These trees are the most powerful on the planet for capturing carbon, he says. Unlike other conifers, such as Douglas fir and Sitka spruce, whose growth plateaus at a certain age, giant sequoias continue to grow and accumulate wood beyond maturity. “So their value for carbon capture keeps going for a millennium.” 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. It is this well-established ecosystem that makes ancient woodland so effective at carbon capture. The Woodland Trust says woodlands in the UK hold 213m tonnes of carbon, and ancient and long-established woodlands hold 36% of that, even though they make up just 25% of all woodland. “Yet only 7% of our woodlands – ancient and modern – are in good ecological condition,” adds Fox. “We’re calling for ancient woodlands to have buffer zones around them, which could be newly planted woodland, or just land left for natural regeneration, so it’s protected from noise, pollution and buildings hard up against it, which can compact the soil.”

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. 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.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. 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. 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. 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. Another common concern with planting non-natives is the potential for “invasiveness”; plants outcompeting UK flora, or harbouring potentially destructive pathogens. To this, Emson says his sequoias are grown in the UK from seed, “so there’s no import of any disease or bugs. Giant sequoias can’t propagate in the UK – they need wildfires – so there’s no threat of them breaking out into the countryside.”

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. 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. To learn more, Penn decided to fell one and follow it as it was made into as many different things as possible. “I could get a writer’s desk and a table made,” he writes. “I would turn some of the less valuable timber into panelling for my office and worktops for my kitchen.” There would be plenty more besides, more than 40 different items in total, all from a single tree. Penn takes us through the various uses, with accompanying passages of history and science, sprinkled with trivia. A veteran writer and broadcaster, he has written several books on cycling and one on the weather, and has a keen eye for the interesting tangent. I hadn’t known, for instance, that the first Routemaster buses had ash frames.

Retailers:

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. 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 There is something special about the stuff – using it, holding it, smelling it, walking around it – that connects us to our history and with which we risk losing touch. From his tree Penn has made a lovely book: part elegant history, part anxious lament. 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.

A eulogy to the importance of ash throughout human history . . . Fascinating’ – Tobias Jones, Guardian Talking to patrons planting their lifelong sequoias was a heartening experience: parents Richard and Eva were planting a tree for their young son Leon (“it’s for his future”). “I haven’t met a single patron who has been like, ‘I’m doing this so that I can carry on as I was’,” Emson says. “They are conscientious, doing it out of love for the planet. People who are off-setters don’t bother coming out to Wales to plant a tree.” Cities can also play a role – in the form of urban forests, parks, verges and traffic islands 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....

Select a format:

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. 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. Robert Penn cut down an ash tree to see how many things could be made from it. After all, ash is the tree we have made the greatest and most varied use of over the course of human history. Journeying from Wales across Europe and Ireland to the USA, Robert finds that the ancient skills and knowledge of the properties of ash, developed over millennia making wheels and arrows, furniture and baseball bats, are far from dead. The book chronicles how the urge to understand and appreciate trees still runs through us all like grain through wood. There is no greater debt than that which mankind owes to trees, and Robert Penn proves this brilliantly - a highly readable account of the multitude of uses one single ash tree can provide (Lars Mytting, author of 'Norwegian Wood') 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.