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. 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. 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. 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. kept a more consistent depth among the various "technical" bits (sometimes it's very technical, sometimes you feel it could have been more exhaustive)

More importantly as this tree was coppiced properly when he returned to the stump it was growing again and will produce again. 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.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. 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. 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. 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. 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.

Beautifully crafted, [ The Man Who Made Things Out of Trees ranges] freely over intellectual territory - masculinity, nostalgia, identity . . . Fascinating . . . Never have the benefits of getting your chopper out appeared more obvious (Robert Crampton, Books of the Year The Times) 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. 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. Penn is a fine writer, and the mix of research, reportage and personal reflection is persuasive . . . A lovely book (Ed Cumming Observer) 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.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') 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?