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shavings wastage

Neb Skram

Neb Skram

Joined
Nov 23, 2024
Messages
14
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5
Location
Albany Oregon
hi all
so what do you all do with the mountain of shavings you get?
i have been spreading them on my yard & garden but i get too much to keep doing that
thanks ben
 
A few places I've taken workshops with have arrangements with yard services who accept shavings for mulch. In some cases the service wanted only shavings, not larger wood chunks or scraps, so there were separate bins we used during shop cleanup to keep those separate. In my area, we have municipal yard waste and food scrap composting service which can take a certain amount. That will accept shavings and paint/stain free wood scraps as well. But there's still an upper limit to that (the largest pickup dumpster size) which I know one woodworking co-op in the area has had to contend with.
 
If I had a rural property, I'd lay them out on the land. I'm not, so I can't. I put them in paper yard waste bags for curbside pickup. Our waste hauler offers the service, separate from trash. They take it to a compost facility. I'd do that if I didn't have curbside pickup.
 
My wife is a member of a large collective community garden in our neighborhood. They are happy to take all I can give them, which at times is quite a lot. They use some for laying on paths between garden rows of plantings, and some goes to the “chairman of compost” who adds it to the compost piles. As Otis says (above) when I have walnut shavings, I put them out in bags for trash collection.
 
Mesquite shavings make my bbq tasty. The mahogany, oak and elm go in the yard, the walnut goes in the gravel. Our city has a green yard waste collection. The remaining species get tossed.
 
I still manage to produce more than I can haul off. I do have yard waste pick up, but that is every other week, which is not enough. One friend takes them to her house to make a path from the wood shed to the house to keep her husband from tracking in too much mud. I do end up hauling some of it away to the compost yard.

robo hippy
 
Spreading too much fresh uncomposted wood chips and shavings on your lawn or garden can tie up some of the nitrogen in the soil so that it won't be available to fertilize the grass. But, perhaps more concerning is that the shavings can be an incubator for plant diseases and insects. In this part of the country, termites are everywhere and fresh wood shavings are a feast for those pests.
 
In the winter, it all goes for fire starter. Some fresh shavings (green or dry), a squirt of charcoal lighter fluid, and voila! Best fire starter I've used yet. I used to give shavings away to my neighbor who had chickens, but he got rid of his chickens. This summer I may just leave bags on the side of the road with a "Free Shavings" sign.
 
Kent Reisdorph said:
n the winter, it all goes for fire starter. Some fresh shavings (green or dry), a squirt of charcoal lighter fluid, and voila! Best fire starter I've used yet. I used to give shavings away to my neighbor who had chickens, but he got rid of his chickens. This summer I may just leave bags on the side of the road with a "Free Shavings" sign.
Click to expand...

I spread sawdust from my cyclone bin and shavings caught from the big plastic bin under the lathe at one spot in the woods near the shop and spread them out. They appear to rot nicely and mixtures (zero evidence after a year or so), even with some walnut. When spread thin there is no evidence of them inhibiting other plants growth. If I turned big green bowls and had huge quantities of shavings I’d prob do the same thing or add them to the brush and logs in a burn pit.

It’s never recommended to use walnut shavings for horse bedding. The juglone in living and dead walnut trees, roots, and wood will certainly inhibit the growth of other plants - I had to remove one walnut tree too close to a row of blueberry plants. However, the substance is likely still in the decaying roots so I plan to move the plants.

When I use the bandsaw to process green logs into turning blanks for drying, all the offcuts not otherwise useful go to my stainless steel 55-gal burn barrel.

Edit: I forgot the biggest recommendation to minimize the shavings problem: turn small instead of large. There are numerous advantages.

JKJ
 
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I just have a large compost pile of shavings and keep the walnut separate. I tried giving away, a lot of people want them but won’t come get them and I don’t deliver!!
 
Careful with using walnut in composting. It can be poisonous for some plants. My Master Gardener training noted,

When planting vegetables, avoid being too close to walnut trees - tomatoes are particularly sensitive to this​
 
We give our shavings to friends that have chickens, our dust collected by our cyclone dust collector we give to potters, and our cutoffs go to camp grounds and friends with fireplaces. Any of our cherry cutoffs I give to friends that smoke meat.
 
Mark Jundanian said:
What do the potters do with dust?
Click to expand...
Raku , look at this Mark
In raku pottery, sawdust is used as a combustible material in a reduction firing process, where hot pottery is placed in a container of sawdust to create a unique, smoky, and often black or metallic-looking finish.

Here's a more detailed explanation:
  • Raku Firing:
    Raku firing is a traditional Japanese pottery technique that involves taking pottery from a hot kiln and placing it into a container filled with combustible material like sawdust.

  • Reduction Process:
    This process, also known as reduction firing, creates a unique effect by starving the pottery of oxygen, which causes the glaze to react in unpredictable ways, leading to a range of colors and textures.

  • Sawdust's Role:
    Sawdust, along with other organic materials like paper, is used because it burns quickly and creates a smoky atmosphere that pulls carbon into the clay and glaze, resulting in a black or metallic finish on the parts of the pottery submerged in the sawdust.

  • Unique Results:
    The unpredictable nature of the reduction process means that each piece of raku pottery is unique, with variations in color, texture, and surface finish.

  • Other materials:
    Some artists also use other materials like paper, wood shavings and even cow patties to achieve different effects.

  • Preparation:
    Before firing, raku pottery is typically glazed with a special raku glaze that is designed to withstand the extreme heat and reduction process.

  • Safety:
    Raku pottery is not food safe due to the porous nature of the clay and the potential for crazing in the glaze.

  • Thermal Shock:
    The rapid temperature changes during raku firing can cause the pottery to crack or shatter, so it's important to handle raku pottery with care.

  • Sawdust firing:
    Sawdust firing is a similar technique to raku firing, but it can be done in a simple pit or a barrel kiln
    My daughter is a potter :)
 
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