"Steel" Wood
This shield is older than dirt, I swear, but if I'm faced with choosing to use it or a regular piece of wood, this steel wood antique would be my choice.
History
Been in use in northern Theydim since the days of The Adrakian Empire. The wood is steel-like, but floats. Traditional uses include boats, housing roofs, Shields. It is used in making handles for tools for Thydians who are dedicated to follow the Craftsman. There is no known way to create steel wood, leaving its harvest up to the sharp eyes of sailors, fishers, or beach walking individuals. Mages have tried to create it, and found their attempts to be weakened wood compressed into a solid. Said weakened wood would shatter upon first impact, while steel wood can withstand storm and war before starting to splinter and sliver apart.Origin
Found as drift wood on the shores of northern Theydim, steel wood is believed to be from The Far North.Modern Use
Most craftspeople use the wood for artisan purposes though it is still used for ships. Some of the ships turned into buildings to mimic the likes of the Nordrivordr showcase the strength of steel wood against storming weather.Traditions
Craft tools made of steel wood wear over time into the hand of the crafter using it, creating tools unique to the person who uses them.Appearance
Steel wood is typically darker than most "regular" wood. Unlike metal, however, it cannot be smelted down nor easily manipulated with heat. Curved pieces are typically exposed to low heat from a hearth or campfire and bent with the heat over the course of days with the help of stones before any carving is done.Forgeries
Few attempt to create fake steel wood as the whorls caused by tree growth is difficult to duplicate when tested by cutting into a suspicious piece.Types
Most variety in steel wood comes in size or rigidity. Typically, smaller pieces are used to make small works of art - jewelry, silverware handles, brush backs, and buttons - because of their softer density and higher range of flexibility.
Type
Wood
Related Locations
Interesting. I saw a video this days about methods to compress wood and supposedly make it "as strong as steel". The fellow making the video showed some classifications of strength of materials and made some comparisons to make a persuasive ( enough to me) argument that it was a case of journalistic hyperbole. In my main fictional setting (Sharitarn) there are some animals, plants and materials that came from different Universes where other natural laws apply, in some cases those things keep "working by other laws", in a way that is impossible to replicate even by magic. That sort of special/rare thing, hard to fake, has one nice application, even when there is no practical use for their physical properties: money. Rare, easy to carry and impossible to falsify, are the qualities you need for your coins. Downsize being that if you nation has a coin like that your govern may not be able to print more money when circumstances demand some sort of special assistance for families during a lockdown. Or war effort. Sharitarne nations like the Elven City of Erevi (where the coin is made of a sort of metal that lows temperature) must learn to live with that unfortunate limitation. Poor fellows.
There are a lot of interesting uses for such materials that can be considered. I tend to forget things like money when it comes to my "less real-world natural" materials. I tend to find "practical" uses first and branch out from there. There may be hard times for the people of your Erevi, but I imagine people work around that - inflation having some kind of cap because people can't sell if no one is able to buy, and when there are fewer available coins, then people use other things to supplement buying with coin. Corive uses coinage, but a lot of the places in Corive also use barter amongst each other. A butcher may trade a number of cuts for another number of bread loaves for example. People find a way to work around or through economic hardships.
I used to completely forget the monetary aspect of life in my fictional settings. Until I saw that video they made here in Worldanvil. The interview that focus monetary history. My favourite anvil video, tied in that position with that one about one eyed characters. I still mostly forget the monetary element when I am righting stories, must admit. But I at least take it in consideration now when shaping the setting. A nice thing about strong wood is that it makes trees as large as skyscrapers (or mountains, or orbital elevators even) plausible. Mixed with Tolkien trope of sentient trees that opens a interesting (but a bit disruptive) door.