Our relationship with wood is complicated. When I see a beautiful maple in my neighborhood, I want to kill it, tear it open and use its guts to make something.
But I also appreciate the beauty of its canopy.
When I try to rive locust, I want every locust tree to catch flame and its locust children to suffer a similar fate. (Locust, by the by, is a tough species.) But when I drive locust pegs into a drawbored joint, I laugh with joy.
Woodworker Geremy Coy recently attended a talk by Jennie Alexander, one of the authors of “Make a Joint Stool from a Tree” where Jennie said something interesting:
“People in the 18th century were trying to find the beauty in wood. People in the 17th century were trying to hide it.”
It inspired a blog entry that I think you should read. Check it out here.
— Christopher Schwarz
“When I see a beautiful maple in my neighborhood, I want to kill it, tear it open and use its guts to make something.”
I think I drive my wife crazy with thoughts like this. Every time we drive in a new neighborhood, I usually point to the largest tree and say, “That tree is awesome. Do you know how much lumber I could get if we cut that down?”
Jonathan
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“When I see a beautiful maple in my neighborhood, I want to kill it, tear it open and use its guts to make something.” ROFL I thought I was the only one that did this. i also comment on the furniture in tv shows and movies commenting on the period pieces or architecture, I think its part of my charm, other find it somewhat annoying 🙂
Geremy’s prose is as beautiful as the furniture he makes. Wow! Mr. Coy is a very talented guy on several levels and someone to keep an eye on.
Great find, Chris.
Nice shout out. As for tearing apart trees, I really love everything trees and hate to see them come down and yet have given some thought to running an urban sawmill and selling the neat stuff that comes from urban trees. Is that a complete contradiction or a natural progression?
Yes, use what grows locally. In the interests of the wider world it would be better to fell that maple to satisfy your desire to ‘kill it, tear it open and use its guts to make something’ than, say, use mahogany dragged from a finely balanced forest ecosystem by loggers anonymous.
Nicely written article by GeremyCoy!