On Wednesday, February 6, 2019 at 5:34:54 AM UTC-8, Jim Wilkins wrote:
[about Saugus ironworks ]

I remember thinking the hammer drive didn't seem built to withstand
much use, as I had made toy wooden models of machinery and seen how
fast wood rubbing surfaces wear.

In the age of sail, the wood used for rubbing surfaces was lignum vitae
or similar; it wore rather better than one would expect.
And, it's endangered with very little available for modelmaking.

Some old eighteenth-century clocks with lignum vitae bearings
are still telling time.