Re: Narrow Gauge Memories

Hi,
Unlike steel or iron, wood is made of little straws that were where the sap in the wood moved up and down to the leaves. When dead and used for building material, the sap veins can and will fill with water when it rains. This allows rotting from the inside of the timber.
As an aside, metal drill bits can often dull quicker in wood than in steel or iron. The hardness of the tooling steel in the bid will make quick work of the wood. It will also drill through steel. However, steel is a homogeneous crystaline material. Wood, on the other hand, is a mixture of minerals - that which was needed to keep a living tree alive. Some of these compounds are acidic in nature and are left on the drill bit to eat away at the tooling steel.
How's that for trivia?
Doug vV