Hardened wood as a renewable alternative to steel and plastic
Wood is renewable when you can grow it, cut it up into useful shapes, then at the end of its useful life, compost it.  As soon as you add a shit load of processing and plastic and other stuff it's not "wood" anymore than gasoline is a dead dinosaur.   As for things like plywood that use glue for the laminations...glue is <i>the</i> most expensive and important part of the product. Not the wood so much.  Replacing steel? I don't think so. Yes, steel is a dirty thing ecologically... but steel things last <i>a long</i> time... and require, in general minimal processing...unlike this hardened wood proposal.   If steel showed up today as a new material, it would be lauded for all its technical properties. But it is now old and not so sexy.