Hidden Metal Hazards in Wood

THE DANGER YOU CAN’T SEE IN WOOD Every board has a story. Some stories are

simple—trees cut, milled, dried, and sent off to become furniture

or flooring. Others are far more complicated. Because wood doesn’t just hold grain

patterns and decades of growth… it sometimes holds metal that no one knows is there.

A rusted nail from a fence someone pulled down in the 1970s. A screw left over

from a long-forgotten repair. Barbed wire grown straight into the heartwood,

carried upward year after year. Staples from signs. Buckshot from hunters. Hooks,

hinges, bolts, and random hardware swallowed by a tree over time.