Oak :the frame of civilisation

The oiling process on two of the routed panels .(see left)

24th July 2008
Oak :The Frame of civilisation by William Bryant Logan (2005 W.W.Norton and Co. )
The latest find in books which seems appropriate in many ways one being that I am waiting for the frame to be made for my oak screen the three panels of which are now sanded and oiled .I really enjoyed the finishing process particularly the hand sanding and remembered that I had used wood in my work in the 70s and brought back memories of being taught to saw and sand wood when I was a child by my dad who was an avid DIY and woodworker .
Had I realised how bad the second piece of ply was I would have sent it back it was very warped which meant cutting it was very problematic as the CNC router measures the depth of the wood in order to do a cut -through ) and the back has large red stains on it. So out of two 8by4 sheets, because of various problems and mistakes rather than getting both designs cut I only have one screen .
Anyway back to the book.
It seems that the oak has been on this earth longer than we have and is the primary tree of the fores . It has provided not only its wood for building (houses, ships, casks, bowls, to name but a few), and fuel but food for us and our animals .
It seems that acorn bread can sustain you for several hours and was far easier to grow, gather and store acorn and the bread made from it than the wheat we grow today.
“Balanoculture” was prevalent for centuries all over the world .
The old word for oak in Tunisia means “the meal bearing tree”.
The Koreans still eat acorn products .
Manna is a distillation of oak sap is eaten by the Kurds , Iranians and Iraquis .
In Corsica , Sardinia and North Africa bread is still regularly made .
You can buy acorn oil in Spain and roasted acorns as a snack.