A Reverence for Wood
This refreshing and delightfully written book underscores the important role that wood has played in the development of American life and culture. Charmingly illustrated with author Eric Sloane's own sketches, the text illuminates with rare insight the enormously varied and useful qualities of wood. Covering such topics as the aesthetics of wood, wooden implements, and carpentry, Sloane remarks expansively and with affection on the resourcefulness of early Americans in their use of this precious commodity. From cradle to coffin, the pioneer was surrounded by wood. It was used to make tools, fence the land, and build barns. People sat at wooden tables on wooden chairs and ate from wooden dishes. Charcoal, one of the many by-products of wood, was used to preserve meat, remove offensive odors, and produce ink. The bark of various trees was processed to make medicine. An entertaining, factual, and historically accurate book, A Reverence for Wood will delight woodcrafters and lovers of Americana. It is "one of Eric Sloane's best books." (Library Journal)—Dover
Stats for nerds
4recommend
5mentions
4people
2015–2024years
100% recommend
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Once in high school woodwork class I had to make an artificial burl out of scraps to try and show off some wood turning fu I didn't actually have. Open day does that: look like you know what you're doing.
Eric Sloane would have loved this, it's a true reverence for wood.
- Off to one side, but riffing on the WEC thing..
I grew up with the Whole Earth Catalog, and it was a fantastic repository of knowledge but wierdly, quite hard to use to find the "tools for everyman" it claimed to be: the one thing it wasn't was well organized. What sticks in the mind was the tone, and one really weird article about using a swiss army knife to kill warts. (it works, sometimes: if you irritate a wart enough you can switch on the body's defensive network. Thats why the aspirin cream method works)
Victor Papanek "Design for the real world" is in many ways, better. Less entertaining, less anarchic, but I used some of the ideas to get furniture made over 25 years ago I still use (the plywood single-cut slotted shelves which stack)
Or Eric Sloane's "Reverence for wood" which is lyrical but surprisingly direct about tools and how they work.
- Eric Sloane's work is amazing. I think I read Reverence for wood long, long ago.
One of my key decisions in life was inspired by his "Diary of an American Boy -- Noah Blake 1805"
- A Reverence for Wood by Eric Sloane.
Accomplished its eponymous goal in a brief 110 pages, many of which are beautiful lithographic sketches.
- Back to Basics - http://www.amazon.com/Back-Basics-Traditional-American-Skill...
A Reverence for Wood - http://www.amazon.com/dp/0486433943/
and maybe something by Ray Mears, but I don't think any of his books really capture what his TV shows do - aboriginal cultures and their skills that are about to vanish.
