Years ago I was teaching in a small town and the town was building a new area. The ceiling was constructed of laminated wood beams not steel. When I asked why wood, I was told that the insurance rate was much lower for wood than steel. Wood provides safe support of the ceiling longer in case of fire. Steel softens and looses structural integrity more quickly than wood, wood is good.
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| wooden beams and ceiling |
This past week my children and grand children stayed with us and the 1 year old and 3 year old were the highlight of our days. My three year old grand daughter sat at the table in the high chair that I am my brother sat in 50+ years ago. The steel and arborite kitchen chairs and table from that time are long gone. (replaced with wood, don't you know) Wood lasts.
As well as a wooden high chair the little girls played with my Mother's wooden rocking chair. That rocking chair is 78 years old and have been played with by 100's of children for many, many years.
The girls played with wood toys that I made for their oldest cousin seven years ago. All those wooden toys have out lasted many of the plastic trucks and toys that have been played with here.
Another great characteristic of wood is its repair ability. After each visit there are often things that need to be repaired. Not because wood is weak, but because it is strong enough to be worth fixing. Plastic toys, once broken are seldom worth trying to repair.
Today is the clean up, and put away day. A week of small children unpacks many toys and books and spreads chaos into all corners of our house. Tomorrow I can get back into my shop and continue working on Mary's sofa table. The table's components are machined, a little bit each day during breaks last week. The next stage needs a bit of non-interrupted time for serious sanding and assembly.
cheers, ianw
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