eric Sloane museum in NY, various Shaker Villages, & many other Colonial museums dotted around the US. We used to live near the Steppingstone Museum, a restored working farm in Aberdeen, MD. We live near a Shaker Village now. It's a 3000 acre farm, so we go there to horseback ride the trails more often than we visit the village. That's a great place to spend time with visiting relatives. I've been to a handful of others both with & without my kids. I always found we got far more out of them than the indoor sort, but then we live on a farm. Comparing old & new methods is informative. Some things haven't changed much at all while others are far different.
His explanations of wood, both its strengths & limitations, were of great interest even though I knew most of it. He didn't get too in depth, so it should be appreciable by anyone. The history of woodworking & availability of trees was also well done. He may have stretched a few points occasionally, but nations really have risen & fallen on wood. In many ways, wood has been both wealth & power.
This was a 5 star read up until about 1820 & became one again after that, but I'm taking a star off the book for skipping the invention of the circular saw. He describes splitting, manual pit sawing, & the change to mechanizing it very well. Then he jumps to US balloon framing which was, as he acknowledges, only made possible by a leap in the speed & accuracy of sawing. How did that leap get made? He never says, but it was the invention of the circular saw. No one knows for sure, but it was thought to be invented in England sometime early in the 1800s & was brought to the US by the Shakers about 1820, IIRC. I don't know how or why he could have skipped this. It just seems so unlikely. Could it have been inadvertently left out of the audiobook?
He's from the UK & I appreciated the point of view which varies a bit from most I've read, especially in the species of trees & their names. For instance, what we call basswood is what the English commonly call a lime tree. (I think their lime is a little tougher than basswood, slightly different species, just as there are some differences in our walnuts. Fairly close, though.) In most ways his narrative is broader since he's quite familiar with Europe as well. His knowledge of the US is not profound, but was adequate for most. I could have added quite a bit, but I'm a wood nerd.
He mentioned copiccing more than most & said that most ash handles were made that way. That varies from what I've read in other books such as The Man Who Made Things Out of Trees: The Ash in Human Culture and History where clear trunks were all the rage. He also contends it was the best way to get firewood before the introduction of wood stoves. Interesting & that explains some early US government publications on the economics of farming that I've read which recommend coppicing as a money maker. It's less common now, but we used to be able to get chestnut that way since sprouts would still grow from their old stumps until they hit puberty at about 14 years old, same as Ash. (The few ash trees on my farm that escaped the Emerald ash borer were all prepubic when that invasive bug came through. Several are now reproducing. The one next to my house is usually mixed sex, so I have a lot of ash sprouts in my gardens.)
The book was very well narrated & definitely recommended. I'm sure it will have a lot of new material for most.
An incredibly dense book, it is meant as a reminder & reference for those who already understand geometric constructions. The book recommends doing thAn incredibly dense book, it is meant as a reminder & reference for those who already understand geometric constructions. The book recommends doing the actual constructions. I agree. The more I do, the more comfortable I am with the various rules & pieces. I use them fairly often in my woodworking*, but I had to read the small print quite closely at times. (Pun intended.)
It's not always easy for me to find exactly what I want as the book is broken up by shapes & I often want specific angle constructions so I have to figure out which shape that would be under. Still, it's really useful & becomes more so as I go through the book & get more familiar with it. I never knew I could calculate harmonics this way!
I was quite disappointed by the inaccuracies of constructing a pentagons based on a circle. The drawing for making one inside is incorrect, having 2 points off the circle that should be on it. It's not accurate, so it's far easier just to draw a base line, use a protractor to make one line at 72° & pace it off with calipers from there, the way I've always done it.
*Woodworking today is often based on measurement with a ruler & protractor, but that wasn't the case before the middle of the 19th century. For most of our history, construction was done By Hand & Eye ( reviewed here) using constructions & proportions. Since I usually use nonstandard sized wood (rough wood direct from the tree, not commercially sold) I find the old methods work better for me. They also fit in with Roy Underhill's wonderfully instructive books.
Highly recommended, although older folks like myself should have a magnifying glass handy....more
It costs $0.99 on Amazon because they won't let me make it free. Smashwords allows you to download it in multiple formats. The PDF is a good choice so you can print it out for the shop. If you buy it on Amazon & want the PDF version, just let me know & I'll email it to you....more
It costs $0.99 on Amazon because they won't let me make it free. Smashwords allows you to download it in multiple formats. The PDF is a good choice so you can print it out for the shop. If you buy it on Amazon & want the PDF version, just let me know & I'll email it to you.
I first published this in 2012 under the pseudonym, Horace Ponii, because I didn't want to be a GoodReads author. I'm a reader. Authors are a special class that I look up to as I read their wonderful tales & brilliant nonfiction books. At the time there were a lot of issues with authors in the groups, too. Times have changed & I reworked the book to its current form. I decided to publish a new edition under my own name. Books can't be deleted on GR, though. Hadn't thought of that....more
I judged the book by its cover. Bad idea. There is ONE wooden works clock in here. All the rest are just frames to stick a battery operated clock intoI judged the book by its cover. Bad idea. There is ONE wooden works clock in here. All the rest are just frames to stick a battery operated clock into. That doesn't mean it's a bad book, just not quite what I was looking for.
The clocks are interesting, although I doubt anyone would want to make more than 1/4 of them since they're all over the board in styles. The wooden works clock is one of the simplest, but still beyond my skill level & patience on the scrollsaw. There are a lot of good patterns that can be used for other things besides clocks, too. There are puzzles & fretwork that can be adapted for toys, picture frames or what not.
While the paper book is nice, it's a PITA to get a decent copy out of unless the spine is taken apart. I kept getting warped & black edges, so I did some searching & found a PDF copy. It's not done by the publisher & isn't complete, but it does have all the patterns I wanted so I could copy them into a program (Irfanview, a super, simple, free graphics program) & print them out in various sizes.
I've had this book around for years & have read through it several times. I'm currently doing a couple of projects using parts of it, so I thought I should add it to my library here on GR....more
This is a pretty good quicky introduction to the scroll saw, but it isn't particularly comprehensive. It leaves out a lot of little details that wouldThis is a pretty good quicky introduction to the scroll saw, but it isn't particularly comprehensive. It leaves out a lot of little details that would have been very helpful such as a more complete chart on various blade types & their uses. It gives an over view of the basics, but what range TPI should be used for a reversing blade on a hardwood 1/2" thick?
It goes into great detail about drilling for fret work & even threading the blade, but how the hell do I get the clamps for a pinless blade properly set afterward? I know there are some variations in them, but my Ryobi is pretty standard from what I can tell & getting the little boogers to line up & tighten properly is tough when I can lay them on the table. When they're fluttering around over delicate fretwork, it's not just difficult, but scary. One slip & I could break hours of work. Sure, I came up with ways to deal with it, but I would have expected to read that in here & I didn't.
On the plus side, there are some really good beginning pointers about how some blades cut to one side - a really big problem on tight work - & beginning projects that build the skills quickly. Not all of the projects are of interest, but enough are that it's well worthwhile.
While the paper book is nice, it's a PITA to get a decent copy out of unless the spine is taken apart. I kept getting warped & black edges, so I did some searching & found a PDF copy. It's not done by the publisher & isn't complete, but it does have all the patterns I wanted so I could copy them into a program (Irfanview, a super, simple, free graphics program) & print them out in various sizes.
If you're new to using a scroll saw, this is a pretty good intro. I've had it for years & read it through a couple of times, but I just finished the hummingbird project & decided to do the parrot. They're both 3D puzzles. Fun stuff. Anyway, I thought I should add them to my books here on GR....more
This book looks pretty good at a quick glance. It's broken up into logical sections from Baroque to Rococo, Neoclassical, The Mid-1800s, & the Design This book looks pretty good at a quick glance. It's broken up into logical sections from Baroque to Rococo, Neoclassical, The Mid-1800s, & the Design Age with a few subsections in each. Each subsection has a page or so of description & then several pages of a collector's gallery featuring similar furniture, glassware, & other items to compare. The pictures are often marked up with numbers & a paragraph explaining different points. I pretty much stuck to reading about the furniture & its design.
I found most of the furniture incredibly ugly both in form & decoration, but there were some remarkable pieces even so. One of the Art Nouveau pieces had the most Kingwood in it of any piece I've ever seen & it was carved intricately, gracefully, & yet somehow grotesquely. The entire base of a tall cabinet was made of it in 1900! I didn't know it could even be had in such sizes.
The brief introduction was good & so are many of the points about tech & trade with their influence on form. I'm not much interested in the glass & silver, but mostly in the wood & furniture, so it was especially infuriating when, on page 14, he ends with a partial, intriguing sentence. Comparison to what?!!! The next page is pictures with no answers & the following starts a new section on glass. Grrrr! You left me hanging, dude!
In another section, he points out that dovetails were used to create a flush surface over which veneer could be laid. OK, but why is the picture pointing to the center of a cabinet door where a dovetail joint wouldn't be used? Mortise&tenon, various lap & panel joints could be used in a cabinet door, but I can't think of any place anyone would use a dovetail.
Another issue, which the author makes clear is that styles varied by area & this book tried to cover western Europe & the US. These design periods played out differently & at slightly different times in Italy, France, Britain, & the US, so that led to confusion on my part. This was most apparent towards the end of the book, from the Mid-1800s section & on where anything seemed to go as there were various revivals & innovations due to industry.
I'm more familiar with the periods & noticed some huge holes, too. He mentioned the Shakers only once briefly in a tiny photo mentioning that it 'provided inspiration for the Arts & Craft movement'. You think?!!! Well, he's from London, but it's obvious he should have stuck more with England & France.
The author didn't start with Gothic save for one page with a couple of paintings in the beginning of the Baroque period, yet referred to it several times. The little I know about it mostly came from reading Moxon's "Mechanick Exercises", the tools, & joinery techniques of the time. That made his section on Chippendale's Gothick (sic) & Gothic Revival rather lame. I have read Chippendale's The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director & own a copy of his third edition, so was in a better position to grasp some of it, though. I still felt a bit lost without direct comparisons.
Unfortunately, on close inspection, the book didn't hold up to its promise. It tried to cover too many items & too much ground, so got too confusing too often. Part of the failure might be on me. I'm not very good with categories. I don't think I see the same things as most people or weigh them the same, but I expect a book of this sort to walk me through similar items & point out the changes in a logical manner. I was hopeful that the design galleries would do that. They're not bad if I just look at them & ignore the text. There are about half a dozen.
Anyway, it wasn't all I'd hoped, but it wasn't a waste of time. I learned a few things & I'll keep it around for cross-reference unless I find someone else that wants it. I wouldn't recommend it unless you find it cheap, though....more
I've been reading this on & off for ages. Mom sent it to me, a nifty find that she thought would interest me. It does, in small doses. It is a book ofI've been reading this on & off for ages. Mom sent it to me, a nifty find that she thought would interest me. It does, in small doses. It is a book of with hundreds of handy tips to the farmer of a lost age, the mid to late 1800s, I'd guess. It starts out with "A Bin For Oats" & ends with "Rack, A Sheep". In between are all sorts of nifty things like how to make cheap wagon seats, a hint for pig-killing, & plowing gear for a kicking mule. IOW, even the table of contents is a really interesting look into the past.
Some are fairly horrifying such as: - A wooden floor for a stable. I dealt with one after a pony was badly injured by it. The rat tunnels weren't nearly as scary as what it does to equines when it gets old. - A trap for sheep-killing dogs: ... while the dog is imprisoned. We need not suggest any method for dealing with the prisoner, as there are many, more or less effective, which will suggest themselves. OK, not all the horrifying, just sad when it comes to this pass.
According to the title page, my edition is a 1908 printing with 'Two hundred and twelve illustrations' by New York, the Orange Judd Company. No author listed, but the next page says it was "Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1884, by the Orange Judd Company, In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. When searching for this, I came up with a lot of very similar books. None seemed to have any reviews nor descriptions. Some listed an author & all were late reprints. If I was a better librarian here, I might be able to clear this mess up. Unfortunately, I'm not....more
It's nice that other people are even weirder about woodworking than I am. Schwarz & Moskowitz (S&M) certainly are & they made this old text a completeIt's nice that other people are even weirder about woodworking than I am. Schwarz & Moskowitz (S&M) certainly are & they made this old text a complete treat that any woodworker will love.
It starts out with a great introduction & then a short Historical section. Both set the stage well for the text that follows.
The Original Text is an anonymous account of being a joiner's apprentice in the early 1800s comprising about 1/4 of the book (100 pages). It's amazingly readable & would have been worth it on its own, but a lot of common knowledge of the times is taken for granted. S&M fill in the blanks with perfectly placed footnotes. Many are rather long, but all are extremely helpful. For instance, amounts of pay are well explained & fit into the context of the times. Also, a lot of old techniques & the reasons they were used. I've read a few other books of this nature, so some of the historical lessons were a review, but they were always succinct & informative. Even when I knew the information, I didn't feel as if it was repetitive.
The Construction section is another 100 pages & takes the reader through all 3 projects that were described in the original text built today with pictures. Shwartz & his 8 year old daughter made them. He taught her as they went along & learned himself. Again, there is plenty of historical data such as a deeper look into old nails.
The last section is Further Reading which has an epilogue, bibliography, & an appendix. I skimmed the last parts, but will keep the book close to hand & in mind for future reading.
This is a fantastic book for any woodworker & I'd highly recommend it for the beginning woodworker. There are a lot of excellent lessons to be learned & they're very well described. ...more
I was told this was the bible of inkle weaving & have only read the first few chapters. The first was about the construction of inkle looms (see belowI was told this was the bible of inkle weaving & have only read the first few chapters. The first was about the construction of inkle looms (see below) & then there were several about beginning weaving, the use of pattern sticks, & such. She does a great job explaining these & making sense out of patterns themselves. The book also has a lot of good patterns, but it was published in 1975 & the hobby has come a long way. My daughter, who is a weaver, likes this book but prefers The Weaver's Inkle Pattern Directory: 400 Warp-Faced Weaves by Anne Dixon which was published in 2012.
I'm not interested in weaving, but in making inkle looms. This book only has one short chapter on the construction of looms. Her points on deficiencies in some designs & her knowledge of weaving are impressive, but I found the loom designs decidedly less so. The plans aren't very good in my edition. It looks as if there was a graph overlay at one time, but it isn't there now & the plans themselves are confusing. They're not standard construction plans.
I built the small loom using her plans & it's not awful for a beginner. The issues with her plans are manifold, though. - 3/4" difference in where the left upright is set along the base depending on how the plans are read. - The foot is in front of the base in the plans which crowds the warp, but it is underneath in all the pictures. - The starting pin is also the tension release pin which means the working area changes as the weave progresses. This doesn't seem to cause a big impact since the top & joining pins are only 6" higher than the starting pin & the run to them is pretty long, but it's not a good design. - There is only has 5" of tension release which isn't enough for a thick weft or complex pattern on that length of warp. - What's with the weird lap joints? Either do a full half lap or don't bother.
A couple of minor changes can make it a lot better. I have far better modified plans available for free if you want them.
‘Inkle’ is simply an old word for a band or ribbon which were generally woven on larger, traditional looms. Some date the small, one-sided, hobby looms to the middle of the 19th century, others to the early 20th century. Note they are hobby looms which are portable. Instead of knitting, sewing, crochet needles or needlepoint frames, people would carry these little looms around. My great aunt used to carry a doily loom around. The point being that inkle looms have built-in limits & trying to design past those is a waste of time.
A 'real' loom is quite complex & expensive; around $1000 for a decent table top version & they only go up from there. Their construction is beyond most & there are many accessories needed that are all very dear. Inkle looms can be built by almost anyone & are in the $100 range retail. There are few accessories needed & they're easy to make, too.
Inkle looms are generally used to create ribbons a few inches wide, although 6" wide is possible. I doubt they're good for anything wider than that, though. The warp tension on the unsupported ends of the pins is just too much. 2 sided inkle looms are not recommended by anyone who knows anything about them.
So, I did not bother trying to build the large loom in this book. It's just bad furniture. While it may allow for projects up to 6" wide, any decent size loom can do this. Far smaller ones have much longer warps - the primary reason for the larger size, IMO. I thought I was missing something, but I've asked half a dozen weavers & all agree it's a terrible design. Again, I have free plans for far better looms.
Overall, this is a great book if you're starting out weaving. I found it easier to understand than Dixon's book for the basics, but my daughter tells me she picked those up through her friends that weave & Dixon's book. The latter gave her far more & better patterns, too....more
I'm interested in inkle loom construction & this book doesn't have much about it at all, but it does have a good, quick overview of looms & getting started. My daughter says there are more & better patterns, so when she had to choose one book to get, this was the recommendation. Bress' book might be better for a beginning weaver who doesn't have a support group. At least, I found her explanations better. Bress' book is about $30 used on Abebooks while this one is only $20. Prices are subject to change without notice, of course....more
Penn's love for trees, ash trees in particular, is wonderful to read about. This book is a series of adventures as he traces the uses of common EnglisPenn's love for trees, ash trees in particular, is wonderful to read about. This book is a series of adventures as he traces the uses of common English ash, Fraxinus ecelsior throughout history & much of the western world. It is similar enough to American white ash, Fraxinus_americana that it is also covered in some detail. That an entire book barely covers the subject is a testament to the wood; its historical & current importance. While Penn gets into some detail at various times, he still only brushes against many subjects. This makes it an easy read both for those both with & without knowledge on the subject. I certainly enjoyed it & I have a fair amount of experience. Actually, his love of the woods & insistence on proper environmental practices mirrored my own. I will admit to some frustration on him not getting into some areas a bit more deeply.
I've read something about European woodworking over the years since much of the American Colonial woodworking arises from those roots. He even mentions Roy Underhill. Quite a few of the International Wood Collector's Society articles have been about European woods & methods over the years. Even so, Penn wrote about items I hadn't thought about before, most notably his long discourse (too long?) on Irish hurling sticks, a perfect way to describe the variety within ash wood in the way it was grown. His practically perfect tree from the England/Wales border country was great for a lot of things, but not for hurling sticks. He then got into American baseball bats & where the best wood for them comes from. The relative differences in ash are huge depending on the region, soil, & conditions. He does a great job making this clear in practical terms.
He discusses drying methods a little bit under each use with some general rules. It really is an important step that is surrounded by a lot of folklore & science where I'm not always sure which is correct. He takes the experts at their word, a good idea, IMO. While he discusses the need to air dry wood about a year per inch, he mentions a bit about kiln drying, although I would have liked to have heard more detail on the local methods since I know it varies by area & species.
Speaking of other areas, one of the major annoyances of this book was the mixing of units between SAE & metric. He gets boards cut to 1 inch thick, but their width & length are in cm! Not his fault, I'm sure. I wish we'd just switch, though. A mix like that is a headache, but we deal with it in the US, although generally only with manufactured wood like plywood & then only the thickness is in metric & can vary a LOT - grrr!
He's not really a woodworker & I think that's why I found some of his explanations incomplete or spread out oddly. For instance, he missed a wonderful opportunity to get into the various properties of wood with a chair maker, although he later covered most of those points in other sections. Personally, I think a chair is the finest, most thorough example & test of wood properties. Some use half a dozen woods to their best advantage so that might not have made his point as well, but the comparisons are very educational. Still, he did mention the interlocking grain of elm without mentioning it makes a great chair seat due to this & really missed the point of splitting out chair rails for strength in the beginning of the book (He kind of talks around it.) & doesn't cover it properly until near the end with baseball bats. Then he does a great job. He finally got back to chair making in a bit more detail at the very end, but still didn't discuss other woods, save elm, properly.
He states that in the 1990s a pathogenic fungus was attacking ash trees in New York, but doesn't mention the name. Frustrating! Not until the very end does he mention the Emerald Ash Borer, an imported beetle that has wiped out almost all of the ash trees from New England through Kentucky & down to the Gulf coast. About 20-25% of my woods (Kentucky) was once ash & they are all dead. The sheer number of trees is many times that of even American Chestnut Blight which were almost completely wiped out in the wild.
There is some redundancy that was annoying. Structural & crushing strength of wood was one of these areas. He covered cell structure several times for the same reasons in arrows, tool handles, baseball bats.
He didn't mention the beauty of some of its grain patterns in different cuts well enough early on, although he did take his log to a sawmill. I found that section far too simplified & he never mentioned staining & finishing of ash compared to other woods. It does have large pores & that can be an issue with fine woodwork & writing surfaces. He mentions the grain patterns at the end, but doesn't get into staining at all, surprising since he wife should know.
He never mentioned the sex lives of the ash tree which is quite varied. They are bisexual, some in all senses of the word, while others are straight, though this can change as well with time as can their sex. They are not alone in this, but are perhaps one of the best documented.
Still, he summed it all up with a true love of trees, especially his ash. At the end of the book he revisits the stump & ticks off all the different items made. That's wonderful. He did a fine job for anyone interested in, but not terribly familiar with, the wood & processing a tree from seedling to finished product. I found a lot to interest me & that's quite an accomplishment for a book of this sort. Just be aware (warned?) that there is plenty he didn't cover & more that was beyond the scope of this book. It's fascinating & sort of like eating chips, especially if you actually get to working with this wonderful wood. ...more
If you're into printing, this is a must-read. The Marcus sisters did a great job of tracing the history of printing from early woodblocks to modern ofIf you're into printing, this is a must-read. The Marcus sisters did a great job of tracing the history of printing from early woodblocks to modern off-set printing. Kat wrote the text (German in one column, English in the other) while Barbara did great pen sketches. Be warned though, it's not a book for beginners or for casual browsing. The descriptions are concise & do contain words specific to the art. While they're explained briefly, I've never read anything on the subject before so found myself looking things up on the Internet & getting lost in places. I had to go back & figure out what a word meant or look in the back.
I wouldn't have read this except I became Kat's friend through her books on horses & then noticed this one. Unfortunately, it's only sold in Europe, but when I expressed an interest, she sent me a copy autographed by her & Barbara. I then sent her a bowl turned from local poplar.
Anyway, I had no plans to do anything save browse the book, but then found it fascinating. Some of the early techniques might be interesting to try for decorating my woodworking. ...more
He certainly picked some remarkable trees, although he was a bit too enamored of barely surviving or dead stumps. I don't consider those remarkable trHe certainly picked some remarkable trees, although he was a bit too enamored of barely surviving or dead stumps. I don't consider those remarkable trees. Still, I probably hadn't heard of over 1/3 of the examples he wrote about - a good percentage. I don't think there was a case where he didn't add some information I hadn't known, though. That's awesome. He found new trivia on even the really well known ones.
This wasn't a book for me to just sit down & read, it was more like a scavenger hunt. It's a condiment book. (No one wants just ketchup or mayo on their sandwich.) Pakenham packed this book with interesting trivia & marvelous reflections along with some decent pictures, but each entry was too short. It made me want more & some left me a bit bewildered until I looked an English term up in another book. Thankfully I found the map in the back of the book early on. I am not well versed in the geography of the British Isles so would have been completely lost, however the map is well marked.
If you're not a tree nut, this isn't for you. My wife likes trees & still lost interest, although she is still occasionally picking at it & we did have some interesting discussions. There are a lot of really neat trees in the isles & around the world. I have several books on them & have read more, so the book worked for me with reservations. It was kind of a pain to have to dig out another book or google images for a better look at a tree or area rather than just the closeup Pakenham provided. I liked the way he wrote & wish he'd expanded this book into several.
What was there was good & this is a fine addition to my growing library of all things wood related. I'll keep it & probably browse through it occasionally. I'll certainly pull it out & look things up in it....more
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