"Cydrome Leader" wrote in message
...
Larry Jaques wrote:
On Fri, 19 Feb 2016 21:24:57 -0600, Martin Eastburn
wrote:

It is typically full of silicon. Tough on tooling. Tough on what
it
slides against... :-)

Bamboo is also full of silicon and is thus hard on tooling.

I've heard stories that you can get sparks cutting large pieces of
rosewood. How do all these minerals even get into the wood in the
first
place? It doesn't seem like silica/sand get be absorbed by plants
and end
up in the wood.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytolith