Wood With A Past

Wood has been used for many purposes. One ofFurniture as like many of the items talked about
its primary uses was as a fuel and it has alsohere have been around for centuries. There are
been used for making artworks, furniture, tools,still antique pieces that still look as though they
natural wooden toys and weapons, as well as ahave just been made. There are chairs, tables,
construction material.fire surrounds, desks, bureaus all of which look as
In construction it is used to make the frames forelegant as the child's rocking horse, talked about
roofs as well as flooring. It was also used up untilearlier.
the 1800's for building ships.What about artwork? There are numerous types
Wooden weapons of today are usually used in theof this work and one that comes to mind is the
martial arts arena, where as centuries ago it waswooden horses carved lovingly as they were
common place in most all combat. There wereused on the children's fairground carousels. There
bow and arrows, slingshot, shields, spears andare the intricate carvings made onto wooden
even swords and this list represents just a few.plates and bowls. But there are carved figures in
Natural wooden toys have been around forplaces you wouldn't expect, just like the owl
thousands of years, the spinning top being one ofcarved into a tree (about two metres high) in a
the first. But nowadays there are hundreds ofcheshire villiage.
toys crafted from hardwood and softwood, fromWhen wood is finally discarded it is used for
the elegant child's rocking horse to the infantsmaking wood chippings for using as pathways in
jigsaw. All of which are finely made and made toparks, woodland and play areas. But the most
last.significant use of wooden waste must come with
There are tools partly made from wood. Thethe UK's first large-scale wood-burning power
shaft of a hammer, the handle on a wood saw orstation on Teesside. The plant will save 200,000
the handles on chisels. This means the tools willtonnes of CO2 emissions a year compared to
last longer as you can replace the wooden partsfossil burning stations.
for new, as they wear out.