Rust and wood decay fact or myth

[ssor]

I have studied all of the text books that I have trying to determine if in fact untreated nails cause wood to deteriorate or simply because of the nature of iron oxides to provide a pathway for moisture to penetrate deeply into the wood and support the growth of wood distroying fungus.

In my experience when I have dismantled a badly rotted wood structure the rusted nails often had a little "flag" of sound wood attached to an all but distroyed nail.
I would like to learn of the experience of the others on this subject.
Thanks.

[ 01-01-2006, 11:33 PM: Message edited by: ssor ]

[Ian McColgin]

In my rather extensive experience with rot and rust, I've noticed:

Real iron sickness in oak. In this the oak gets wierd looking as the fastening deteriorates but remains sound unless it extensivly drys. CF from an ealy WB "Gauntlet: A Cautionary Tale." It takes a while to dry that badly. I did a month of work on Goblin, which had a similar condition, but the oak frames never dried enough to powder and the repairs went fine.

In Goblin, on the other hand, it turned out that the hood ends of the oaken frames were rotting quite independently of any iron. That's another, not uncommon, problem.

In planking not of oak, it's my observation that the wasting fastening allows moisture transmission that can be the site for rot. Not caused by the iron/wood interaction as with oak, but an occasion.

That can range from surface discoloration which is usually trivial (to the wood) to subsurface rot that will not be seen at the surface till quite advanced. Both can happen with poorly installed non-ferrous fastenings as well.

Real iron fastenings are incredibly long lasting, better than galvanized steel and stainless.

G'luck

[ahp]

If iron or steel converts completely to rust, iron oxide, its volumn expands by a factor of 10X, and slowly blows apart whatever it is in.