IRONWOOD
One of the world’s great engineering materials grows on trees.
Lignum vitae stern tube bearings were used by the U.S. Navy.
Photos courtesy of Bob Shortridge
A simple shed up a gravel drive off a country road in rural Virginia is not where you’d expect to find the world’s largest stockpile of one of the great engineering materials. But find it there you will. The material is a tropical hardwood called lignum vitae (LIG-num VYE-tee). And the stockpile is the property and passion of a man named Bob Shortridge.
Shortridge is an expert timber framer — he’s the founder of Dreaming Creek timber frame homes — and for years, ...
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