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The Man Who Made Things Out of Trees: The Ash in Human Culture and History
Out of all the trees in the world, the ash is most closely bound up with who we are: the tree we have made the greatest and most varied use of over the course of human history. One frigid winter morning, Robert Penn lovingly selected an ash tree and cut it down. He wanted to see how many beautiful, handmade objects could be made from it.
Thus begins an adventure of craftsmanship and discovery. Penn visits the shops of modern-day woodworkers—whose expertise has been handed down through generations—and finds that ancient woodworking techniques are far from dead. He introduces artisans who create a flawless axe handle, a rugged and true wagon wheel, a deadly bow and arrow, an Olympic-grade toboggan, and many other handmade objects using their knowledge of ash’s unique properties. Penn connects our daily lives back to the natural woodlands that once dominated our landscapes.
Throughout his travels—from his home in Wales, across Europe, and America—Penn makes a case for the continued and better use of the ash tree as a sustainable resource and reveals some of the dire threats to our ash trees. The emerald ash borer, a voracious and destructive beetle, has killed tens of millions of ash trees across North America since 2002. Unless we are prepared to act now and better value our trees, Penn argues, the ash tree and its many magnificent contributions to mankind will become a thing of the past. This exuberant tale of nature, human ingenuity, and the pleasure of making things by hand chronicles how the urge to understand and appreciate trees still runs through us all like grain through wood.
Thus begins an adventure of craftsmanship and discovery. Penn visits the shops of modern-day woodworkers—whose expertise has been handed down through generations—and finds that ancient woodworking techniques are far from dead. He introduces artisans who create a flawless axe handle, a rugged and true wagon wheel, a deadly bow and arrow, an Olympic-grade toboggan, and many other handmade objects using their knowledge of ash’s unique properties. Penn connects our daily lives back to the natural woodlands that once dominated our landscapes.
Throughout his travels—from his home in Wales, across Europe, and America—Penn makes a case for the continued and better use of the ash tree as a sustainable resource and reveals some of the dire threats to our ash trees. The emerald ash borer, a voracious and destructive beetle, has killed tens of millions of ash trees across North America since 2002. Unless we are prepared to act now and better value our trees, Penn argues, the ash tree and its many magnificent contributions to mankind will become a thing of the past. This exuberant tale of nature, human ingenuity, and the pleasure of making things by hand chronicles how the urge to understand and appreciate trees still runs through us all like grain through wood.
256 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2015
62 people are currently reading
759 people want to read
About the author
Robert Penn
32 books15 followersRob Penn is an author, journalist, TV presenter and cyclist. He’s ridden a bicycle most days of his adult life, in over fifty countries on five continents.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 101 reviews
December 26, 2015
BOTW
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06s8716Description: In 2012, Robert Penn felled (and replanted) a great ash from a Welsh wood. He set out to explore the true value of the tree of which we have made the greatest and most varied use in human history. How many things can be made from one tree?
Over the next two years he travelled across Britain, to Europe and the USA, to the workshops and barns of a generation of craftsmen committed to working in wood. He watched them make over 45 artefacts and tools that have been in continual use for centuries, if not millennia.
Today, he begins his search for the perfect tree in woodland near his South Wales home. It's a bitter, Elizabethan winter and snow lies on the forests. After a long hunt, he gets a call from a forester in Herefordshire.
This is a tale about the joy of making things in wood, of its touch and smell, its many uses and the resonant, calming effect of running our hands along a wooden surface. It is a celebration of man's close relationship with this greatest of natural materials and a reminder of the value of things made by hand and made to last.
1: A search for the perfect tree in woodland in South Wales 2: Robert fells an ash and begins to make things from it 3: A piece of the ash is taken to the best of wood-turners 4: A sledge is made in Austia 5: After a year, Robert finally has his new writing desk
November 15, 2016
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 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.
I watched a clip of a hurling game here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgEMv...
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.
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.
I watched a clip of a hurling game here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgEMv...
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.
December 3, 2015
When people think of making things from wood, the one that springs to mind is oak. But as magnificent as that tree is for buildings, ships and furniture, through the ages people have relied on another tree for tools, household objects, paddles and bats. That tree is ash.
This tree is under threat now from a microscopic fungus that has come from the far east. Penn sets about a challenge of making, or having made as many objects made from a single ash tree. Partly to raise awareness of the trees plight, but also for the satisfaction of seeing a tree made into elegant and beautiful things for him to use. But first he had to find his tree. The genus Fraxinus is common in the northern hemisphere so it shouldn’t be too difficult. He is lucky enough to lease a small woodland, but there was no tree there suitable; fortunately he was to locate a tree with a strong straight trunk and a decent canopy from another local wood. Having felled it, it was taken to the saw mill to be cut into a number of planks of different dimensions, prior to a period of seasoning. This natural drying process is essential to turn a tree into useful timber.
One of the most common uses for ash is tool handles. The experts are a little hazy about putting absolute date on when ash was first used, but it is safe to say that it has been used for several thousand years. The properties of ash make it the perfect material, it is tough, strong and flexible, not too heavy and the very act of handling the wood adds a patina to it making it nicer to handle. One of the last tool manufacturers in UK offer to turn some of his planks into axe handles, and he pays them a visit. In no time at all they are cut to shape, and sanded to the ideal shape. His first objects from that tree.
Ash has numerous uses, and has been used in all forms of transport for years, including cars, buses, aircraft and of course carts. More wood is taken to a wheelwright where he sees flat wood turned into a perfect wheel, that if looked after will long outlive the original tree. Another hunk was taken to be made into bowls, that are now used daily for his breakfast. He visits Austria to have a toboggan made, America to see ash turned into a baseball bat and Ireland to have a hurley created. He commissions a desk to be made, and ends up with chopping boards, tent pegs, spoons, bookmarks, paddles, arrow, dominoes and even a catapult. In total he had seen 45 different objects created and had a total of 126 items. All from one tree. The sawdust and shaving kept him warm too, as nothing was wasted.
More importantly as this tree was coppiced properly when he returned to the stump it was growing again and will produce again.
This is a lovely book to read. Not only does his boundless enthusiasm come across on every page, but he is reminding us of the timeless quality of wood as a material. We learn that these crafts are not completely gone, but there are still a few talented individuals out there with the necessary skills to create practical and beautiful things. It is also a call to everyone to see what the benefits of having a properly managed woods can bring. He has not only got a collection of items that he will use for many years to come, but each time he uses them he has a direct link to the landscape around him.
This tree is under threat now from a microscopic fungus that has come from the far east. Penn sets about a challenge of making, or having made as many objects made from a single ash tree. Partly to raise awareness of the trees plight, but also for the satisfaction of seeing a tree made into elegant and beautiful things for him to use. But first he had to find his tree. The genus Fraxinus is common in the northern hemisphere so it shouldn’t be too difficult. He is lucky enough to lease a small woodland, but there was no tree there suitable; fortunately he was to locate a tree with a strong straight trunk and a decent canopy from another local wood. Having felled it, it was taken to the saw mill to be cut into a number of planks of different dimensions, prior to a period of seasoning. This natural drying process is essential to turn a tree into useful timber.
One of the most common uses for ash is tool handles. The experts are a little hazy about putting absolute date on when ash was first used, but it is safe to say that it has been used for several thousand years. The properties of ash make it the perfect material, it is tough, strong and flexible, not too heavy and the very act of handling the wood adds a patina to it making it nicer to handle. One of the last tool manufacturers in UK offer to turn some of his planks into axe handles, and he pays them a visit. In no time at all they are cut to shape, and sanded to the ideal shape. His first objects from that tree.
Ash has numerous uses, and has been used in all forms of transport for years, including cars, buses, aircraft and of course carts. More wood is taken to a wheelwright where he sees flat wood turned into a perfect wheel, that if looked after will long outlive the original tree. Another hunk was taken to be made into bowls, that are now used daily for his breakfast. He visits Austria to have a toboggan made, America to see ash turned into a baseball bat and Ireland to have a hurley created. He commissions a desk to be made, and ends up with chopping boards, tent pegs, spoons, bookmarks, paddles, arrow, dominoes and even a catapult. In total he had seen 45 different objects created and had a total of 126 items. All from one tree. The sawdust and shaving kept him warm too, as nothing was wasted.
More importantly as this tree was coppiced properly when he returned to the stump it was growing again and will produce again.
This is a lovely book to read. Not only does his boundless enthusiasm come across on every page, but he is reminding us of the timeless quality of wood as a material. We learn that these crafts are not completely gone, but there are still a few talented individuals out there with the necessary skills to create practical and beautiful things. It is also a call to everyone to see what the benefits of having a properly managed woods can bring. He has not only got a collection of items that he will use for many years to come, but each time he uses them he has a direct link to the landscape around him.
November 22, 2016
This should be called The Man Who Didn't Make Things Out of Trees, or perhaps, The Man Who Got Other People to Make Things Out of Trees For Him. Robert Penn, as far as I can tell doesn't take part in any significant part of the process of making useful items from the tree he gets other people to select, fell, mill and process the timber for him.
That's being a bit harsh. It was OK. I just got far less from it than I had wished being misled by the cover and title. I should say this book was bought for me though. I was hoping to get some cool whittling or woodworking tips from the book but the author doesn't actually know any of the crafts he discusses. Nevertheless he has skill as a wordsmith.
I was annoyed at the first bit of the book as Penn discusses woodland management and tree surgery. Topics which I know a lot about and he just seemed like a standard 'tourist' wanted to play around on the edges of something cool, manly and dangerous. You come across these types when working as a tree surgeon. People who think they know shit about tree work because they own a shit chainsaw. As the book progressed however I did warm to it more as I learned bits about crafts I didn't know about. Penn has managed to talk to some cool, knowledgeable people. Incidentally I think I know someone who knows one of the wheelwrights from West Lancashire who the author goes to see. The chapter on hurley making was interesting too as well as the one where he gets the fletcher to make him a bodkin arrow.
Read it if you know nothing about the subject and it'll be an interesting book. Read it if you know stuff and it'll annoy you.
That's being a bit harsh. It was OK. I just got far less from it than I had wished being misled by the cover and title. I should say this book was bought for me though. I was hoping to get some cool whittling or woodworking tips from the book but the author doesn't actually know any of the crafts he discusses. Nevertheless he has skill as a wordsmith.
I was annoyed at the first bit of the book as Penn discusses woodland management and tree surgery. Topics which I know a lot about and he just seemed like a standard 'tourist' wanted to play around on the edges of something cool, manly and dangerous. You come across these types when working as a tree surgeon. People who think they know shit about tree work because they own a shit chainsaw. As the book progressed however I did warm to it more as I learned bits about crafts I didn't know about. Penn has managed to talk to some cool, knowledgeable people. Incidentally I think I know someone who knows one of the wheelwrights from West Lancashire who the author goes to see. The chapter on hurley making was interesting too as well as the one where he gets the fletcher to make him a bodkin arrow.
Read it if you know nothing about the subject and it'll be an interesting book. Read it if you know stuff and it'll annoy you.
December 28, 2015
Well I read this in three days which says something good about it. Learnt a lot about the properties of ash wood.
It could be a so much better book. It needs proper illustrations, both line drawings and colour photographs. It needs an index. In places it is boringly technical yet the tone is generally too folksy. For example he says of a chap making him a desk "Andy ran his hand across the wood. He looked boyish and animated." Pass the sick bucket! I like my non-fiction dry and simple.
One last comment. Somewhere (without an index I can't find it again) the author mentions that he saw in a dictionary that ash is an obsolete English word for a spear. What he doesn't seem to realise it's that aesc, pronounced ash, is actually the Anglo-Saxon word for spear and for the tree too of course.
It could be a so much better book. It needs proper illustrations, both line drawings and colour photographs. It needs an index. In places it is boringly technical yet the tone is generally too folksy. For example he says of a chap making him a desk "Andy ran his hand across the wood. He looked boyish and animated." Pass the sick bucket! I like my non-fiction dry and simple.
One last comment. Somewhere (without an index I can't find it again) the author mentions that he saw in a dictionary that ash is an obsolete English word for a spear. What he doesn't seem to realise it's that aesc, pronounced ash, is actually the Anglo-Saxon word for spear and for the tree too of course.
April 13, 2020
What a fascinating read, just like Robert Penn and his Ash tree I got so much from this book. Penn one day decides to find the perfect ash tree, chop it down and see how many things he can make from it. Each chapter is based around an item being made, from Axe handles, to bowls, and even a deadly arrow. In the chapter you find out the history of how ash wood has been used to make that product, a history of it's use, how it is made and the person who Penn has located to make it. So many interesting little things to learn about.
My favourite part of the book has to be Robin Wood and his bowl making, he uses a pole lathe, no electric lathe with CNC programming or big kilns for drying the wood, this is all done with man power. I've seen a pole lathe in action before and it is mesmerising, the fact that the wood worker can't see what he is doing as the wood turns and yet somehow create something smooth and beautiful is insane, I own a Spurtle (porridge stirrer) that was made on a pole lathe and it is a thing of beauty.
I liked how much respect Penn had for the tree, he takes the time to pick the right one, he feels the guilt about cutting it down and promises the tree it will not be wasted and looking at the list of items at the end of the book he kept his end of the bargain. He also makes sure that some of the tree (the brash) is left behind to rot down for local insects, he also goes back a couple of years later to check on things which was a nice addition to the book.
I do have a couple of issues with the book, 1: the title, Penn doesn't actually make anything out of the tree, I think it should be called the PEOPLE who made things out of trees. 2: it is hard to picture a few of the items being made, especially the desk, luckily Penn has many pictures and more information on his website, it is really worthwhile checking it out HERE, great to have a read if you are deciding whether this book is for you or not.
This was an excellent book, I enjoyed every page of it and goes onto my list of books to recommend to everybody.
Blog review: https://felcherman.wordpress.com/2020...
My favourite part of the book has to be Robin Wood and his bowl making, he uses a pole lathe, no electric lathe with CNC programming or big kilns for drying the wood, this is all done with man power. I've seen a pole lathe in action before and it is mesmerising, the fact that the wood worker can't see what he is doing as the wood turns and yet somehow create something smooth and beautiful is insane, I own a Spurtle (porridge stirrer) that was made on a pole lathe and it is a thing of beauty.
I liked how much respect Penn had for the tree, he takes the time to pick the right one, he feels the guilt about cutting it down and promises the tree it will not be wasted and looking at the list of items at the end of the book he kept his end of the bargain. He also makes sure that some of the tree (the brash) is left behind to rot down for local insects, he also goes back a couple of years later to check on things which was a nice addition to the book.
I do have a couple of issues with the book, 1: the title, Penn doesn't actually make anything out of the tree, I think it should be called the PEOPLE who made things out of trees. 2: it is hard to picture a few of the items being made, especially the desk, luckily Penn has many pictures and more information on his website, it is really worthwhile checking it out HERE, great to have a read if you are deciding whether this book is for you or not.
This was an excellent book, I enjoyed every page of it and goes onto my list of books to recommend to everybody.
Blog review: https://felcherman.wordpress.com/2020...
July 17, 2025
It's always a pleasure to meet or read about someone who is fanatic about the actual process of the ongoing project. Great read
March 7, 2021
A soothing, somewhat rambling read that floats in the aether between something like travel writing and meditations on woodworking. Broadly inoffensive stylistically, and contains a number of tidbits of trivia about wood, woodworking and other related subjects. Reflections on the honest pleasures of craftsmanship make it all pretty easy to digest.
The title is misleading -- Penn does not personally make most (if any?) of the items produced from his (singular) tree. This of course makes sense, as many of the artefacts he desires are specialised items, fashioned by expert craftsmen who in most cases have spent most of their lives honing their skills. An amateur would have no hope of replicating that sort of work. However, the overall narrative of the book is somewhat disappointing due to the combination of this and the fact that this is not quite the romantic mission it first appears. When you read that Penn has his own small wood, the expectation is that he is going to describe how he makes (or gets others to make) useful items from its products. Instead, Penn describes specifically searching the country for an 'ideal' ash tree, surveying woods and coppices until he finds one that meets his industrial criteria, and then felling it, sawing it, and canvassing a number of craftsmen around the world to get them to make curious items from his lumber. In many cases, his wood is still no good -- the industry prefers fast-grown ash to his hundred-plus-year-old slow-grown timber -- so these chapters describe craftsmen working with their preferred material (the descriptions of this still worth reading) and sending Penn away with a curio.
So, Penn is less of a romantic figure turning his wood to good use, and more of a miniscule lumber merchant operating at (we can presume) considerable loss to turn an idealised tree into several artefacts, many of which he would seem to have no use for other than as chapters of this book.
The book is also something of a meditation on the value of ash. As Penn describes it, ash is a workmanlike, industrial wood. It grows fast, burns well, and is easy to work. It has been used for tool handles and similar daily-use purposes for thousands of years, acting a sort of background material. Penn several times devolves into listing various historic uses of ash to pad chapters. As the book concludes, Penn describes the current plight of ash -- beset by fungal disease and boring insects, the tree is in decline. This is certainly sad, though the course of corrective action is not at all clear, leaving the conclusion the aspect of a gloomy shrug.
It's overall a fine enough book. Penn complements historical accounts and romanticism with a few detailed descriptions of woodworking and even modern materials science investigations of wood. It's never too heavy to get through, yet trickles enough new information that each chapter is worth reading. Whets the appetite for carpentry, whittling, or even just walking in the woods.
The title is misleading -- Penn does not personally make most (if any?) of the items produced from his (singular) tree. This of course makes sense, as many of the artefacts he desires are specialised items, fashioned by expert craftsmen who in most cases have spent most of their lives honing their skills. An amateur would have no hope of replicating that sort of work. However, the overall narrative of the book is somewhat disappointing due to the combination of this and the fact that this is not quite the romantic mission it first appears. When you read that Penn has his own small wood, the expectation is that he is going to describe how he makes (or gets others to make) useful items from its products. Instead, Penn describes specifically searching the country for an 'ideal' ash tree, surveying woods and coppices until he finds one that meets his industrial criteria, and then felling it, sawing it, and canvassing a number of craftsmen around the world to get them to make curious items from his lumber. In many cases, his wood is still no good -- the industry prefers fast-grown ash to his hundred-plus-year-old slow-grown timber -- so these chapters describe craftsmen working with their preferred material (the descriptions of this still worth reading) and sending Penn away with a curio.
So, Penn is less of a romantic figure turning his wood to good use, and more of a miniscule lumber merchant operating at (we can presume) considerable loss to turn an idealised tree into several artefacts, many of which he would seem to have no use for other than as chapters of this book.
The book is also something of a meditation on the value of ash. As Penn describes it, ash is a workmanlike, industrial wood. It grows fast, burns well, and is easy to work. It has been used for tool handles and similar daily-use purposes for thousands of years, acting a sort of background material. Penn several times devolves into listing various historic uses of ash to pad chapters. As the book concludes, Penn describes the current plight of ash -- beset by fungal disease and boring insects, the tree is in decline. This is certainly sad, though the course of corrective action is not at all clear, leaving the conclusion the aspect of a gloomy shrug.
It's overall a fine enough book. Penn complements historical accounts and romanticism with a few detailed descriptions of woodworking and even modern materials science investigations of wood. It's never too heavy to get through, yet trickles enough new information that each chapter is worth reading. Whets the appetite for carpentry, whittling, or even just walking in the woods.
December 26, 2015
From BBC Radio 4 - Book of the Week:
In 2012, Robert Penn felled (and replanted) a great ash from a Welsh wood. He set out to explore the true value of the tree of which we have made the greatest and most varied use in human history. How many things can be made from one tree?
Over the next two years he travelled across Britain, to Europe and the USA, to the workshops and barns of a generation of craftsmen committed to working in wood. He watched them make over 45 artefacts and tools that have been in continual use for centuries, if not millennia.
Today, he begins his search for the perfect tree in woodland near his South Wales home. It's a bitter, Elizabethan winter and snow lies on the forests. After a long hunt, he gets a call from a forester in Herefordshire.
This is a tale about the joy of making things in wood, of its touch and smell, its many uses and the resonant, calming effect of running our hands along a wooden surface. It is a celebration of man's close relationship with this greatest of natural materials and a reminder of the value of things made by hand and made to last.
Abridged by Jo Coombs
Produced by Hannah Marshall
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06s8716
In 2012, Robert Penn felled (and replanted) a great ash from a Welsh wood. He set out to explore the true value of the tree of which we have made the greatest and most varied use in human history. How many things can be made from one tree?
Over the next two years he travelled across Britain, to Europe and the USA, to the workshops and barns of a generation of craftsmen committed to working in wood. He watched them make over 45 artefacts and tools that have been in continual use for centuries, if not millennia.
Today, he begins his search for the perfect tree in woodland near his South Wales home. It's a bitter, Elizabethan winter and snow lies on the forests. After a long hunt, he gets a call from a forester in Herefordshire.
This is a tale about the joy of making things in wood, of its touch and smell, its many uses and the resonant, calming effect of running our hands along a wooden surface. It is a celebration of man's close relationship with this greatest of natural materials and a reminder of the value of things made by hand and made to last.
Abridged by Jo Coombs
Produced by Hannah Marshall
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06s8716
April 5, 2025
This is a great book. The author takes a ash tree and has it milled down into lumber, and each chapter is about something that he either made or had made out of the ash tree. Fascinating to hear the history of Ash.
September 29, 2024
An agreeable, finely-balanced book that sees the author, Robert Penn, cut down an ash tree in his local forest and then seek to make (or rather, commission people to make) all sorts of tools and artefacts from the timber. This allows Penn to guide us through a gentle education in logging, woodworking, carpentry, crafting and environmental sustainability, teaching the reader more things about wood than we thought we'd even want to know – and finding it's actually quite interesting to learn. Penn is adept enough as a writer to go off onto eclectic tangents, and I was pleased to learn tidbits of information like how fletchers would use feathers from the same bird's wing on their wooden arrows (left-wing or right-wing) so that they flew straight and true (pg. 132).
A key strength of the book is that it's sincere; Penn mostly avoids the limp comedy and faux-jauntiness that usually characterises books of this type and which only highlight their authors' (or, more likely, their publishers') lack of confidence. The book is well-written, even if it's not especially remarkable; it's quiet without being especially profound. I kept expecting it to take on a higher gear that it never found and the journey ended before I was ready for it. That said, if the book had been twice the length it may have become tedious; the book's 240 pages was just about enough to hear someone talk about wood.
It's quite a wonderful book, in its way, never outstaying its welcome but never demanding our attention either. There's a relaxed serenity about it, and about the growth and use of wood as a material in itself. One homeware craftsman Penn speaks to in the Epilogue remarks how customers at their market stand are always keen to touch and smell their wooden wares (pg. 225), and there's an honesty and earthiness to our relationship with wood that Penn is looking to highlight. "The pleasure we take from things made from natural materials is an extension of the pleasure we take from nature itself," he writes on page 12, and I think it's for this reason that, where possible, I personally have always sought wooden objects over metal and plastic, regardless of cost, and always read paper books over e-books. In a world of disposable plastic objects and mass-produced impermanence and isolation, an item that has been crafted, thought out, and which you retain for perhaps your whole life becomes something to cherish. Penn's book goes further than this, extolling the virtues of forests and walking in nature, but I will remember it primarily as a paean to these simple acts of consumerism we can take to reintroduce a bit of quality and resonance back into our atomised modern lives.
A key strength of the book is that it's sincere; Penn mostly avoids the limp comedy and faux-jauntiness that usually characterises books of this type and which only highlight their authors' (or, more likely, their publishers') lack of confidence. The book is well-written, even if it's not especially remarkable; it's quiet without being especially profound. I kept expecting it to take on a higher gear that it never found and the journey ended before I was ready for it. That said, if the book had been twice the length it may have become tedious; the book's 240 pages was just about enough to hear someone talk about wood.
It's quite a wonderful book, in its way, never outstaying its welcome but never demanding our attention either. There's a relaxed serenity about it, and about the growth and use of wood as a material in itself. One homeware craftsman Penn speaks to in the Epilogue remarks how customers at their market stand are always keen to touch and smell their wooden wares (pg. 225), and there's an honesty and earthiness to our relationship with wood that Penn is looking to highlight. "The pleasure we take from things made from natural materials is an extension of the pleasure we take from nature itself," he writes on page 12, and I think it's for this reason that, where possible, I personally have always sought wooden objects over metal and plastic, regardless of cost, and always read paper books over e-books. In a world of disposable plastic objects and mass-produced impermanence and isolation, an item that has been crafted, thought out, and which you retain for perhaps your whole life becomes something to cherish. Penn's book goes further than this, extolling the virtues of forests and walking in nature, but I will remember it primarily as a paean to these simple acts of consumerism we can take to reintroduce a bit of quality and resonance back into our atomised modern lives.
October 30, 2020
No one obsesses like the English. In this book, Penn gets it in his head to find a perfect Ash tree, cut it down, and have as many things possible crafted from it. You get to follow him through the woods of Wales where he resides, looking at stands of Ash trees, none quite right, until he finds his perfect 100 year old tree.
He bounces around the British Isles talking to various craftsmen who work the wood. A wheelwright, a hurley stick maker, a fletcher, and a bowl turner. The bowl turning was fascinating - the man he worked with, Robin Wood www.robin-wood.co.uk turns the wood on a pole lathe, powered by foot.
He heads to Austria to have a toboggan made and to Pennsylvania for a baseball bat.
this book is going to be expensive. I am fairly committed now, to learning how to turn bowls. On an electric lathe, though, not a footy.
He touches on the problems with the Green Ash Borer here in the states, and Ash Dieback Disease in Europe. Our children may not know these beautiful trees.
Very good book. You'll end up at least a little obsessed as he is, with his tree.
https://robpenn.net/ash-project/
He bounces around the British Isles talking to various craftsmen who work the wood. A wheelwright, a hurley stick maker, a fletcher, and a bowl turner. The bowl turning was fascinating - the man he worked with, Robin Wood www.robin-wood.co.uk turns the wood on a pole lathe, powered by foot.
He heads to Austria to have a toboggan made and to Pennsylvania for a baseball bat.
this book is going to be expensive. I am fairly committed now, to learning how to turn bowls. On an electric lathe, though, not a footy.
He touches on the problems with the Green Ash Borer here in the states, and Ash Dieback Disease in Europe. Our children may not know these beautiful trees.
Very good book. You'll end up at least a little obsessed as he is, with his tree.
https://robpenn.net/ash-project/
August 23, 2022
I’m a sucker for books about trees, timber and woodlands, and this book seemed right up my street…unfortunately it was yet another example of a deliberately mistitled example of the ‘new’ natural history writing so beloved by modern urban dwellers. The author did NOT make things out of trees, neither did he cut down ‘his’ ash tree (despite what the blurb and other reviewers say), haul it out or mill it, he got other people around the world to do all of the real work. One assumes that he surely made something himself, if only the catapult illustrating the cover, but if he did, we were not told about it. The book does contain some interesting information about ash, and the manufacturing of things from its’ timber, probably less than one of the classic books on Woodland crafts by people like Herbert Edlin, but useful none the less. Why then give it a misleading title? To sell the dream, I suppose…
June 4, 2020
A wonderful journey and pleasure to read, I learnt a lot. However I feel this book is also a bit of a missed opportunity. Perhaps it helped that this was my second book from this Robert Penn (I read It's all about the bike) and my expectations were firm on the huge amount of passion coming through - on that the author delivered in full.
I just wish the Robert Penn:
#1 kept a more consistent depth among the various "technical" bits (sometimes it's very technical, sometimes you feel it could have been more exhaustive)
#2 avoided repeating some concepts (I noticed this at least 2/3 times), as if some chapters were meant to be "self standing" and needed to introduce concepts to readers who didn't read the previous chapters
#3 considered adding more drawings and some pictures. Without making this a botanical treaty on the ash tree, there is so much he left the reader to imagine / search by himself on google (I always needed the phone next to me). One picture per chapter of the finished "artefact" and more drawings on the way would have enriched the book further, especially when many terms are niche / technical. Of note some pictures are available on this link (https://robpenn.net/ash-project/), but I think it's a bit cheap directing the reader to a link at the end of the book. Funnily enough I had to refer to the cover for an example of the artefacts and I'm glad a read a paperback rather than an ebook
I just wish the Robert Penn:
#1 kept a more consistent depth among the various "technical" bits (sometimes it's very technical, sometimes you feel it could have been more exhaustive)
#2 avoided repeating some concepts (I noticed this at least 2/3 times), as if some chapters were meant to be "self standing" and needed to introduce concepts to readers who didn't read the previous chapters
#3 considered adding more drawings and some pictures. Without making this a botanical treaty on the ash tree, there is so much he left the reader to imagine / search by himself on google (I always needed the phone next to me). One picture per chapter of the finished "artefact" and more drawings on the way would have enriched the book further, especially when many terms are niche / technical. Of note some pictures are available on this link (https://robpenn.net/ash-project/), but I think it's a bit cheap directing the reader to a link at the end of the book. Funnily enough I had to refer to the cover for an example of the artefacts and I'm glad a read a paperback rather than an ebook
March 3, 2020
This book is very informative but also has very little to do with the title. The author makes nothing out of trees, and instead has a tree felled with the intent to make as much as possible from that one tree.. then often doesn't, because the different master crafters he takes stuff to have very specific or very high standards that his particular tree don't meet.
But he does talk about his passion, ash trees, with encyclopedic depth and you can feel his reverence for this particular brand of tree. It's a bit much at times, in a "we get it, ash is very useful and has been forever" kind of way, but the best bits of this book are the points where he meanders through an unkempt history of the way ash was used in such and such country or region, and it is overall interesting and informative.
I was expecting a book about a woodworker writing a kind of how-to guide to make a lot of homespun versions of a lot of these products, but that's not this book. About half the products are mass produced on a pattern lathe, and the others are extremely specialized things that require a tree that doesn't match the one he brings.
But he does talk about his passion, ash trees, with encyclopedic depth and you can feel his reverence for this particular brand of tree. It's a bit much at times, in a "we get it, ash is very useful and has been forever" kind of way, but the best bits of this book are the points where he meanders through an unkempt history of the way ash was used in such and such country or region, and it is overall interesting and informative.
I was expecting a book about a woodworker writing a kind of how-to guide to make a lot of homespun versions of a lot of these products, but that's not this book. About half the products are mass produced on a pattern lathe, and the others are extremely specialized things that require a tree that doesn't match the one he brings.
January 14, 2016
excellent read, which covered the history, science, craft and emotion behind the authors love of woodlands, ash and the artisan crafts that made use of the timber. each object created uncovered the history of the craft, science behind the properties of the common ash tree and the sensual pleasure of own handcrafted item.
I would give the book 4.5 stars for the same reasons that other readers have reduced their scores. A few more photographs of the processes involved from the locating a suitable tree through to the end products would have really added the finishing touch to an otherwise outstanding book. Even without added illustrations and photos, still a 5 star read.
I would give the book 4.5 stars for the same reasons that other readers have reduced their scores. A few more photographs of the processes involved from the locating a suitable tree through to the end products would have really added the finishing touch to an otherwise outstanding book. Even without added illustrations and photos, still a 5 star read.
June 3, 2016
A sort of madness?
I sometimes wonder if a sort of madness grips people who work with wood. At the least opportunity they will launch into eulogies about texture, tactile qualities and much else. If they really are unhinged then Robert Penn is badly affected. As a woodpecker myself I recognise the symptoms! To some Penn may seem to enthuse too much but I loved the rhythm of his writing, the sometimes near sentimental beauty of his appreciation of trees and woods and wood itself. And what a fascinating and creative story he weaves. If this really is madness would that the insanity could spread.
I sometimes wonder if a sort of madness grips people who work with wood. At the least opportunity they will launch into eulogies about texture, tactile qualities and much else. If they really are unhinged then Robert Penn is badly affected. As a woodpecker myself I recognise the symptoms! To some Penn may seem to enthuse too much but I loved the rhythm of his writing, the sometimes near sentimental beauty of his appreciation of trees and woods and wood itself. And what a fascinating and creative story he weaves. If this really is madness would that the insanity could spread.
November 30, 2016
A narrative history of a single tree and the 44 item types that it was made into along with some information on the ongoing ash die back. The craftsmen stories are all fun read once for us wooden heads, not so much fun for the general public.
April 9, 2020
I really wanted to like this. But, I did not. Like the Savage book, it would have been better as a DK illustrated book. And, do not go into your depression. Noone reads a book on wood to hear about your personal demons. Save it for the therapist.
December 14, 2015
This book spoke to a part of me that I rarely touch, but which pushes at my seams from the inside. I'm now one step closer to bursting entirely and moving to a forest.
November 2, 2025
There's a stark disconnect, among books people write about doing new or challenging things—travelling across a continent, building a garden that fits seamlessly into its landscape, making the best use out of a tree—which distinguishes those books when written by Americans from the same or similar books when written by Britons.
This book, enjoyable as it is, might be the best illustration of that disconnect I've yet seen.
Robert Penn does a great job introducing us to the ash tree, sharing his heartfelt and laudable appreciation for it, and communicating a lot of complex information in an approachable and digestible way: we learn about xylem and phloem, earlywood and latewood, seasoning, cupping, grain and moduli of elasticity and rupture. I learned a great deal.
What he doesn't do, though, is make anything out of trees.
Now a writer in the other tradition—call it "New World", call it "American", call it "wider Anglosphere" or "British but not upper-class"—if they were writing a book about getting other people to select a tree, fell the tree, transport the tree, process the tree into lumber and then getting other people to craft that lumber into various things, would call that book "Forty-five Things You Can Do With An Ash Tree", or "Furnishing Your Home Before Flatpack", or perhaps even "The Man Who Got Other Men To Make Things Out of a Tree".
They wouldn't blithely erase the operative difference between making something and asking someone else to make something because you can't. This isn't a book about a man who makes anything; it's not even a book about making things. It's a good, short, book about ash trees split up by lengthy passages about a man driving around Britain giving other men some money and a bit of wood, or just couriering his wood off to other men and getting a canoe paddle couriered back. There's nothing at all here about woodworking—about actually making things out of tree. It remains unclear to me why, having come up with his title, Mr. Penn felt that he was the right person to write this book.
This book, enjoyable as it is, might be the best illustration of that disconnect I've yet seen.
Robert Penn does a great job introducing us to the ash tree, sharing his heartfelt and laudable appreciation for it, and communicating a lot of complex information in an approachable and digestible way: we learn about xylem and phloem, earlywood and latewood, seasoning, cupping, grain and moduli of elasticity and rupture. I learned a great deal.
What he doesn't do, though, is make anything out of trees.
Now a writer in the other tradition—call it "New World", call it "American", call it "wider Anglosphere" or "British but not upper-class"—if they were writing a book about getting other people to select a tree, fell the tree, transport the tree, process the tree into lumber and then getting other people to craft that lumber into various things, would call that book "Forty-five Things You Can Do With An Ash Tree", or "Furnishing Your Home Before Flatpack", or perhaps even "The Man Who Got Other Men To Make Things Out of a Tree".
They wouldn't blithely erase the operative difference between making something and asking someone else to make something because you can't. This isn't a book about a man who makes anything; it's not even a book about making things. It's a good, short, book about ash trees split up by lengthy passages about a man driving around Britain giving other men some money and a bit of wood, or just couriering his wood off to other men and getting a canoe paddle couriered back. There's nothing at all here about woodworking—about actually making things out of tree. It remains unclear to me why, having come up with his title, Mr. Penn felt that he was the right person to write this book.
February 5, 2018
Rob Penn felled a single ash tree and set out to make as many things as possible from the wood. He travelled widely to visit master crafters who took parts of his tree and made it into over 40 items including: a desk, kitchen worktops, spoons, a tobbogan and axe handles.
In the process, Penn investigates many of the dying woodworking skills, such as wood-turning and arrow-making, spending time with the crafters and understanding their close relationship with the wood. He investigates the qualities of ash and how it is in many ways superior to other woods for making items such as baseball bats, though not often used for making desks. He looks at the history of ash in the British landscape, the history of ash as a material for specific items including toboggans, axe handles and chairs, the cultural significance of hurling (the national sport in Ireland, played with an ash stick) and the value of wood as a natural material superior in most ways to man-made materials. He makes a very good case for wood being a reliable, long lasting sustainable resource. Sustainable that is as long as it is sustainably grown and managed, which is an aspect that this book could have delved into in more detail.
This is a beautifully crafted book, full of fascinating insights and imbued with appreciation for a unique and very special material. There's a sad epilogue to the book though, as ash is threatened by diseases - ash die-back disease has spread throughout Europe, killing many trees while the emerald borer beetle has devastated ash forests in the USA. What is the future for this most valuable and beautiful of trees?
In the process, Penn investigates many of the dying woodworking skills, such as wood-turning and arrow-making, spending time with the crafters and understanding their close relationship with the wood. He investigates the qualities of ash and how it is in many ways superior to other woods for making items such as baseball bats, though not often used for making desks. He looks at the history of ash in the British landscape, the history of ash as a material for specific items including toboggans, axe handles and chairs, the cultural significance of hurling (the national sport in Ireland, played with an ash stick) and the value of wood as a natural material superior in most ways to man-made materials. He makes a very good case for wood being a reliable, long lasting sustainable resource. Sustainable that is as long as it is sustainably grown and managed, which is an aspect that this book could have delved into in more detail.
This is a beautifully crafted book, full of fascinating insights and imbued with appreciation for a unique and very special material. There's a sad epilogue to the book though, as ash is threatened by diseases - ash die-back disease has spread throughout Europe, killing many trees while the emerald borer beetle has devastated ash forests in the USA. What is the future for this most valuable and beautiful of trees?
January 22, 2018
I'm not a woodworker. I mean-I've taken two classes at the local Woodcraft, one on turning basics and the other to turn a pen. I've enjoyed exploring a rural specialty wood dealer. I've even created studio images of furniture pieces to be juried for a woodworking guild for another craftsperson. Outside of that, I possess no woodworking skills or special knowledge. That said, this book for me was a meditative delight. Robert Penn carries us through the experiences of being in the woods, recognizing the intimacy that is possible in selecting a tree, respecting its uniqueness, and having it crafted into a myriad of objects both contemporary and functional as well as historical and perhaps anachronistic. Although not perfect (there a few moments where he repeats himself in a way that displays some imperfect fusion of these experiences) he places the reader in the forest, in the wood shop, and in the office where, as he puts it, the wooden artifacts will live a life probably much longer than the life they had as a tree.
February 23, 2019
I don't think I'm the first person to react about halfway through the book with the thought that this book should have been named 'The Men who made things out of A Tree'. The author is a good writer and talks to lots of interesting people and does cover a lot about woodworking. But the only thing he actually makes is firewood, so....
I couldn't help be dismayed as well when he seeks out a perfectly healthy and reproducing ash tree to cut down. As someone who has spent a lot of time in the woods looking at dead and dying ash trees from the mentioned emerald ash borer, it made me cry a little inside. I get that the UK doesn't have the same problem as most of the US but still. :( When learning how to distinguish ash from other species, all you need to ask are 'is it opposite branching and is it dead' and you know its an ash. I have seen dozens of ash trees in the last several years of working and I can't recall one healthy adult tree.
I was glad to know that the tree is shooting up sprouts though, maybe one of them will live long enough to reach adulthood again some day.
I couldn't help be dismayed as well when he seeks out a perfectly healthy and reproducing ash tree to cut down. As someone who has spent a lot of time in the woods looking at dead and dying ash trees from the mentioned emerald ash borer, it made me cry a little inside. I get that the UK doesn't have the same problem as most of the US but still. :( When learning how to distinguish ash from other species, all you need to ask are 'is it opposite branching and is it dead' and you know its an ash. I have seen dozens of ash trees in the last several years of working and I can't recall one healthy adult tree.
I was glad to know that the tree is shooting up sprouts though, maybe one of them will live long enough to reach adulthood again some day.
October 2, 2019
I enjoyed parts of this book immensely, it was reassuring to realise that woodworking craftsman are still surviving, thriving and passing their generations-old knowledge down. Penn writes charmingly about the wood to the extent that it's almost tactile as you read. The technical sections I found a little heavy-going and I did lose my thread a bit with some of his in-depth explanations to gauge various elements of wood. There could certainly have been more diagrams to support these especially for readers like myself. I agree with other reviewers that the title is slightly disingenuous as he, himself, does not actually make anything but visits others, who are all interesting characters and make the narrative, but I do think the title could be adapted. I found the history of the ash fascinating and the book certainly taught me about the tree. I did find some of the writing veered into self-indulgent, pastoral musings which I felt were a little forced but a nice, little read nonetheless.
June 28, 2022
What a great book! Written with a great insight and a delicate balance between the scientific and biological and the utilitarian dimensions of the life of a tree, it offers the reader a chance to paradoxically (at first sight) experience awe and admiration before the miracle of life that a standing, living tree symbolises, and the intimate knowledge with which mankind has learned to exploit this most valuable natural resource to its full extent. The detailed descriptions of the author's meetings with many diverse craftsmen and artisans emphasizes a truth that we are all aware of, to varying extents, namely that craftmanship indeed does stand for an intimate knowledge of nature and man's full participation in its processes, knowledge and role which are in many cases on the verge of extinction, alas.
Once again, a great journey of an ash tree from its home in a forest to our homes in the form of a variety of object that were crafted from it, described with reverence to both the tree as well as the people that have learned to know it and work it respectfully.
Once again, a great journey of an ash tree from its home in a forest to our homes in the form of a variety of object that were crafted from it, described with reverence to both the tree as well as the people that have learned to know it and work it respectfully.
December 18, 2020
This afternoon I finished reading an interesting book about wood. More specifically, Robert Penn wrote about the wood from an ash tree on his property in “The Man Who Made Things out of Trees.” He leads readers on a narrative following how he selected the tree, how a hired crew cut it, and then how the food found its way into dozens of objects crafted by a combination of hands and machines. Products from the tree included a desk, six axe handles, eight spoons, a canoe paddle, ten milking stools, an ink pen’s barrel, 100 square feet of wall paneling, bowls, a wooden bicycle, several benches, shelving, firewood, sawdust that a friend used for smoking meat, and slash that was allowed to decompose on the Welsh forest floor. It was like a scholarly version of Shel Silverstein’s Giving Tree. I wasn’t familiar with all the tools used to shape the wood or all the terms used to describe both the wood and processes, so the story dragged at times, but overall the quirky book worked.
September 26, 2017
This is a FIVE star read for me but I don't expect everyone to be as enamored of trees as I am nor do I expect everyone to be as worried about the ash tree in particular (think elm). That said, this is a literary read about the ash tree and it is a quick read in which you will learn many interesting bits about things British and American, about trees, and things made from trees (including war). If, like me, you are not clear on the word 'bespoke/bespoken', do not wait as long as I did to look it up.
"I now believe that this feeling is the spirit of all the people who have ever known the woods; it's a force representing the continuity in the intense and mutually beneficial relationship between people and trees over the ages; it's a siren song to one of the oldest and deepest connections to the land, and nature, that humans have."
"I now believe that this feeling is the spirit of all the people who have ever known the woods; it's a force representing the continuity in the intense and mutually beneficial relationship between people and trees over the ages; it's a siren song to one of the oldest and deepest connections to the land, and nature, that humans have."
February 4, 2019
This was a quick read, and slightly misnamed; it's really about the many people who help the author make things out of a single ash tree that he has felled. Despite this flaw, the book is compellingly written, and nicely complements the biography of Vanderbilt The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt, who lived through some of the change from a society built on crafts and small-scale production to one in greater hurry and supporting the corporate form. Living in the woods as I do now, I appreciated learning more about the wood and its properties, particularly enjoying two quotes from craftspeople: "I like making bowls more than I like making money" and "There was less hurry back then."
September 28, 2022
I felt the title of this book was misleading, but I'm glad it was or I probably wouldn't have read it. I feel it is more of a history of and love letter to wood, specifically the ash tree. The book describes the science of why ash has the properties it does. The author travels around the world, visiting craftsmen to have things made from an ash tree that he felled (though some of the items are made from ash but not his, most use his tree). With each visit, he describes the history of the item, how long ash has been used for it and why as well as the actual engineering involved in crafting the piece. So even though he doesn't actually make any of the pieces himself, he is involved in the process and shares all the knowledge he gleans along the way.
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