On the subject on the bandsaw guides, my old bandsaw (36" .. 1" blade) had metal guides of some kind when I got it, that I soon realised had worn and I replaced with jarrah. But they wore fairly quickly ... cutting some pretty big pieces ... and I found I had some sort of mild(?) steel bracket about 10mm thick that felt slick almost oily in hand. I cut up and used that and they have lasted well.
Cheers,
Paul